... but its below zero. I’m a pussy! 2 years ago

Friday June 27… from the site: “Critical Mass is a celebration of bicycling as a pollution-free mode of transportation. Critical Mass is not an organization nor it is affiliated with any organization, it’s an unorganized coincidence. It’s a movement … of bicycles, in the streets.” 4 years ago

There’s been some talk lately about organizing an event that has been termed, “Critical Manners”.

Here, when people ride Critical Mass, the attitude of the local police is, “if we don’t bug them, they’ll get through it very fast, and it won’t gum up traffic for long”. Meanwhile, participants ride in a way, typically through illegal actions, that channel as many bikes as possible on downtown streets, with the end product being so it ends up taking as little time as possible, even if that’s not the intent.

Critical Mass has taken criticism because the bikes do take over the streets. But one of the things that gets singled out is that they do so in part by acting illegally: corking intersections, riding several abreast, and so forth.

So, what if a Critical Manners event existed in our city? What if would involve as many bikes as Critical Mass, but everyone would ride as the law both allows and requires. In other words, single file, positioned safely (typically, in the equivalent of the right or left wheel well, depending on the street), coming to a complete stop at stop signs, not passing cars on the right, and so forth. It would take probably ten times longer than the usual Critical Mass, and would gum up traffic ten times worse.

I’m not sure what the aim is. One might be to promote vehicular cycling. Another might be: make those motorists pay for complaining about how bicyclists are a bunch of scofflaws, and make them wish they’d be a little bit more disobedient. 5 years ago

some years ago. I recall that there was an incident with a taxi driver and one of the other cyclists. This was in Edinburgh. 5 years ago

Rode CM in Norfolk, however I have yet to do it in Richmond. 5 years ago

I have come close to doing this. Every Tuesday in Philly they have this thing called the pretzel ride where a group of people meet at the rocky stairs before midnight and bike to this pretzel shop that distributes pretzels to stands all over Philly. The shop opens at midnight. Similar to the critical mass but the time and route are not as spontaneous. 5 years ago

and it was awesome! All the bikers were in a good mood, and we got to raise biking awareness (aka piss off a bunch of car drivers!) I can’t wait until next month! 6 years ago

Critical Mass rides in Dallas are less than massive, more like a “Pub Ride”. Maybe I need to head to NYC! 6 years ago

So, the traffic solidified outside of downtown. I gave up on the streets, and rode on the sidewalk. I could hear helicopters overhead. As I came over the top of 4th Ave, I could see the red and blue blinkies of the police cruisers.

I thought, oh shit, on Black Friday, the biggest retail shopping day of the year, there’s been some sort of bomb threat to the Westlake Center, and they’ve cordoned off downtown.

Well, as I got closer, it became clear that was not the case. Instead, the area was closed to MV traffic for some big Macy’s “holiday” event. Hordes of pedestrians were standing around Westlake Center. I arrived pretty much in time for the fireworks display at 5:30. I like fireworks, so that was pretty neat.

Some of the cyclists were bitching about all the people walking around, and when I said, “pedestrians are traffic too” I got a few hostile stares. Anyway, all the people finally dispersed, and we rode around downtown.

It was just like the first few miles of STP. A huge army of bikes, several lanes wide, riding around.

After going up to Belltown, and then all the way down through Pioneer Square, down to Safeco field, we started heading back up. I decided to peel off and head back up Dearborn with my friend Dane. I stopped by his house for a bit, and warmed up my toes, and then took off for home.

Was it worth it? It was OK. It wasn’t like it was a freak show, or filled with unruly miscreants, like some would have you think. Some people drank beer beforehand, but some had hot lemonade, too.

It’d be affirming, if you’d never ridden with a lot of other bikes before. And all those blinkies ahead of me, chaotically blinking to their own rhythm, looked pretty cool. But it wasn’t a radical experience, one way or the other, that some people would have had me believe it to be. 6 years ago

Well, the last critical mass ride I went on was in summer. It was a lovely warm day with plenty of daylight – twelve people turned up.

Tonight it was cold, wet, dark and just plain nasty. And oddly enough more than twenty people turned up for critical mass in manchester (the manchester, not some cheap american facsimilie).

It makes no sense. Like chewbacca living on endor with the ewoks. YOU MUST ACQUIT!! oops. lost the plot there a bit.

It was a lot more fun tonight, and a lot more useful. There were a lot of people asking what it was all about. And I managed to lead everyone down a cobbled street. hehehe… 6 years ago

Absolutely totally freakin’ worth it. I’m in Chicago, and I do the Chicago masses, which are pretty big even in winter (we’re cold-resistant). I wonder who else in Chicago in on 43things and does CM… 6 years ago

Do twelve people count as “critical” mass?

As far as I can tell critical mass rides involve riding around incredibly slowly and pissing off car drivers.

To be honest I usually ride round at a decent pace and still manage to annoy car drivers (hint: pull in front of them at traffic lights). Why the hell did we have to trundle round at walking pace?

I’ll probably bother to go on at least one other ride, just to see if more people turn up. But on the evidence of one ride I was completely underwhelmed. 6 years ago

Well, it’s getting near the last friday in the month. Time to head for the central library in manchester and actually get this thing done and out of the way. :) 6 years ago

I’ve been meaning to go on a CM ride in manchester for months. There’s just been loads of random excuses in the way. Well this month I’m going to go on one.

I just have no idea what to expect really. I think that’s the main problem and why I’ve not done it before. 6 years ago

I’d really like to do this at some point. I’m from a pretty small area and just got into biking recently. There is a pretty large base of cyclists where I’m at, lots of mountain bikers and such; I just need to tap into them and find out if CM happens here. 6 years ago

A great experience. 7 years ago

I rode a Critical Mass was Halloween night in Seattle a few years ago. People wore costumes and everything, and I was in way better shape than I thought I was (it turned into a three-hour ride). It was pretty sweet. 7 years ago

rode critical mass with my kids in the Burley to close the SOA. 7 years ago

no matter what, but i would like 1) more people to participat and 2) a longer ride than 45 minutes. 7 years ago

i am a bit disappointed in the baltimore cyclist community though…there were only about 43 people there…but it was fun. there was a dude with a steel back wheel on his bmx bike…wacky…next time it better last more than 45 minutes though…. 7 years ago

i’m so excited! i’m hoping for 100+ people 7 years ago

there’s no critical mass in the suburbs of dallas/ft worth. there is one in denton i think but thats still far away. =[ i’ll have to wait until i live someplace more bike friendly. 7 years ago

September is the birthday of Critical Mass in San Francisco (this was the 13th I think). The ride got off to a slow start. A large group in the font decided to stop a taxi going up hill, creating a jam. 7 years ago

Nekkid. 7 years ago