- This topic has 10 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated February 9, 2006 at 7:59 pm by Anonymous.
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January 15, 2006 at 1:59 pm #1037123
Critical Mass is a monthly bicycle ride to celebrate cycling and to assert cyclists’ right to the road. The idea started in San Francisco in September 1992 and quickly spread to cities all over the world. This site attempts to be the most complete guide to local Critical Mass rides around the globe.
Critical Mass has a different flavor from city to city — there’s a big variety in size, respect of traffic laws (or lack thereof), interaction with motorists, and intervention by police. So if you want to know more about Critical Mass, you’ll really need to find out what your local ride is like. For those who must know more right now, here’s a link to Phoenix, Arizona CM, which I suppose is a “typical” CM ride, if there is such a thing.
Critical Mass has no leaders, and no central organization licenses rides. In every city that has a CM ride, some locals simply picked a date, time, and location for the ride and publicized it, and thus the ride was born.
CM is an idea and an event, not an organization. You can’t write to “Critical Mass” — certainly not by writing to me.
Some CM riders try to tie up traffic as much as possible and be otherwise confrontational with motorists. Such riders are missing the point about Critical Mass. CM is a celebration of cycling, not a war against motorists. CM is about asserting our right to the road, not denying others their right to the road. Those who want to play juvenile games are encouraged to stay at home instead.
http://www.schnews.org.uk/schmovies/knightriders.movThink I might go along, last friday of each month. meet at the level. At 6pm
has anyone been or be up for riding out sometime.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/criticalmassbrighton/And lots of other towns in the UK have a C.M group.
http://www.critical-mass.info/international.html#europeJanuary 18, 2006 at 11:47 am #1068415Great fun. Clog up the city for a few hours. OB were well nice last time, stopping cars for us!
I’d heartly recommend it!
January 18, 2006 at 12:41 pm #1068419That is it i am going and will bring the tandem out for twice the fun!:horay:
Next ride: Friday 27 January 2006.
January 20, 2006 at 6:42 pm #1068416See you there mate.
January 23, 2006 at 8:57 pm #1068421Anonymous
nice, sounds wicked..i’ll be out on my rusty racer, claiming back the tarmac from automotive death machines for the day.
sometimes i imagine a country without paved roads, all of them taken up…if we can just build hovercars that run on sustainable fuel, we can justify cars…at the moment, they seem hiddeously selfish and dangerous things to allow pretty much anyone to have.
ive avoided getting a lisence for these reasons but now im getting gigs i cant get to, my selfishness is kicking in and im considering joining the motoring masses. which would make me a selfish cunt. im torn.
January 28, 2006 at 4:48 pm #1068420Arrgh!!! work sent me to Croydon. So could not make it.
NEXT TIME!!February 6, 2006 at 11:54 am #1068417I set off- within a minute I couldn’t see through the sleet.
Next month for sure!
February 9, 2006 at 5:23 pm #1068412unfortunately due to working odd hours I keep missing the Reading Critical Mass..
IMO the primary aim of a CM is not to deliberately impede traffic / cause congestion – this is not only illegal but unethical as it is in fact causing more oil to be used by slowing down the motorised traffic and will only make motorists angrier and more likely to be aggressive towards cyclists when there are no witnesses.
If a jam occurs it should only be due to bad road layout or motorists’ brinkmanship in refusing to give way to traffic from other directions, not from cyclists playing vigilanté.
However most city centres have traffic congestion on a Friday anyway, so the real impact of CM is negligible. The cops also know this; otherwise CM would have been stopped years ago.
IIRC although it grew out of the mid 90s road protest movement the whole idea of CM was simply to show the presence of cyclists and to encourage other people of all ages, genders and backgrounds to get on their bikes more, rather than a form of militant protests..
that is what makes it one of the most succesful forms of activism, as it can draw in people who would otherwise not get involved in protesting.
February 9, 2006 at 5:25 pm #1068413USE wrote:sometimes i imagine a country without paved roads, all of them taken up…if we can just build hovercars that run on sustainable fuel, we can justify cars…at the moment, they seem hiddeously selfish and dangerous things to allow pretty much anyone to have.ive avoided getting a lisence for these reasons but now im getting gigs i cant get to, my selfishness is kicking in and im considering joining the motoring masses. which would make me a selfish cunt. im torn.
I actually can drive to an extent – although I did not pass my test back in 1993 or so – it was a close thing though
However I was a different man then, far angrier and aggressive and TBH I’m glad in many ways I did not pass then as I would probably not be here now, I’d either roadkill or in HMP having killed someone else on the roads.
I still do not particularly like driving. I find it stressful, and it brings out an nasty aggressive side of me that is rarely seen and I do not like to show.
Its different when cycling – my strength is the engine and testosterone is the accellerator, it is used positively to keep me going rather than getting angry at people “getting in your way” so I end up a lot calmer.
That said I have the same dilemma as parties become further away and a new job will shortly take me away from Reading and the South East, and I am trying to get a license shortly..
I would say that to put another motor vehicle on the road merely for transporting party kit probably is a bit selfish – parties are only enjoyed by a small section of the community.
however, you could use the resources such as a car or van and being entitled to drive it to put something back into wider society then its OK
like if you took some abandoned furniture to the homeless people or young couples with kids – or went to the scrap store and got bulky things for the playgroup that they wouldn’t have otherwise hador even just helping your friends move house or clear a squat or rented house if they had to leave….
February 9, 2006 at 6:47 pm #1068418General Lighting wrote:IMO the primary aim of a CM is not to deliberately impede traffic / cause congestionKinda hard when there’s 150+ cyclists!
But I agree- it’s more to show the joys of cycling, and that there is an alternative way (which, in Brighton, is often a lot easier and quicker than cars.)
“look officer, we’re just enjoying a ride around the city- look how clear the roads are ahead!”
And why do cars have to be petrol driven anyway. There are some slternative types out there, which, if used more often, would encourage research into alternative methods of powering cars.
February 9, 2006 at 7:59 pm #1068414binge wrote:Kinda hard when there’s 150+ cyclists!But I agree- it’s more to show the joys of cycling, and that there is an alternative way (which, in Brighton, is often a lot easier and quicker than cars.)
the thing is you are not deliberately causing congestion though – any more than the hundreds of drivers heading to the South Coast every summer are…
you and the others attending are simply using your preferred mode of transport.
IMO deliberate congestion would be something like the go-slows the fuel protesters were doing a few years back.
Quote:And why do cars have to be petrol driven anyway. There are some slternative types out there, which, if used more often, would encourage research into alternative methods of powering cars.Indeed. electric vehicles have been feasible for years, and were regularly used for deliveries within towns/cities, as well as the milk floats most of us remember from out youth
secondary batteries (the ones you recharge) are even better and more efficient today (if you know about hardware/electronics you will have noticed consider how powerful even small batteries such as those used in digital cameras are compared to just 5 years ago..)
the main problem is drivers’ lust for high speed vehicles and a stubborn reluctance to sacrifice top speeds for efficiency despite the harsh truth that a public highway cannot be a racetrack…
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