Critical Mass!

Today I participated in the most amazing bicycling event ever: Critical Mass.

Critical Mass (CM) is a monthly group ride that is partly a demonstration advocating human powered transportation in opposition to burning fossil fuels, partly a celebration of cycling for its own right, and partly whatever individuals choose to make of it. It has no official leadership or formal organization. It occurs regularly simply because the people who got involved in the beginning want it to continue, and new participants come and go with every ride. The tradition began in San Francisco in 1992, and as the number of participants grew from 48 to well into the thousands, publicity grew, sparking Critical Mass rides in other cities. Today there are Critical Mass rides in over 325 cities, on 6 continents. (Check wikipedia or rocwiki.org for more info. It's pretty cool.)

The people were as diverse a group I've ever met. I would say the only thing that tied us all together was that we all rode bikes, but that actually isn't true. One guy was on roller blades, and there was a skateboarder that came with us for at least part of the ride. I met a guy who designs fiber optic cable systems for a company in Pittsford. He was hardcore. As a cyclist in Boston, he was hit by a taxi three times (not the same taxi). He said he rode his bike "to get away from capitalism and corporate slavery for a bit." Two other people I met (who had no idea what CM was, and just decided to ride with the group on whim when they saw us) are doctors at Strong who, as they put, just finished the "Scrubs" portion of their career in medicine (i.e. they're new). There was a woman who wore a dress. I thought this was interesting simply because the reason (historically, anyway) most women's bicycles have a lower top tube is so that women can wear dresses while riding a bike. (Short tangent: The design for women's bicycles was made back when women actually wore dresses while riding a bike, so it always seemed silly to me that bike manufacturers still do this seeing that people don't generally wear dresses on bikes anymore. Structurally a lower top tube is just bad design.) But anyway, she is the only person I have ever seen wear a dress on a bike, and actually utilize the gender specific design as it was intended. The youngest person I saw was probably 16 and the oldest probably 65. In total, probably 80 people showed up.

Their bikes were as different as they were. There were mountain bikes, road bikes, fixed gears, freewheelers, lots of customs. One person rode a double decker. What's that? I have absolutely no idea. There's a picture
here (the guy in the center on the really tall bike). I was admiring the fiber optics engineer's bike and asked him about the brand, because I didn't recognize the unusual name written on it. "Oh," he said. "That's not the brand. That's my ex-girlfriend's name." I couldn't help but laugh. I guess it's better than a tattoo. Some people had 15 year old K-mart bikes that I couldn't believe were still ridable; others had novelty bikes. I didn't see any recumbents, which was surprising. No one had my old bike—the one that got stolen last winter. I'm still ticked off about that…

Then there was corking. Corking is the method by which a large pack of riders stay together despite encountering inevitable red lights which would threaten to separate the pack. The solution? Run the red lights. "Corkers" assist those passing through the intersection by standing in front of the cars with signs that say, "Thank you for waiting" on one side and "Honk if you love bicycles" on the other side (for when people start honking at you—and they do). This is probably the most controversial aspect of CM. CM's mantra is, "We aren't blocking traffic, we ARE traffic." Critics of corking argue that if cyclists want to be viewed as legitimate members of traffic, they can't flagrantly violate the laws. I agree with this. However, when I read about corking on the internet, I also thought it looked like a lot of fun, despite its dubious legitimacy. So when a guy came around handing out signs asking people if they wanted to cork, I couldn't resist. Corking is a lot of fun. Furthermore, it works exactly the same way funeral processions do, so if dead people have such a privilege, why not the living?

Most people's response to CM was friendly, or at least not worse than indifferent. Many of us would yell, "Happy Friday!" those whom we passed, trying to spread our cheer. Pedestrians, and people eating at outdoor cafes almost always returned the good feelings. Drivers were different. No one likes encountering a parade as they're driving home from work on a Friday evening, but displaying as much positive energy as we could seemed to bring out the better side of many if not most. Lots of drivers smiled, and gave a friendly toot of their horn at our signs. Naturally, some people just didn't like that there were so many bicyclists turning their 4 minute drive into a 6 minute drive. The most notable of whom pulled along side our group and called me (because I was the corker) a long string of swear words, and then said I deserved a good beating. I held up the sign that said "Honk if you love bicycles," and we all told him to have a happy Friday.

The next CM ride is on Friday, July 27th, meeting at the University of Rochester clocktower at 5:30pm, then at the Liberty Pole downtown at 6pm. If you aren't a Rochester local, there is most likely a CM ride near where you live (list of CM rides). If you like bicycling, environmental activism, mischief, meeting new people, exercise, adventure, or trying new things, then I highly recommend participating in Critical Mass. The destination(s) are often decided en route, or as people arrive at the meeting spot, so every ride is different.

For more information:
Google Video Documentary: "We Are Traffic"
Pictures of 6/29 CM
Rochester's wiki page on Critical Mass
Wikipedia on CM
General CM page, list of CM rides