Critical Mass

Last Friday found me visiting a friend in York, England with surprisingly good weather, so naturally we grabbed the bikes and zipped down to the York Minster to join the Critical Mass gathering there.

Critical Mass (useful Wikipedia link) has all the qualities I like about Food not Bombs. It’s a spontaneous gathering of cyclists, usually on the last Friday of each month, who bike together on the streets for a while, sharing laughs and companionship, before going home. That’s it. It’s leaderless, with groups forming mainly by word of mouth, and everyone deciding together which route to take. It’s decentralized, so there’s absolutely no connection between groups in separate cities, despite the identical name. And it’s non-violent direct action, usually touted as a “political protest”, though even that description is somewhat open-ended. Some people come to protest the importance of cars and oil in today’s city, some for more general environmental reasons, some for health reasons, some to remind drivers that bikers share the roads too, or to push for bike-friendly laws or routes in the area, or just because a group ride is a fun thing to do. You tend to get quite an eclectic group of people, all there for different personal reasons, but sharing in the common goal of a group bike ride to advance The Cause, whatever that meant for each rider. All of which is awesome.

York is a pretty bike-friendly city, with numerous bike lanes* and generally friendly drivers who are used to crawling behind rickety old men on bikes instead of trying to force their way past them. That being said, it’s also a pretty small city, so the twenty or so riders we had was a pretty good show by all accounts. We ended up chatting with a couple who work in Holland most of the time, some students, a self-titled activist (who had a cart riding off the back wheel of his bike with some handy bungee cords and other essentials), two teenagers riding trick bikes, and a guy in semi-rasta wear who provided us with excellent music from a boombox he’d attached to the rack above his back tire. Bikes ranged from our old rusted freecycled ones, to big heavy Dutch bikes made for comfy city riding, to mountain bikes, to the afore-mentioned trick bikes. One lady opted to wear a sign that said “CAR(e) FREE”, and a couple of people had flags on their bikes that said “I [bike] YRK”. All in all, good company and a fun ride.

The streets are small enough that nearly all of them were just one lane in each direction with no median. Consequently we usually took up the whole lane and drivers behind us would have to stay in low gear behind us or wait for an opening to pass us in the opposite going lane. A few honked and we’d cheerfully wave back and ring our bells. (But all the police officers we passed, both in cars and on bikes, smiled at us and waved.) At one point I said outloud that I felt a little sorry for the drivers… maybe we ought to stay to the side of the road. (What can I say, I’m a big softie.)

“Kinda defeats the point, doesn’t it?” said my neighbor, referring to The Cause.

I guess. I know we certainly weren’t being overly rude by wanting to stay all together. After all, the law says bikes are subject to the same laws as cars, so it’s not like we could have all jumped up on the sidewalk. And we definitely lived up to the unofficial Critical Mass slogan of “We aren’t blocking traffic. We are traffic.” All twenty of us would signal turns all together. We’d wait patiently at stoplights. We wore reflective vests, helmets, and had bikes equipped with lights and reflectors, and handmade flags. (All of these things have been criticisms directed at other Critical Masses). To get across busy intersections with no lights, some of the veteran riders would ride out into the oncomming lanes of traffic to “cork” cars and let us pass safely and together. We were friendly and waved to everyone we passed including the kid who pulled down his pants for us.

I and my friend had so much fun that we rode back home discussing ways we could help start a Critical Mass ride where we’re from back in the States. Apparently there are none, or there were in the past but interest died out. Hopefully next year you’ll be hearing about some new Critical Mass rides in Texas. I can only hope they’ll turn out to be as polite as the York Critical Mass we took part of. Thanks, York!

*Cool bike lane fact: at every red light a bike lane is painted by the curb on the road starting about 10 meters before the intersection (if there isn’t one already) that then expands outward across the first lane just before the intersection. Cars must stop before this section, so that you’ll find the cars stopped at stoplights, the bikers ahead of those, and the pedestrian walkways ahead of those before you actually get into the intersection. This ensures that when lights turn green, the bikers get to go first without being pushed to the side of the road by eager cars. Love it.

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