Berkeley Critical Mass!
Some opinions on how the ride does best...


Hey,

Thanks for the inclusion, great info, links and sponsoring this ride. That
was fun! and a great group of riders! Never been to Indian Rock, such an
awesome spot in an urban area!! I'm pretty new to CM but getting a good
feel for the entirety of it. When and where to be political and what the
purpose of the rides are. It's very cool and freeing. I'm all for the
carfree cities. I really think it's doable paradigm if people can get
themselves physically dehooked from their oil suspensors and use their
bodies, as so brilliantly designed by universe for their free use. Gotta
work on it.

thanks again and see you at the next ride!
Cheers!

[August 11, 2006]


From: Jesse Palmer Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2003 14:12:29 -0800 Subject: November EB critical mass Dear Fellow massers: I wanted to either vent my feelings -- or start a little discussion -- about some of the shortcomings of last month's East Bay Critical mass, with a view towards making the November ride better. I love East Bay Critical Mass. I've come to almost every EB ride for the last few years, and it is a high point of my month. While it was often more confrontational many years ago, I've really enjoyed the last couple of years in which the police escort has been absent, and the ride has taken a more festive, positive, inclusive feel. I think the ride should first and foremost focus on riding our bikes -- basically enjoying and traveling through the city once a month as if the future was here and bikes were the preferred mode of transportation in urban areas. I participate as a kind of subtle demonstration, but also as a celebration. I think to the extent the ride is fun and exciting and includes a lot of different kinds of people (kids, people of all ages, people of all athletic abilities, people riding lots of different kinds of bikes, etc.) we are demonstrating how biking is better than driving and is for everyone, not just jocks or youth. I personally have a lot of antagonism against cars and drivers (even though I sometimes am one myself), but I strongly think that we should try to contain that during Critical mass. In a future, biking world, we wouldn't be filled with anger and danger from cars because the bikes would be in control and cars would be a marginal afterthought. Most people who bike a lot grow to resent cars because they threaten our lives and because of the attitude of some drivers. But venting all that at critical mass doesn't make the ride appealing to me at all. If the ride is going to be inclusive and grow, it has to be about something positive, not just a tantrum. So my idea for the perfect critical mass is that we keep riding our bikes, avoid situations where we're just standing around or waiting, avoid situations in which we are letting cars become the focus of our energy, and instead focus our energy on doing what WE want -- which is riding our bikes. The October critical mass really rubbed me the wrong way. It felt like we spent way too much time blocking intersections unnecessarily -- even having meetings in the middle of the street! This is just plain boring. It isn't a bike ride at all. For me, this includes riding in circles in intersections. I think if folks want to circle once during a ride, fine. But more than once really feels like we're stuck. I don't ride on critical mass to block cars -- I ride to ride my bike. If some cars get delayed by our human speed vehicles, that's okay, but I want to be traffic, and be treated like traffic, not be seen as an intentional blockade to someone's Friday evening. I also think we have to figure out a better way of keeping the ride together without requiring the front of the ride to constantly stop and wait, resulting in an excruciatingly slow ride speed. The EB ride always seems a bit slow, but last month the ride was stopped more than it was moving. This does not make more people want to participate. Even people who are very out of shape riding terrible bikes want to go fast enough so they don't have to apply the breaks and get off their bike constantly. I felt like some folks at the front of the ride who were constantly saying "slow down" were honestly trying to make the ride more inclusive and friendly, but I think they went too far and made it a bike traffic jam instead. I also felt like the October ride made unusually poor choices about route -- people want to go in a direction, not ride in circles. Part of the problem was that we were waiting for people or trying to let people fix flats, etc. I know it is sad when someone gets a flat tire, but I really think that the ride needs to leave someone with a patch kit and keep moving. I think most of us realize that one risk of biking is that we may get a flat. On the Halloween SF mass, my friend got a flat, so a few of us stopped to fix it and we lost the mass. It wasn't so bad - I'm glad the rest of the mass kept going. Okay, I swore to myself during last month's ride that I would write an email about it, and so there it is. Perhaps it will help and the next ride will keep moving and be fun and exciting. take care, jesse
Last updated November 12, 2003; contact jmeggs a t - bclu.org to add to the discussion posted here.