DO
• talk to stranger, bystanders, bus riders, motorists – welcome people to join us next time
• help cars stuck in mass to exit to the right
• stop regularly if you’re in front (no matter how slowly you think you’re going, gaps are opening up behind you)
• stop at red lights when in front to allow the rest of the ride to “mass up” behind.
• keep going in dense packs through red lights to stick together and keep it safe for everyone.
• fill gaps; Critical Mass depends on bicycle density to displace cars.
• remember that pleasure and friendliness are more subversive than anger and blaming.
DON’T
• race ahead to block cross traffic before the Mass has arrived
• ride into oncoming traffic on the wrong side of the road
• pick fights with motorists, even (especially) if they’re itching for one
• fail to turn and twist through the city to make the ride more interesting
• forget to smile and wave and talk to strangers!
• imagine that you are morally superior just cuz you’re on a bicycle (you’ll be in a car again soon enough)
• hesitate to tell other Massers what you think of their behavior, whether good or bad. Talk to each other!
• forget – we are all responsible to make Critical Mass what we want it to be.
DO: make friends with (and s’mores for) motorists.
See fig a: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vsgoliath/1459073650/
here is the essay I wrote that appears in the 2009 slingshot organizer – it is on similar lines.
thanks, jesse
Bicycle Critical Mass
Critical Mass bike rides are spontaneous, leaderless rides that begin at specific times and locations in various cities around the world. Since no one organizes the rides, the rides have no agreed agenda or demands. They aren’t a protest. Instead, when we ride on Critical Mass, we’re living the world we would like to see — filling the streets with bikes, laughter, human speed, clean air, engagement and life. At Critical Mass, we can bike down the street safe from speeding cars — together — empowered by our numbers. Critical Mass is a celebration.
Critical mass rides sometimes enrage car drivers because bike traffic competes with car traffic for space on the road. Cars have their critical mass 29 days of the month when bikes get crowded out — it’s called rush hour! Critical mass is a single day when bike traffic briefly outnumbers car traffic. Maybe in 50 years, bikes will outnumber cars everyday. As concerns about global warming increase, people are searching for alternatives like bikes. A community of cyclists is developing — demanding respect and some space on the road.
Even though every ride in every city is different, frequent Critical Mass riders (mass-holes?) have been learning ways to make our rides better. Here are some tips for riding in Critical Mass or creating your own:
• Ride Slow, talk fast – The key to a successful Critical Mass is having enough bikes riding close enough together so as to take up all or at least one lane of a road. That makes riding in the zone filled with bikes fun and safe. To keep the ride together, the people in front have to bike really slow — un-naturally slow. If the front goes fast, the ride will quickly get too thin and break apart — allowing angry car drivers into the breaches. Riding slow is actually a great opportunity to meet your fellow riders, sightsee, smell the flowers, or catch up on life with friends.
• Smile and Wave – It is inevitable that you’ll eventually meet an irate motorist. When this happens, its is best to de-escalate and meet anger with joy. Don’t take the bait to stop your bike and argue — just keep moving and ring a happy bike bell. Keep in mind the point of Critical Mass — to have fun riding our bikes together. Most mass-holes don’t want to intentionally delay traffic — rather, we want to be traffic and ride. When a ride gets angry and confrontational, you’ll quickly lose a lot of riders — and they won’t want to come back next time.
• Mass Up! – If you’re at the front, it’s up to you to notice if the ride behind you is getting too thin or spread out. If it does, stop at a red light and wait for the ride to mass up.
• Adjust tactics depending on size – If a ride is huge, it may take up all lanes and run traffic lights to keep things moving and together. These behaviors don’t work if you’re on a small ride — it just pisses drivers off, makes the ride look arrogant, and turns the ride into a stressful battle, not a fun party. If the ride is tiny, consider just taking a single lane and obeying all traffic laws. It can help to turn frequently so cars are not backed up behind you.
• Determining the route – Some rides use a system called “xerocracy” in which anyone who wants can hand out a xeroxed flier suggesting a route. Other rides discuss and agree on a general route before the ride. Some have a typical route they repeat ride after ride. Others pick their route on the fly — whoever is in front makes the decision at each intersection about whether to turn right, left or go forward. Watch out about going in circles! It can be nice to discuss a fun place to end while you’re riding— a park, the shore, a bar, a good place to watch the sunset, etc. Some rides end at parties, bike film festivals, political events or outdoor bike-in movies.
• Dress up and decorate your bike! The more fun and beautiful a ride is, the more riders it will attract and the less angry motorists will become. You can include bikes with sound systems, pass out snacks, or have theme costumes: a Halloween ride or a bike prom ride, etc. Some riders carry signs or hand out fliers to explain what is going on to people the ride passes.
• How to start a ride – If your town doesn’t have a ride, anyone can start one by simply picking a meeting spot and a time and place. You don’t need permission since no one is in charge! The most popular time is 6 p.m. on the last Friday of each month — but any time will do as long as you keep it consistent. Then you announce the ride for a month or so and get all your friends to go. You can put fliers on bikes you see locked up around town. Once you’ve had your first ride, hopefully word of mouth will keep the ride going into the future. If police show up at your meeting spot, keep in mind that Critical Mass has no leaders and thus no one can really speak to the cops on behalf of the ride. Bikes have a right to ride together if they like — just a happy coincidence! — and don’t need permits to do so. If the cops demand that you get a permit, ask them if they make cars get a permit for rush hour!
you guys should formalize this list and make it a dedicated page in the navigation. this site is going to receive a shit ton of visitors and while you are not THE voice of the mass, you are A voice of the mass. people are going to be looking to you for answers whether or not you like it.
The negative/aggro vibe that I get from many CMers is the one thing that has made me really hesitant to participate in the past.
We need to make it clear that CM is an inclusive, safe, and positive force for change.
I would also suggest adding having consideration for Muni – I live in DuBoce Park and more often than not, wind up getting stuck in a N or a J that can’t get out of the tunnel because CM isn’t letting trains through. Each Muni train is a lot less cars every day and it’s really frustrating to see your stop, but can’t get the last 100 feet to it for 20 minutes.
Great list!
A bunch of us a few years ago tried to reinstate the best spirit of critical mass and it worked partially but not for long. It turns out that the effort to take back the ride from the assholes who use the safety in numbers to take out their (usually, let’s face it) petty frustrations (that are sometimes deadly serious, I know) on unfortunate motorists is harder than it seems. They are not easily convinced that critical mass is not about ‘taking it to the motorists.’ And it only takes a few of them to ruin the spirit of the ride for everyone. So it takes a lot of us to change that. It was easier in the old days when the dominant spirit was good, and the assholes were in the minority. It will be harder now but we can certainly do it.
In that earlier effort, we produced this flyer, check it out. Better yet, print out hundreds of them and circulate them on the ride. It will literally take thousands of these flyers to have the desired effect.
pdf format: http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B6p6ZIKDbIi_ODZiYjRhYjktYWMzOC00NDQwLTg3ODgtZWYyYjY0MzFhYjBk&hl=en
doc format: http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0Aap6ZIKDbIi_ZGZobnQyNjRfMTBkZ3Q0cHZnNw&hl=en
Don’t be an a**hole. Don’t be hostile to cars just for the hell of it. Don’t take all the lanes. Don’t drive your SUV into SF from Fremont to ride in CM. DO stop for peds. Don’t ride on bus routes if at all avoidable. Don’t ride on Van Ness or Market. Been there, done that. Do have an adventure.
[...] distributed at the ride, a book was published). Once or twice a year someone shows up with a flyer addressing the culture of the ride, or prepares a suggested route, but in general, cultural production, once so essential to the [...]
We’re bicycling from San Francisco to Washington, DC between 24-July and 22-Sept, 2010, without motorized support. Cynthia McKinney, six term Member of Congress and 2008 Green Party nominee for President, is riding. The ride will demonstrate the bicycle as a transformational tool to solve the problems of Climate Change, Oil Wars, the Health Crisis, and the Economic Crunch. Along the way, riders will facilitate community discussions around the question “How can we support each other to live true to our best values?”
Our route, schedule, and discussion group are open to anybody with a free Google account. Please join us. If you would like to bicycle all or part of the route, plan a convergence ride, or host riders passing through your community, please e-mail bike4peace@googlegroups.com. Please forward this and re-post to others who might be interested.
I’m sorry but while your cause of getting more people to use non-automobile forms of transit as much as possible may be a noble one from an environmental viewpoint – your methodology of doing it by essentially blocking traffic and hurting a city’s productivity makes you seen as only an irritant to people and basically does the exact OPPOSITE of what you want because it annoys the hell out of people – even those who believe in your basic cause of getting out of the car as much as possible to lessen environmental impact!
A bit about myself and my husband – when at home in the US, I try to do as much of my work-work and school-work from home as possible to save on commute. I recycle well over the majority of what I use and my house has more green/environmental technology on it than you will probably ever be able to afford. Without getting into too many details the technological equipment my husband creates has literally increased the productivity of Doctors’ Without Borders, reduces the injury/killed-soldier rate of the US and UK militaries, reduces the need for face to face meetings thus lowering the carbon footprint of EVERY company/organization that uses it and ensures the safety of our President – among many other things. When abroad I am usually working my ass off helping a charity or non-profit of some sort get up and running or become more effective.
On the few days a week ‘at home’ I do have to ‘commute’ the majority of my commutes are done by a combination of my feet, some form of public transport, or adult tricycle (I cannot use a traditional bike because it aggravates my sciatica and doesn’t allow me enough room to carry my school books and/or equipment needed for work presentation). BART does NOT allow tricycles only bikes – which as I have said I cannot use for health reasons doing with lack of balance and because it cannot carry my equipment load. This makes it so that when I DO have to do a fundraising presentation more than the 4 blocks maximum I can wheel this equipment – which is 100% of them – before my back breaks down in shear agony and then cannot walk – I need to use my hybrid car to shelp the materials into the city or Berkeley or wherever is NOT my house in the suburbs.
I DO NOT appreciate getting blocked on the way to try and get to said agencies, businesses, banks and other potential high profile donors to give to my also noble causes such as HIV/AIDs in South Africa or water issues in Namibia, or literacy programs in Compton. The VIPs and organizations I try and get money from are filled with VERY busy – sometimes high profile – people who only give me a limited amount of time to present to them. If I miss my appointment they often will NOT reschedule
In the last seven years since moving back to the SF Bay Area Critical Mass has blocked me eighteen time causing me to lose fourteen appointments – like I said VIPs will RARELY rebook someone who is trying to get money from them for a cause- which is an estimated minimum of 70 thousand in total donations (as I ‘mode’ at least 5K a presentation done) which breaks down to approximately 64.4 thousand to the agencies and 5.6 K in personal income for myself. One of the appointments was with a person who if you CAN get to them has a tendency to give big (like in the hundreds of thousands to even millions) but is VERY hard to reach as they are a jetsetter and after 5 years have not been able to coordinate our schedules to meet – so really who knows HOW much exactly those served by the charities I help have lost because of your arrogance!?!?! I don’t know but what I do know is that because of this – and other times you have blocked me trying to get somewhere – I absolutely HATE YOUR ORGANIZATION!
Print a calendar for Pete’s Sake so people can schedule their appointments in those cities around your ‘faux-protests.’
Thanks for your comment. It is unfortunate that you have such a low opinion of us, since it seems on so much else we can agree (and since you are clearly serious about making the world a better place). I invite you to read these earlier posts, in which I address most of your concerns:
http://www.sfcriticalmass.org/2010/04/30/argument-1/
http://www.sfcriticalmass.org/2010/04/25/argument-6-red-lights/
http://www.sfcriticalmass.org/2010/04/27/argument-4/
I’m not sure why you would like us to print a calendar — the ride takes place on the last friday of every month, and has done so for almost 18 years. Thanks again for reading and writing, and for your other good works!
I have a low opinion because when I’ve had to use the car to get to those fundraising appointments I’ve been blocked by Critical Mass SF cyclists. I even asked when the events were so I could schedule around them I was told to “shove it ‘faux-environmentalist’” (maybe because my Prius is not godd enough in their eyes) in any case if I could take my presentation stuff on BART I would, sometimes if it’s just school stuff I can use the wheeled backpack and then I DO use BART but for presentations the stuff is so bulky there is just no ways around needing a car for anything past tricycle distance.
I even asked them to move specifically stating it was a non profit fundraising appointment and I was told “no cars let through no exceptions” – sorry but exceptions happen and need to be made for people in cars for things like medical emergencies and cycles like mine where the greater good was at stake.
Thanks for finally letting me know it’s on the last friday of the month, this was the data I wanted to know many years before but after the first 3 queries being met with crude words I just didn’t ask anymore.
Conversely the Chicago group was very nice and told me where to see their calendar so I could schedule my appointments when I was there around their blockade. I’ve also heard good things about the Seattle group, so I don’t know if it’s more about SF Bay Area-ite’s rigid (facist – yes liberals can be just as facist as conservatives) interpretation of the philosophy but I take issue with that amount of rigidity of not letting anyone pass. Reasonable and intelligent people hear each case out and decide on a case by case basis if the person should be allowed to pass or be blocked.
As for your answer to #2 I do try to avoid driving during “sports events, political rallies, Bay to Breakers” especially in the city it’s just not worth it. Chinese NY is okay because I can do it all in mass transit (save the 7 mins drive/ 17 trike to BART) and usually their are things around it where I can fundraise. BUT, If I don’t have to be their to fundraise or for school – in general I avoid large scale events, mainly as crowds seem to bring out bad behaviour in even the most nice of people I know. CMSF should practise what you call self-management but I’ve not seen this with the SF branch, and until I see and hear of improvement I will continue to not like your organization. I mean why not formally appologize for the errors of the past and ban those particular individuals from participating if they are distructive? That makes sense to me.
Still don’t think the argument for the back part of the procession running reds is logical, in most other countries whomever has the green has the right to run over those who are running the red and it’s not even considered a ticketable offense even if it ends in death for the person running the red – you are lucky we live in California. Still, If we all don’t follow the lights then chaos ensues. It’s almost Darwinian if you don’t value your life enough to stop you kind of deserve trouble – maybe not death but at least a bit of pain of some sort.
I suppose if you see cars as ‘evil’ then you might think the behavour exhibited by some of your participants is okay – but I see engineering and science finding a better way to make them more efficient (such as a move to electricity which can be made from SO many more ecofriendly models) as solving the issue rather than taking away that option for people with longer commutes or who are carrying large quantities of things. Sure getting everyone to reduce consumption is a good thing but some of you are just as ridged as John Bircher’s and Birther’s on the other end of the spectrum.
V. Issacs,
I read with great enjoyment your argument of a double standard.
Being blocked by cyclists is a terrible thing to happen when you are trying to raise money for a good cause.
I quote key points of your discussion in reverse.
“VERY hard to reach as they are a jetsetter and after 5 years have not been able to coordinate our schedules to meet”
“VIPs will RARELY rebook someone who is trying to get money from them for a cause”
These two points really make it seem difficult to meet these people anyway, without a mass of cyclists in between.
So I guess with a calendar of events you can know in advance which dates to miss, but what if these are the only dates available to meet with “Jetsetters” who “give big (like in the hundreds of thousands to even millions)”?
The answer is found close at home…
“Technological equipment my husband creates … reduces the need for face to face meetings”
And if you have more green technology than I can ever afford, just donate your own savings.
All the best.
VOR
Please wear clothes while you ride….very disturbing seeing old naked men riding along. My kids don’t need to see that and its illegal.