This Friday is the 214th Critical Mass in San Francisco! See you at Pee Wee Herman Plaza on Friday!

I didn’t think it possible, but Streetfilms has topped themselves with this latest installment. Their subject is the fantastic Randy “The Ethicist” Cohen, who has this to say on the subject of running red lights:

This is not a ‘law and order’ argument, it’s a consequentialist argument. What are the effects of your actions on others. I’ll deny this in a court of law, but I almost never stop at red lights — except when I might endanger another person or myself. But if I’m driving along, and there are no pedestrians who want to cross the road, and there’s no car traffic to endanger me I slow down, look both ways and go through the light. What are we, Germans?

Here’s the original Tweed Ride, from a British Rail film board movie from 1955:

Cycling, like all good exercise, uses up energy. And unless you’re experienced, you can go on pushing them around until you bring on a touch of the bonk — which, being interpreted, means that you feel distressingly fatigued.

Right, better have a pint then! Tally ho!

What’s amazing about this video of ordinary traffic in Utrecht, the Netherlands, is that everyone seems to be moving so quickly. Look how fast they zip around! That must be the result of the excellent bike traffic infrastructure they enjoy.

Tucson is a lovely desert town with a seriously sprawl problem. Happily, there is a movement afoot to bring more people into the streets on bikes: Tucson Bike Beautiful. Yes, beautiful indeed!

“Scrapper bikes is definitely a process, and that process is definitely for the kids so they can get their mind off of what’s really goin’ on on these streets and get them at least that hour, or two hours, to fix on their bikes, you know that hour and two hours of a life change, you feel me? Or a life saved, cuz Scraper Bikes is definitely saving a lot of these kids’ lives.”

Scrapertown from California is a place. on Vimeo.

Hit that “full screen” option. This film is so gorgeous, it should be viewed big as possible.

Tilt & Shift Critical Mass from daniel fiantok on Vimeo.

Tail end turns on Powell from Geary as the traditional loop around Union Square commences. San Francisco, Critical Mass, January 29, 2010.

That’s pretty tiny, but luckily a crew from KPIX was there to make us feel important.

Turns out, KPIX joined us to report on the news (brought to you by Honda!) (they repeat their absurd claims first reported last summer) that SFPD Chief George Gascon is reviewing department policy on Critical Mass, as part of his commitment to cut crime by 20%. Here’s the video:

Of course the police view our monthly ride as a nuisance and an expense — that comes as no surprise. But this report raises the question: if Chief Gascon were somehow able to stop the ride, what percentage would he claim he had reduced crime? I can hear him now… “Red light running by cyclists is down by exactly 4%!”

If the cops think they have better things to do with their time, we agree! (Let’s not begin to discuss their spending priorities, and how using phalanxes of cops on overtime to stop a 2-3 hour, once-a-month bike ride is a remarkably dumb use of public resources!) We’d love to see the police escort disappear (though we acknowledge that they have been helpful in calming dangerous motorists). But the idea that our monthly ride should be anywhere near the top of the list of law enforcement priorities for a city with real violent crime issues is laughable!

As Justin points out in the video clip, the police tried and failed to stop Critical Mass once before. In 1997, Mayor Willie Brown sent the cops out to ticket, harass and arrest dozens of cyclists each month, with absolutely no effect. In fact, the rides just got larger and larger, ballooning into rides of 5000 or more each month. In the end, the mayor backpedaled, the cops backed off, and we’ve had a sort of truce ever since.

If the police try again to prevent our popular movement, the same thing is guaranteed to happen. More people will show up, and we’ll just invent new tactics — a welcome opportunity, since our ride has been entirely predictable for years now. Hey, maybe we could try skipping Pee Wee Herman Plaza in favor of meeting in 4 or 5 separate locations. With ubiquitous cellphones and twitter messaging, organizing that sort of decentralized response ought to be even easier than it was 13 years ago!

We’ll stop short of asking Gascon to “bring it on,” but only because we’re not macho idiots, and we know he has more important work to do. Gotta get a jump on that 20%!

We Are Traffic from Bank Tangjaitrong on Vimeo.

The short is by Bank Tangjaitrong, which I learned about on CandyCranks.com.

Thanks, Sunny!