Critical Mass is
a monthly bicycle ride to celebrate cycling and to assert cyclists'
right to the road. The idea started in San Francisco in
September 1992 and quickly spread to cities all over the world. This
site attempts to be the most complete guide to local Critical Mass
rides around the globe.
Critical Mass has a different flavor from city to city --
there's a big variety in size, respect of traffic laws (or lack
thereof), interaction with motorists, and intervention by police. So
if you want to know more about Critical Mass, you'll really need to
find out what your local ride is like. For those who must know more
right now, here's a link to Phoenix, Arizona CM, which I suppose is a "typical" CM ride, if there is such a
thing.
Critical Mass has no leaders, and no central organization
licenses rides. In every city that has a CM ride, some locals
simply picked a date, time, and location for the ride and publicized
it, and thus the ride was born.
CM is an idea and an event, not an organization.You
can't write to "Critical Mass" -- certainly not by writing to me.
Some CM riders try to tie up traffic as much as possible and be
otherwise confrontational with motorists. Such riders are missing
the point about Critical Mass. CM is a celebration of cycling, not a
war against motorists. CM is about asserting our right to the
road, not denying others their right to the road. Those who
want to play juvenile games are encouraged to stay at home
instead.
Winnipeg, MB, Canada. Riders say police used excessive force in arresting five peacful Critical Mass riders. (More: Winnipeg Sun) May 2006
Denver, CO, USA. Police confiscated riders' bikes on the
Denver Critical Mass ride. Until the police start impounding people's
cars for minor traffic infractions, this is just completely
inappropriate -- and an obviously childish exercise of power. (More: Westword)
April 2006
Spokane, WA. The police tackled cyclists and arrested almost all of them for "Disorderly Conduct". (more) Dec. 2005
New York. Cyclist victory! The police crackdown on CM for "parading without a permit" has been declared unconstitutional. (more)
Jan. 2006
New York. Cyclists filed a lawsuit against NYPD, which has responded with a counterclaim. (more)
Oct. 2004
See a trailer
for the documentary about the controversial police crackdown on NYC
Critical Mass coinciding with the 2004 Republican National Convention.
(Or visit the filmmakers' website.
Good news from Portland
"Exciting things have been happening for Portland's CM. We've had regular
meetings with the Portland Police to reach compromises and understanding on
some things, and have achieved a ride with less harrassment, more bike
officers and fewer in autos / motorcycles, and a much more "feel-good"
ride with less tension. This has been largely the result of a few
dedicated CM riders willing to go to meetings and print up flyers for
riders, etc." -- Brian
How much energy we use.
Overconsumption of oil means that more people will
die as more wars are fought over an increasingly shrinking
supply. The U.S. alone uses 46% of all the gasoline used in
the world. (more...)
The
true cost of gas. Americans
whine about the "high" price of gas while
not realizing what a sweet deal they're
getting.
Pollution by cars causes lung cancer, respiratory
problems, urban smog, and acid rain. Greenhouse gases
emitted by cars causes global warming, which is not just a
concern for the future, it's happening right now. (more...)
The True Costs of Cars
Autos
on Welfare. While most motorists think that
their gas taxes and registration fees pay for the roads and
for other related costs, the truth is that infrastructure is
financed mostly by general taxes paid by everyone, which
means that those who don't drive are subsidizing those who
do.
Societal costs of cars
& highways. Our relationship with the
automobile causes pollution, noise, congestion, sprawl, big
expenses, injury, and even death. The cost is greater than
we realize....
The typical American family
spends almost $8000 a year to own and operate a
car, when you count the car payments, gas, oil,
maintenance & repairs, licenses, parking, and
insurance.
If you took the money you'd save by getting rid of your
car and invested it you could have $2.3 million by
the time you retired. (more...)
Art Ludwig shows that AAA underestimates the cost of car
use. (more...)
I was
born into a cult.
The Aesthetic Realism Foundation is a
small psychological cult in New York city.
My grandparents were members, so my mother
was born into it, and so was I. Recently I
created a
website about the cult to get the word
out. I hope you'll check it out.
First Friday. Meet 7:00, Ride 7:30.
Meet at Colorado Blvd. & Ocean Ave.,
Santa Monica (corner of Palisades Park, at
entrance to pier). See website for 6:30
meetup in Los Angeles
Last Friday @ 5:30 from the flagpole in
the center of The Green. email
list,
old
site
Jun '04
Manchester
Last Friday @ 5:30 from Viet Nam
Memorial at Main & Center Streets.
Willimantic
Last Friday @ 5:30 from the parking lot
at the start of the Veterans' Memorial
Bike Path off Jackson St., just across
Union St. from the Farmers' Market.
PreserveNet's
Critical Mass Guide
A listing of local CM pages on the web, and free web
pages for local CM groups that don't have one.
Critical Mass Arrests. CM made international news
twice when police wrongly arrested many cyclists, on 7-25-97
in San Francisco and on 8-00 in Los Angeles. (Bad arrests
have happened at many other CM rides, but only these two
were major media stories.) Check out websites about the
San Francisco and Los
Angeles incidents.
Car
Busters International group based in Europe working towards a
car-free society. They publish a hot magazine ("Car
Busters") and email newsletter, and sponsor World Car-Free
Day every September.
Car-Free
Cities These folks advocate for car-free cities in a
well-researched and professional manner.
Car-Free City
US A group working to create a car-free city in the
U.S.
(Planning
a) Car-Free Day Large, well-organized site which details how to plan a
Car-Free Day in your city.
Culture
Change Documents the tremendous environmental, social and
economic damage caused by endless road building. Also
publishes Culture Change magazine (formerly
Auto-Free Times).
Get
out of the bike lane! Posts vigilante photos of autos parked in the bike lane
in Toronto, Canada.
Less
Traffic
Recommends going beyond traffic calming to reduce the number
and speed of cars on the streets.
Reclaim the
Streets (San Francisco, CA US)
A movement which advocates massive street parties, covertly
painting bike lanes onto roadways, and other ways to subvert
the car culture. Here are the RTS pages for London
and Adelaide,
Australia.
Right of
Way (New York City)
Local group asserting cyclist and pedestrian rights over
motorist prerogatives. Has stenciled over 250 street
memorials to car victims and published "Killed By
Automobile" report.
Transportation
Alternatives (New York City)
Local group promoting alternatives to car-based
transportation. This website is HOT! It's a model for other
groups to emulate.
Victoria
Transport Policy Institute Publishes a number of important studies and reports,
such as one explaining how cyclists actually subsidize the
cost of road-building for motorists, a Pavement Buster's
Guide, and much more. For activists who are ready to move
beyond simply riding in Critical Mass rides and actually get
something done in their communities, this site provides
plenty of the ammunition they'll need.
No Dead
Links!We
painstakingly checked every link on
this site in Dec. 2004. We respect your time, and
know that you don't want to spend it clicking dead links to
outdated sites.
Some of the rides listed here aren't Critical Mass per se
(they don't use that name), but they're definitely of the
same spirit. And a lot of these rides have died out -- we
don't know for sure because local groups don't update their
web pages.
Our links & info are only as
good as what people send to us.
CM rides
have a habit of dying out or changing times, and usually
nobody bothers to let us know. CM webmasters are also
notorious for not keeping their pages updated -- and often
don't even list meaningful ride dates, times, and locations
-- much less a "last updated" date. We can only print what
we know. We're not psychic. Sometimes we'll link to a very
outdated page or a simple archived email message announcing
a ride time if that's all we could dig up for a certain
city. You can help by feeding us corrections & new sites
when you know about them. Thanks!
BikeLane.com
More links than you can shake a kickstand
at about every cycling issue imaginable, and thankfully
organized into different sections.
BikeForums.net
| CyclingForums.com
Web-based discussion groups (not email-based) for a
large variety of specialized biking topics, including
Advocacy, Bike Mechanics, Bike Messengers, Commuting,
Handcycling, Safety, Women's Cycling, and more.
Unicycling.org For those who prefer to ride with one wheel.
Unusual Bikes: On our
sister site we have a huge list of recumbent bikes
(recliners), adult tricycles, cargo/workbikes, bike cars (4
wheels), trailers, pedicabs, electric scooters, and more.
(see
list)
Machines powered by bikes:Maya Pedal
makes pedal-powered blenders, water pumps, cofee depulper, metal
sharpener, washing machines, woodsaws, eectricity generators, and more.
Wow!
Critical-Mass.info
