Subject: Critical Mass Tommorow

From: [email-masked] (justin wells)
Date: Thu, 29 Aug 1996 15:43:13 GMT

[news posting]

CRITICAL MASS RIDE TOMMOROW: Bring Your Bike

In case you missed the mention in EYE, Critical Mass is tommorow. The 
actual start time is probably _not_ 5pm, as was written in Eye. It's 
more likely to be between 5:30 and 6pm -- but you can show up at 5pm 
if you like: Standby Cafe, Yonge & Temperence (between Richmond & Adelaide,
west side), around 5:30. (When, coincidentally, couriers get off work.)

What is Critical Mass?

I don't know. There are no official organizers. There are only a couple of
sponsors (like you? -- people who independently make posters and fliers) 
and many more people (like you?) who randomly show up. There are usually a 
couple hundred cyclists. We ride around downtown Toronto -- there's enough of 
us to cause traffic problems, especially since we tend to block intersections 
as we pass through. 

All I can say to explain that is that it must be some kind of protest against 
the road system, traffic laws, and the way many things are biased against 
cyclists. "Take back the streets" would be apt. "We're not blocking traffic, 
we are traffic" is a sort of slogan.

I should probably warn you that last month there was a confrontation
between two officers and one (kind of idiotic) cyclist that erupted into a 
huge shouting match between many police and many cyclists, although eventually 
cooler heads prevailed. Actually it was just two officers acting stupid 
running into a cyclist acting stupid, literally.

A police car tried to break up the pack by turning on a siren and driving
through the group rapidly. Most people got out of the way, and shouted at 
others to get out of the way, but one idiot didn't. The police ran right 
into him, knocking him off his bike. He got back on and tried to ride away, 
but they arrested him for obstructing police business or whatever (and 
whatever emergency they had never emerged, because they never went. I suspect 
they saw a bunch of cyclists blocking a lane on Yonge and decided to clear us 
out, or just wanted to get through faster by turning on a siren). 

This was instantly transformed into a huge, tense confrontation between the 
officers and the rest of the cyclists. In the worst possible job of crowd 
management I've ever seen, the police decided the appropriate thing to do 
would be to shout at everyone and threaten to arrest people for standing on 
the road shouting back at them. 

It didn't work. 

Pretty soon there was a major event blocking all of Yonge for 20 minutes 
or so, with reporters, TV crews, hundreds of people shouting, people lifting
their bikes above their head in a show of solidarity, and eventually the 
arrival of more intelligent police. 

The more intelligent police that showed up realized what they were 
dealing with -- a cycling protest two days after cyclist Erin Krauser was 
crushed by a truck -- and did the right thing: offered to drive ahead of 
us, blocking the intersections to let us through, and tried to talk to us 
to find out what they could do to make things go more smoothly in the 
future.

So the resolution was pretty good, but a couple of braindead cops and a 
braindead cyclist made for a pretty tense situation.

I have no idea how things will go tommorow. Like last month a cyclist has 
just been killed (this is getting all too frequent), and like last month 
people are going to be pissed off about it. Whether the police will view us 
as a protest or an obstruction I don't know. 

There's one major difference of opinion between CM and the police: they want 
us to organize officially and apply for a parade permit, then follow a well 
defined route. 

But we don't want to have to organize to ride, and we definately don't want
to ask permission to be on the street. 

We're not blocking traffic, we ARE traffic.

Justin

--
Justin Wells, SoftQuad Inc./Smart Alert Development, 416 544-1400 (x2231)

---

From: [email-masked] (justin wells)
Date: Sat, 31 Aug 1996 03:55:02 GMT

>as a protest or an obstruction I don't know. 

I'm happy to report one of the most successful Critical Mass rides in 
Toronto took place today: but I also feel compelled to note that it was
also one of the saddest. A few days ago a cyclist was killed. Today we
rode to the spot on the road where he died and marked it with a moment
of silence. As we rode off many of us were ringing the bells on our
bikes, and I thought about how pathetic that sound is compared to the tons 
of metal speeding past us at 100km/hour.

As for the good news, two things set this ride off from previous rides:

First, the addition of some very important riders: three uniformed Metro
police officers on bicycles rode with us (cycle cops) to ensure that there
was as little tension and confrontation as possible.

I have to say they were really excellent, I'm really impressed. They blended
in well with the ride, and yet they tried to be polite and reassuring to 
motorists too. They kept the traffic behind us calm and under control, they 
helped create a refreshing sense of peacefulness, and they made every 
effort to do this in a way that didn't violate the spirit of our ride.

Significantly, we continued to proceed through red lights, blockading 
traffic. Only now it wasn't technically illegal, nor was it dangerous: 
the usual Critical Mass method of blockading an intersection is for the 
whole pack to stop for a red light, and start moving through it only 
when it's green -- but the light will change while we're still crossing
and we simply continue to cross in a mass so dense that the cross-traffic
is completely blocked off. This is technically illegal because we don't 
have a parade license, and we're not a funeral procession (although today
I guess we were close).

What the officers did was quite brilliant: they let us continue as we always
have, except that they directed the cross-traffic to stop so that we didn't 
have to blockade it, and so that our actions were no longer technically 
illegal (now we're actually obeying an officer directing traffic.)

I have to say again that I'm really impressed by all of this -- it seems 
like a very sensible solution that lets the police participate to keep
things under control (it's not an illegal activity!) while allowing us 
to ride in the same spirit that Critical Mass has always had -- no defined
route, blockade traffic, ride around to demonstrate our right to the road.

Anyway. Enough bubbling over.

The second thing that was good about this ride was the growing involvement
of everyday cyclists -- historically the Critical Mass banner has been 
carried mostly by couriers, and it's good to see the movement broaden out 
into the general population of people who don't cycle for a living (like me.)
I think maybe a third of the people riding just randomly joined us as we 
rode past, saw us last month, or heard about it and came down.

Critical Mass happens once a month. Come and ride with us next time: we
start around 5:30 or 6pm on the last Friday of each month. Show up at the
Standby Cafe (Yonge & Tempereance, West side of Yonge between Richmond 
and Adelaide) and bring your bike. There's no official viewpoint -- if you
think it should be safer to cycle, if you think more people should ride
bikes, or you're just proud that you do, whatever you're reason, come out 
and ride in the critical mass. See http://www.semiotek.com/cm for more 
details.

We're not blocking traffic, WE ARE TRAFFIC.

Justin