queer-j brad | 25.02.2006 00:27

San Diego Critical Mass reclaimed the streets of San Diego as space for community activities and responsible transportation for a few hours Friday evening.

short quicktime clip of sd critical mass on university -

The ride started at the fountain north of the science center in balboa park and sliced west through the park to fifth. The riders self-organized a route north through hillcrest to university, east on university to 30th, south through north park and south park to broadway, and then west, south, north and east through downtown, the gaslamp and little italy. After an 1-1/2 hours, when i had a headlamp battery failure, the original 45 critical mass cyclists had dwindled somewhat to an enthusiastic 30.

In contrast to the many scowling faces in surrounding gas guzzlers, critical mass was putting out cheerful vibes, with frequent whoops echoing through the concrete jungles of the city. Pedestrians, gaslamp partyers and some drivers serenaded the critical mass with cheers, yells and friendly honks, although there were a few jeers from the suv crowd.

The messages of community and alternate modes of transportation expressed by some of the riders apparently were not being absorbed by the onlookers, who seemed genuinely clueless about what was going on. Those I talked to thought the riders were members of a bicycle club. Critical mass riders in many other cities pass out flyers to reinforce the messages they want to transmit.

Critical Mass originated in san francisco on sept 25, 1992. The name was taken from the classic ted white video, return of the scorcher, referring to the process by which cyclists navigated the free-for-all streets of china: to get past the stream of cars at intersections, the cyclists had to wait until they had sufficient numbers, until they reached a critical mass, and then they could proceed.

San Diego Critical Mass meets 7:00pm the last friday of each month at the fountain north of the science center in balboa park, adjacent to park blvd.

Critical Mass Resouces:
 http://www.critical-mass.org/
 http://www.critical-mass.info/
 http://www.scorcher.org/cmhistory/howto.html
 http://www.stillweridethemovie.com/
 http://www.tedwhitegreenlight.com/
 http://www.bclu.org/cm/july25.html
 http://www.scorcher.org/cmhistory/rainbow2.html
 http://guest.xinet.com/bike/newrider/
 http://www.videoactivism.org/criticaltips.html
 http://guest.xinet.com/bike/couch/
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Mass

e-mail:: queer-j-brad@riseup.net

Revving up Critical Mass 26.02.2006 15:58 After participatin in a Critical Mass SD ride, I have a few comments. First of all, if no one knows what you are doing or why, then how effective are you? Part of the problem here is that the ride is always in the dark. What about having an alternative ride on a Sunday afternoon or something? That way, you could arrive armed with signs and banners... plus flyers. The ride I participated in was probably 30 strong... but so solemn! Come on SD! How about some music? Can anyone bring a boom box? Are there any drummers in the area? Anyone have a bike trailer? How about some chanting? Sure, a nice quiet ride through San Diego is fun... for a bicycle club. What kind of message are we transmitting like this? bikelady re: Revving up Critical Mass 26.02.2006 20:35 hi bikelady - i agree that we need to work more on getting our messages out. signs (maybe lighted signs at night), flyers, slowing down and talking to pedestrians/drivers along the way, yelling, chanting all sound good. the ride doesnt reflect the diversity of san diego - maybe we could form alliances with groups from a range of neighborhoods and visit those neighborboods on the ride. i dont think we should just be riding through ritzy and touristy areas of the city. as for riding at night, the last friday of every month is the day that hundreds of critical mass rides take place across the globe. especially because many of these are under attack from the cops, i think that we should stick to friday nite ro maintain solidarity with these other rides. but this certainly does make the ride inaccessible to some people. what do other folks think? Chris Carlsson, who was in on the first critical mass ride, said (something like) "people in cars are our allies. anyone who is riding in a car is a victim of the oil and autmobile industries. they are not the enemy, they are us." i think we shouldnt try to challenge or piss off people in cars, but try to draw them in to our celebration. kwîr ri'krootur san francisco bike riders 26.02.2006 21:10 there was a similar group of bikers here in san francisco who just rode right through the heart of the Castro the other night while i was there visiting a friend. i thought the visual impact of seeing some 150-200 riders streaming by at 10pm at night on a friday was immense. i really was happy to see them, to see for once bikes and human faces speeding by -- so i wouldn't underestimate the message that is delivered merely by your presence. this is not to say that there might be some way of projecting your message more clearly to those who are less familiar with anti-car politics. perhaps a banner or lead bikes that have some thematic feature that invites attention and signals a deeper politics to the action? keep up the fight--San Diego is ready for it, felicia former san diego resident felicia The bickering shouldn't continue 27.02.2006 01:41 CM in San Diego has been abandoned by the typical build of people who in other cities make it a standard item every month as much as some go to church. SD Couriers, who run very standard races, don't come anymore. I haven't heard the name Charlie Darling in some time. He had the right ideas. CM composistion is of a varied nature, and so it should remain. It is less about a messages as a whole, and more of a whole message. The whole message is about "cycling is a viable alternative to your car". The Anti War, Anti Bush, Anti SUV, Anit Car, Anti Police, Anti this, anti that issues have been and will always be part of it. But those are the other political motivations. The encouragement I recieved when doing CM (currently service a 6 Month Sentence of sorts) was to enjoy, and bring a friend. Which I did, and do. The more we bring, the bigger message we send. There will always be clueless people. At one point we were handing out flyers ~ that should continue. The purpose is to demonstrate and advertise. If you don't like the methods, bring friends. If you think we're not loud enough, bring friends. If you do, bring friends. Bring Flyers. And ride. I've seen everything from 4K road bikes, the street beat fixie and sloppy walmart MTBs with wobbly wheels. Less talk about what it should be, and more ride. Hope to see everyone in July. Will I am Homepage:: bickering? 27.02.2006 15:05 I've been to a few CM's, and I totally agree with the comment about signs and music. I don't think its bickering, but valuable analysis of what we're doing. Isn't important to think about what you're doing and try to be effective? If its just about riding a bike, then as the other poster said, why not start a bike club instead of going to critical mass? The most common reaction we get is "what are you doing?". Even just a huge banner that says "critical mass" or some critical mass flags would be a huge improvement. I think the message that bikes are an important alternative to cars is tied directly to an anti-war, anti-bush, pro-environment message. why try to hard to make it a-political? the politics of critical mass were so clear in the film. i really hope it grows as well, as it can be so much fun and is an important message! if critical mass is "what you make it" then lets make it more of what we want! more info about times up:  http://www.times-up.org/about.php and Still We Ride:  http://www.stillweridethemovie.com/ sd@narchist