Cycling City - Critical Mess

Here's an amusing little quandary for Cllr Jon Rogers and Bristol's Cycling City leadership. They've just launched a new web site, called Better by Bike, as reported on on this blog back in September. Unlike previous Cycling City web sites this one is intended to allow a certain degree of public participation, at least in terms of posting details of forthcoming events and rides. No doubt this is in response to Jon Rogers' wish for the project to be more open and to embrace the wider cycling public.



But straightaway the principle of openness is put to the test. Someone has posted details of all the forthcoming Critical Mass bike rides on the Better by Bike events list. Now for those of you that don't know Critical Mass is pretty controversial since it involves a large group of cyclists completely taking over the section of roadway they are using, typically spreading out to occupy two or three traffic lanes to block any overtaking by motorists. To some extent this is a necessary tactic to keep the ride as one coherent body and not allow it to become fragmented.



Needless to say some of the motorists stuck behind a Critical Mass ride and reduced to a snail's pace for anything up to, what, a few minutes (shock, horror) don't appreciate this tactic and tend to express their frustration by illegal horn sounding and, given half a chance, aggressive overtaking. On occasion things can get nasty and violent confrontations have ensued, although that is certainly not the objective of Critical Mass. This facebook site gives more background to Bristol Critical Mass.



Like many cyclists I've always had mixed feelings about the event. It's good to get together with other cyclists once a month to enjoy that fabled 'safety in numbers' and to create a different kind of street culture for a couple of hours. But I've never been comfortable with the inevitable (?) confrontation with motorists. I know they bring the whole city to a standstill twice a day for 250 days of every year but even so I can't help wondering if aggravating them serves any useful purpose.

Anyway back to Jon Rogers and Cycling City. How are they going to react to discovering that they are using council resources to host details of such a controversial event as Critical Mass? Openness is all very well in theory but when it means advertising Critical Mass on a council web site even a liberal democrat like Jon Rogers might have second thoughts. My guess is that Critical Mass will be scrubbed from Better by Bike by noon on Monday.

Pics from Bristol Critical Mass summer 2009

Critical Mass - cycling as it should be

Perfect weather, smiling faces and part of the Rinky-Dink bicycle sound system greeted the best part of 100 cyclists who turned out for Friday's Critical Mass bike ride. Critical Mass is a regular feature in many cities around the world and has been celebrated in Bristol on and off for about 15 years. The object is to celebrate cycling and to show how different the city would be if cyclists were the dominant form of road traffic.



Of course not everyone sees it that way and motorists in particular can get frustrated that they are being delayed, although that's not the express intention of the ride. There have been unpleasant incidents in the past when motorists have tried to force their way through the cyclists, but yesterday seemed to go relatively smoothly. The general impression was of a bunch of cyclists taking over the road and enjoying themselves.



I broke off to take a few snaps from various vantage points like the pedestrian bridges over Rupert Street and Lewins Mead and it was an impressive sight. My feeling is that Critical Mass is becoming less confrontational and more celebratory over time, which is as it should be. There will always be motorists who object to being held up once a month, but they should reflect on their own Critical Mass, aka the rush hour, which brings most of the city to a standstill twice every day.



So it seems like the time is right to expand the appeal of Critical Mass so that instead of a hundred cyclists we have a thousand. Perhaps we might even get a more supportive attitude from the police, dealing promptly with any aggression from motorists. I'm sure they'd be welcomed by everyone if they came on bicycles. Critical Mass is about cultural change, something that we undoubtedly need and something that happens whether we like it or not.



As cyclists we are doing no more than motorists routinely do - taking to the streets and showing what our culture is about. Motorists are inconvenienced, but to a minuscule extent compared to what they in turn inflict on our city daily. Critical Mass gives us all the chance, just once a month, to have a taste of how different things could be, which is surely something we all need to explore.

Critical Mass starts at 6 pm on the last Friday of each month, starting at the Centre opposite the Hippodrome. See you on the 26th June.