You are hereWhat to do about Critical Mass? That's up to y'all...
What to do about Critical Mass? That's up to y'all...
CM rant in 3, 2, 1...
If you've followed some of the discussion since last months' Critical Mass ride, you know that there's been a lot of heated debate about CM's past, future, and the state of the event. We've seen commentary from both sides of the windshield, and for the most part everyone's raised a lot of good points. Some people have called for a more-legal Critical Mass ride, others say they want it the way it was: wilder, totally unplanned, more actual riding, and to hell with "themed" events! Still others think the event should go away entirely! I've weighed in a with my opinion here and there, but haven't properly ranted on the subject yet. Until now...
I love Critical Mass. LOVE IT. I've only been riding for 2 years now, but it's EASILY been my favorite group ride of them all. It's wild, chaotic, and we never know where it's going. And all that is a GOOD THING! In the past 2 years I've seen the rides grow from 50 people to over 500 people, and in that time there have been a lot of changes happening, some good, some bad.
Lately there have been rumblings about the way the ride is turning into a big carbon-copied stop-fest, where we always take the same routes down Guadalupe, around the circle, stop at a park, go up congress, stop at the capitol, ride 6th st, stop at a park, and in between we stop, stop, and stop. Where's the RIDE? I love the camaraderie and the fun, party attitude of the rides but if there's so little RIDING what's the point? If we're sitting round in a park we aren't being SEEN, and isn't that what it's about? Don't get me wrong, I love hanging out at the capitol and I enjoyed the circle the first half-dozen times in a row we did it, but why not go somewhere else for a change? Downtown Austin knows about Critical Mass, but does The Domain? How about the Triangle? Some of the freshly-gentrified and white-washed east side? There are plenty of other heavily-trafficked areas of town that could use a healthy dose of Critical Mass, why not give it to them?
Another thing people have commented about quite a bit has been the increase in corking lately, which seems to draw the ire and attention of the police like nothing else. Some things that specifically stood out to me in the emails/comments on the subject were:
...now we have people darting from the middle of the pack, practically causing bike collisions every time, to "cork" intersections...
...Corking has always been done for as long as I remember but not every one did it and it was only done when needed now we got people darting all over the place and doing it very aggressively...
I think that's a very good point. The entire point of corking is to make passage for bicycles safer, but if the corkers are causing safety issues by randomly swerving off to the sides and endangering other bikers, why even do it? I think that corking helps, but if it's done in a dangerous way it's a detriment to other cyclists. I'm not saying don't cork, just watch out for others when you do it, and always watch out for the cops.
The state of things these days is that collectively we're bigger than ever, while the cops are on high notice and have made it clear that they WILL be ticketing/arresting for traffic violations. What does this mean for us, and what happens if the cops decide to REALLY crack down on the ride and show up in full force? Well, that happened about 8 years ago and here's what went down then...
History of Critical Mass in Austin, Texas from Simon Evans on Vimeo.
If you're a regular rider you may even recognize a few (somewhat younger) faces in the video. This clip really highlights what Critical Mass is all about, and that's (in the words of Michael Bluejay) "to have fun"! Also beyond the police crackdown during the earlier days of Austin's CM, it touches on the division in the local cycling community over the validity/purpose/results of the Critical Mass rides, which at the time raised many of the same issues we're struggling with today. Check it out, lots of good food for thought as well as a scary vision of what the cops are capable of when left unchecked. That's why it's so important for people to bring CAMERAS!
I guess the bottom line is: what's the point? What do WE want out of Critical Mass? This isn't about what I want, what you want, what the old fogies want, or what the new blood wants; it's about all of us, collectively. No leaders, no routes, no destinations, no aggression, no worries, just RIDE! That's what I want to see, how about y'all? Do you LIKE hitting the circle every month and waiting for everyone to congregate at the capitol for 30 minutes? Do you want to ride, ride, ride until everyone's spent? Let me know.
DEATH TO CRITICAL MASS, LONG LIVE CRITICAL MASS!
I loved the part where the dude got his bike ran over. That's what he deserves.
How about this. I am going to get a tricycle and ride up and down the bike lanes and block you guys from pedaling so fast. Would you like that?
Why don't you just get in your SUV and drive up and down Guadalupe and block me from pedaling so fast? I love it, thats why I got a bike, I can go around you. But seriously, I love trikes! Do it!
I've been living in Austin for over 5 years now, but I finally got around to doing my first CM in Austin 2 months ago. Usually I don't get off work early enough. I gotta say I'm not too interested in doing it again. Like others have said, there wasn't enough actual riding. I couldn't believe how many times we stopped and the length of the stops, and from what I've heard from others that is fairly typical. I know those fixed-gears are hard to ride, but do you need that many breaks? It seemed like we would only start moving again when the cops would show up. I'll skip the usual opinions about the usefulness of CM, but my main issue is that it was a boring ride. It's certainly not worth taking the chance of getting randomly arrested or hit by a pissed off driver. There are plenty of other great rides in Austin that involve actual riding, and don't have the baggage of CM.
Now I'm going riding. See you out there.
It's not really about the fixies -- some of those guys can ride a hundred miles without breaking a sweat. But there's a pretty significant number of people who really don't ride often, and can't go fast, and probably do benefit from frequent breaks. But I imagine a 5 minute break would be fine -- no need for a 30 minute one.
As for being arrested, the cops don't arrest (or even ticket) random riders. If they do it, they go for somebody corking or somebody being extra flagrant about breaking the law. And if the mass does something you don't approve of, it's pretty easy to just pull off to the side and wait. If you don't cork and don't push your luck, the odds of you getting arrested are about nil and getting a ticket are pretty small. (I for one don't buy the one cop's claim that they'll be arresting for red light running.)
As for the pissed off driver, again, don't cork and don't do stupid or belligerent things and you won't have any problems with them.
In any event, maybe the next ride will have more riding and less stopping. Certainly, a number of people seem to have expressed a desire for that, and will probably be trying to make it happen.
The fixie thing was a joke, but the important part of your sentence is "some of those guys", not all. I want everyone to ride, but if you're gonna do a ride like CM you should be able to go further than whole foods to the capitol without needing a 30 minute break. Especially if you're gonna do it on a bike that belongs on a velodrome.
As for cops, plenty of people on CM complain that cops go for random people. This isn't new. People have been complaining about it for years, but when I use it to knock your ride you deny it? As for the pissed off drivers, I've ridden plenty and I'm sure you have as well to know that drivers get pissed off and do stupid shit for no reason. They don't look for the one guy that is corking them- they just hit whomever happens to be near them. This is all stuff that CM riders have been complaining about for years, but when I use it to complain about the lameness of the ride you all of a sudden start defending the actions of cops and drivers?
Face it, for a lot of people Critical Mass has become more about showing off their new IRO and picking fights with drivers, and little to do with representing the rights of cyclists. Apparently you've become so desperate to defend this ride that you are now defending the actions of cops and pissed off drivers. I want to support Critical Mass, but it was ruined a long time ago. Too many people use it to vent their anger at the end of the week, not to get outside and show everyone that we just love riding our bikes. I have found plenty of other rides in Austin that do that, so I have no need for Critical Mass. It has had troubles for years, so why should I believe it's going to change anytime soon?
If you have only been on one? For a lot of people, CM is about drinking beer and hooking up and acting like a fool -- it's a hell of a party. I think that is why we have been stopping so frequently and so long recently. For a lot of people, it's about taking the opportunity that CM provides to go on a great ride where the bike/car ratio is reversed. There really just aren't many hardcore anti-car people. Most activists don't bother coming out any more for the several reasons discussed elsewhere. Every single "fight" I've seen has been instigated by aggressive motorists. Sure, I've seen people get buzzed or charged or rammed and then get aggro. It happens.
If you don't like it, don't come. Go on those other rides. Which ones are they?
If you want to make CM something better, lighten up a little and try making some constructive comments. Or go check out M13K's blog, you'd probably get along.
Personally I have a ton of fun on these rides and sadly missed most of the last one due to a "mechanical." I don't really care where it goes as I enjoy this mostly because of the company; the culture jamming and 'making a statement' are really ancillary to me. Even if I don't always say hi (I'm kinda shy believe it or not) I love every single one of you that I have met in my year of mass.
That said, and as most of these comments seem to say, the route is stale. Let's get out of downtown, they already know about us. Thing is, downtown is easy, and I would say relatively safe. As much of a clusterfuck as Lamar and 6th can be, most of those drivers are traveling at low speeds and are well aware of cyclists on the road. Moving outside our usual route requires doing things like crossing major corridors or taking high traffic roads. I would love to take the mass up to Walnut Creek or something but can you imagine hundreds of riders going up North Lamar at rush hour? It would be awesome in terms of visibility AND getting the attention of thousands of new motorists but I would not be comfortable with the risks involved when dozens of novice riders are fending for themselves amongst traffic that is not so used to dealing with bikes on the road. There are alternatives, but I don't want to end up dropping 2/3's of the riders. So we have to compromise. Here is an example route I tried to cook up, I would love to hear comments or see other proposals.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2712688
You can use that website to map routes and share them with others, so let's see where you would want to ride!
As far as running red lights/corking goes, I guess I'll throw in my two cents. When riding by myself, I usually make a case by case decision whether to stop for any particular signal based on many factors. On the last several masses, I have been trying to be vocal about getting people to stop for lights, but when I'm at the front and get the first three dozen riders to stop and then 10 who were out of my shouting range roll up and roll through, it's made the whole effort counterproductive because now some people go and some people stop and everyone is confused, especially the motorists. I don't want to put a cramp on anyone's riding style -- as far as I'm concerned if you want to blow the light blow it -- but a more cohesive style might be easier on the Mass.
Alright, whew.
What's that I smell?
AAAARRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
FULL MOON PINKS!
PAX
KEVIN
im all for this new ride. however 13miles can be tough for newcomers. what plans do you have set up? there's actually a really nice public area in the mueller redevelopment.
i guess the next question is how you propose getting people to follow you..
i don't know about all this "critical mass is supposed to be" stuff that's being said here in the comments - i think it has a lot of different meanings for the hundreds of people that do it. someone of you want to put a happy face on biking for the cars to see. others want to chant shit. others want to spit on cars and snarl up traffic for as many miles as they can. others still want to just ride their bikes and have fun. if you want critical mass to take a right next time, get up there with a few of your friends and start yelling and herding people to the right. maybe they'll go that way, maybe they won't. sometimes, whoever yells the loudest wins. sometimes, they just lose their voice.
let's go ride.
It is obvious that the surging growth in cyclists participating in Critical Mass is becoming a large part of the problem that we've seen over the last few rides. I used to not participate in Critical Mass rides for the same reasons that a lot of cyclists choose not to. Admittingly, I was hooked when I finally did, but I will admit, I think there is a better way to participate in Critical Mass that stays true to its calling but doesn't give the cause a bad name.
Honestly, the routes that we are riding are the biggest causes for concern. As its already been said by many, let's do something new. Fuck downtown and the round-about and the Capitol all together. I'm tired of spending more time at rest stops than actually riding. There are so many other roads and routes that we could collectively ride on and ACTUALLY ride without bringing on the bad name that Critical Mass is becoming. Let's get out there and ride 360. Lets ride out to Manor. Fuck it, let's just ride in circles on the Veloway! Anything but downtown guys, please? All I am saying is keep it fresh and keep it fun. Who wants to ride with the risk of arrest? Sadly, I'm debating not riding this month myself if we're just gonna roll south on Guadalupe and do the same ole shit. It's played out and it's obviously pissing people off.
If it means that the scope of Critical Mass changes, that may be a good thing. People who actually want to ride long rides and get out there would be inclined to stick around and the people who just do Critical Mass to see what all this buzz is about, as fun as it is, it's not helping the cause. This might mean that less people participate or drop off the further we get out there, but as someone who wants to RIDE, I don't think that would be such a bad thing.
Give downtown a rest....
Oh yeah, and I really love themed rides. It makes it all the more fun! I liked someone's idea a while back of a beach bum ride. Just think: swim suits, floaties, and bad sun burns! Might as well bike to a body of water...
The best way to stick it to APD is to aggressively stop (everybody stop) at every red light. If the light is yellow, treat it like a red and STOP. Michael Bluejay is correct, if we stop at every red, traffic will be much, much worse. Treat it as a protest and don't give APD a chance to haul another poor cyclist to the pokey. Stop, baby, stop! Let's hit every red light we can and COME TO A DEAD STOP!
I definitely want to ride far, and maybe a touch faster than the 7-8mph we average for a large portion of the rides. I think we need to cut the crap with hogging the road in certain places - if there are multiple lanes, we should ideally only be occupying one. I had more fun in So. Austin on this last trip - I like when we ramble through residential neighborhoods, mainly because more happy people (ie not in cars, or not caring about going fast in cars) see us and are happy to see us. As a general rule, I like the idea of not screwing up larger roads like Lamar for a majority of the ride. Most of the residential areas are genuinely more fun than the larger roads to ride on, and many of them have speed limits of 20-25mph, speeds a bicycle can approach somewhat easily. There is a lot of the city I haven't seen yet on CM - most of the northern east side out around Bartholomew and Mueller, some of the north stuff up around Walnut Creek, lots of South Austin. We don't visit a lot of parks on rides, usually just the capital and sometimes parts of Barton Creek/Zilker. We could hit up eastwoods, some of the more picturesque cemetaries, some of the greenbelts. People would see us going there, but I like the idea of sometimes having a destination for the mass (or a few) so people see us going somewhere - cyclists with a purpose. CM can be a very effective event to show people that we are just a bunch of fun loving cyclists who want the city to know we are here, and we do ride. Antagonizing people/cars who aren't being provocative in the first place is largely what creates the negative response, and cutting down on that would help a lot.
'I would rather die on my feet than to live on my knees' It is a true protest and after 48,000 auto related deaths, billions to Arab-oil, and the poisoning of my planet it's a war also so...hide if you can't hang but chose a side...PRO CM WILLIAM KERN
I like raising hell like everyone else but I don’t want to put myself in danger riding with Crit Mass. This is probably the biggest reason I haven’t rode with ya’ll yet. I’m not passing judgement, but the roads are dangerous enough without a couple of us cyclists being aggressive to the damn drivers who are rushing to get home on a Friday afternoon. I’ve seen some aggressiveness from cyclists on the midnight cruises (ex: surrounding cars, yelling at drivers) before and sometimes it makes me embarrassed to be associated with the ride. I just don’t want people to hate us, I get enough of that from Cap Metro and other impatient drivers on the South Congress bike lane! Yeah, awareness and common sense is the key. Not stupidity or aggression.
-Jessica
bike nerd fo' life, yo
I like good rides with good people but that's not what I'm seeing. We're supposed to be riding to promote bicycle awareness - we have the same right to the road as cars. However, people forget that in addition to these rights come laws by which we must abide. We wind up pissing off more people than we convert to our cause.
The belief that "safety in numbers" grants us the right to break traffic laws is flawed. If you mix 20 bicyclists and a pissed off driver, the only numbers that matter are the weight of his/her car and how many airbags your bike comes with. That said, I run reds like everyone else solely because I'd be more of a danger to the other riders if I were to stop.
Once this mob mentality takes hold, all hell breaks loose. I see no reason to take up all of the lanes, let alone riding into oncoming traffic. I don't approve of corking but if you're going to do it, do it properly. For example, preventing eastbound cars from turning south is pointless if we're headed north. I saw that happening last month and thankfully someone pointed it out to him and he had the decency to move.
We're trying to make pro-bicycling changes and I like that. It's how we're going about accomplishing these goals that doesn't sit right with me.
There's a difference between being noticed and being a nuisance.
Going somewhere else sounds good to me. For starters, when we hit Guadalupe -- GO NORTH! That small thing ought to make a huge difference in how the ride turns out. I've seen this billboard plenty of times now! Or skip Guadalupe entirely, go back into UT once! The Domain and the Triangle would be awesome!
Last month's ride was a nice change -- the route was a little different.
I don't really care for the roundabout -- it's rude to tie it up for 5-10 minutes. Sure, we're traffic, but normal traffic doesn't do that. The same goes for the parking garage at Whole Foods -- that was funny the first time, but after that it was just silly.
The Capitol is a nice place to stop if we're in the neighborhood, but let's keep it around 10 minutes rather than 30 minutes. Same goes for other stops.
As for the corking, it may be the thing that people complain about the loudest, but if it was stopped, they'd just complain about all the cyclists running the red light instead. I don't see where stopping the corking would improve relations that much. As for the red light running, many cyclists do that by themselves, even the `lance wannabees', and I don't see that stopping -- though I would suggest that if the people in front of the mass hit a red light, wait, even if there's no cross traffic -- it's a good time to let people regroup anyways.
If you are going to cork, consider that if the police catch you, the charges are a Class B misdemeanor -- you won't get a ticket, you'll go to jail (unless the cop cuts you a break and tickets you for a lesser offence.) It's the same class of charge as a DWI, to put it into perspective. Running a red light is a much less serious charge. And if the police do see the mass go by and see one guy corking and eight guys run red lights -- guess who they're going to stop? Consider the risks before you do it. Considering that most of the tickets and arrests have happened on Congress street, I'd suggest trying extra hard to keep things legal downtown. In fact, I'd suggest not hanging around downtown at all. Sure, go through it, that's fine, but going up one street, down the next, up the next ... all that does it annoy people, including the riders in the mass.
And most people are nice to the drivers, but a few aren't. Some people like to cuss out the guys in the cars for honking or just being in the wrong place, or will smack the cars with their hands (usually doesn't leave a dent, but makes the driver wonder) -- don't do that. Just smile and wave, have a nice friendly chat with them if you're stopped and their window is open. If they're not friendly, smile and leave. And if you see another rider being a jerk (even if the guy they're being a jerk to deserves it), suggest they cut it out as it makes the whole ride look bad.
I'd rather ride 30 miles than 10 miles, and I'd prefer the stops be kept short. But that's just my opinion, and I realize that others may not share it.
After seeing Acevedo speak at the ACA meeting I have never felt stronger about Critical Mass as an important way of raising bicycling issues in Austin. Acevedo not only demonstrated his poor knowledge of bicycling issues and laws, he also had no response to improving cycling in Austin.
I ride in CM because I believe in shifting the Overton Window (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window) on bicycling issues in Austin. Similar to what neocons did to politics between 2000 and 2006, I find CM as a tool of bringing "fringe" bicycle issues into the mainstream. Perhaps the riders themselves won't accomplish anything political, but the raised awareness allows for more progress for advocacy groups as well as intracity orgs.
That said, I do think the ride should veer off the standard path. That roundabout sucks, and the ride should probably consider interacting with traffic in other parts of town. The corking could be stopped (and should be stopped) if the riders up front slowed down and kept the group together.
At around 10:30 in that video, you hear one officer say, "You have to ride single-file as close as you can to the right of the road." I like to think bicycle riding in Austin has come a long way from that 1994 law.
Critical Mass isn't doing anything to help bicycle issues in Austin. If you piss people off, they aren't going to want to help you. I don't understand why people can't see this logic.
If you planned a route beforehand, stopping at lights wouldn't be a big deal, and everyone would be happy. Sure, it'd be less spontaneous, but I think you'd be pretty pissed if people started having spontaneous group drives and ignored stop lights. Purposefully and unnecessarily pissing off people whose support you need to get things done is a dumb idea. You're pushing bicycle issues *out* of the mainstream, not into it.
"Critical Mass isn't doing anything to help bicycle issues in Austin." -natrius
I would like to hear a long list of what _is_ helping bicycle issues in Austin. I would also like to hear what you are doing to help bicycle issues in Austin, beyond setting an example by bicycling yourself.
dear fellow teacher. what exactly are you doing to help the youth of today beyond being an inspirational educator in the classroom?
dear fellow father. what exactly are you doing to illustrate to your son how to properly treat women besides being a kind, loving and respectful husband to your wife?
dear fellow biker. what exactly "are you doing to help bicycle issues in Austin beyond setting an example by bicycling yourself?"
Tom was acknowledging that simply bicycling yourself helps. And it does, but there's a lot more that can be done.
And Tom does more. He's on the Austin Bicycling Advisory Council, he's on the LOBV board of directors and he's involved with the Orange Bike Project. And that's just what he's doing now that I know of -- he's done a lot more in the past as well.
So, you mentioned `fellow teachers'. Are you a LCI bicycling instructor? They do classes in Austin once or twice a month now. You mentioned a `fellow father' -- do you have kids, are you teaching them to ride, or riding with them rather than shuttling them about in your car? That helps too.
Riding your bike is good. Riding with CM may be good or may be bad -- there's room for both
interpretations there. But beyond that, there's a whole lot more that can be done, if you've got the time and the skills (and really, even without the skills, there's plenty of things you can do, where you can pick up any needed skills as you go.)
Just trying to illustrate that the simple act of riding a bike is meaningful, in and of itself. Every trip we take, be it alone to the grocery store or to the capitol "en Mass", carries with it a message. It's up to those of us riding everyday to define what messages we are sending out to the community.
Of course there is much to be done and many ways to apply oneself. But don't underestimate the power of that lone standard bearer pedalling to work, because for better or worse, that's how most us are making the majority of our trips and that's when we really are most "visable" (in a manner of speaking). I've seen first hand the influence we can have on neighbors, co-workers, and strangers alike just by doing what it is we do every day.
Not to get all heavy or sentimental on you all. Be safe and have fun out there, everyone. Spring is here and the riding is sublime!
I'm trying to understand the perspective of those who complain that Critical Mass isn't helping or it's hurting but then also don't have any other suggestions to offer. Nor do some of these complainers really seem to have much knowledge of how bicycling has grown in Austin and elsewhere. Notably, some vocal (and silent) critics do have much to say. I think it's even fine to complain about CM and still not have anything constructive to offer instead, but such complaints usually indicate a lack of understanding of the subject.
Someone I know said that CM had a positive purpose at one point, but now it has lost its worth. He doesn't like Critical Mass, but he understands many things about it.
I almost didn't mention the "beyond setting an example by bicycling yourself" part because I thought it might be misconstrued. I just wanted to be clearer about what I was asking. I said that because I wanted to be clearer that my question was specifying that bicycling in Austin doesn't survive, thrive, or grow just because a few percent of people take part in the activity. It actually has required a lot of work from local volunteers for decades, many of whom
Some apt analogies to the cynic above:
Teachers: A teacher cannot teach without students. If the students are forced into work at a young age, then the teacher needs to do more than just "teach" in order to actually serve the function of a "teacher".
Fathers: It would be silly to suggest that the son couldn't ask his father questions. If the father could only teach strictly by example, the father would be silent.
And.... Bicyclists: We have the work of many advocates to thank that bicycles are even allowed on the roads in Texas. Really. We have it as good as we do because of the work of people ten, twenty, thirty, forty, and fifty years ago. Then imagine into the future of Austin. What if the modal split of bicycles were at 15% in Austin of 2030? Setting an example by bicycling is the _most_ important "work" to do, but it is nowhere near enough to actually maintain and improve conditions in Austin.
I will point out that I don't think bicyclists, in general, should feel compelled to be active in the bicycling community. I found that I had the time so I starting helping the other local volunteers. Not everyone needs to be so involved. I will challenge people who complain though, because somewhere in a complaint is something constructive that has much more potential to help the situation and the complainer.
I still would like to hear what anti-CM folks here think does help bicycling in Austin. Bonus points for what could serve as a real substitute for CM. What plausibly could all those CM riders be doing instead? What would make them do something different?
Thanks yo...someone needs to say it..What are you complaining fux doin...