Green Thinking Blog

We have often talked about the pollution our vehicles create, the carbon credits you can purchase for offset, the things you can do yourself to stop contributing to the pollution of our air - but we have yet to really talk about a statement.  By a statement, I mean, an act to say what it is you are fighting for - the word protest is too strong, but statement suffices.

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to participate in Critical Mass.  For those of you who don’t know, Critical Mass or CM is an event that happens once a month, usually on the last Friday, to show cities how unfriendly they are to bicyclists.  Unfortunately, I was unable to attend this particluar event due to my work schedule, but have plans to attend in late September.  Even so, my boyfriend & some other friends did the ride & we have made lifelong friends from the after effects of the event.

The very first ride took place in September, 1992 in San Francisco.  The event grew from 100 riders to 1,000 after four rides that blocked intersections so successfully that it caused a “Critical Mass.”  Today, CM rides take place in an estimated 325 cities.  Without a designated route, riders can seperate and meet with the group again at any time, but this will avoid any sort of clamp by authorities.

The monthly event has been known to cause a ruckus in various cities.  Bikers have been attacked with force by police officers and impatient car drivers -causing damage to both bicycles and their riders and creating felony records for riders across the nation.

In my opinion, the most unique thing about Critical Mass is that it is not an organization.  It has no leaders, it has no specific direction. It is a single idea that has permeated throughout the world with the notion of making bike riding a more acceptable form of transportation.

If you are interested in looking into Critical Mass in your city, check out the directory. Or, check out Wikipedia for further detail on the vocab of this two-wheeled culture.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 at 8:36 pm and is filed under Fuel, Lifestyle, Peace, Pollution. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.