This is an account of my very first Critical Mass ride, which took place in Berkeley, California, on May 14, 1993.

Last Friday I went to the East Bay Critical Mass Ride. This is a monthly event in which cyclists do something that autos do on a regular basis: take to the road in large numbers during rush hour. This was my first time attending it.

What's the ride about? Well, there's a spectrum of opinion. Overall it's a demonstration to assert our right to the road. Some think the idea is to block traffic, whereas others (myself included) view it as an opportunity to visibly breeze through rush hour traffic jams. The bottom line for many is that it's a lot of fun and really pretty empowering to be riding down major streets with 150 fellow cyclists.

Starting at the Berkeley BART station, we headed south down Shattuck, a divided road. We made a left turn onto Ashby, where we were a bit closer to the traffic in the opposing lane, and could see the reactions on the drivers' faces:

"Maybe If I Don't Look They'll Go Away" -- This seems to be a more intense version of the donut glazed "eyes forward" look that some motorists affect when having to deal with a bike on the road.

Giggling-In-Their-Seats Glee -- These were the people who responded to our exhortations to "Get out of your car and ride a bike." Some of them actually made excuses! "Well, uh, I didn't buy this car, somebody gave it to me."

Smoldering Resentment -- Punctated with the occasional display of competence in the ever-so-crucial domain of horn-honking.

The cyclists had chants and slogans ready, most of which were mildly humorous exhortations to eschew cars for bicycles. We also had a handful of young obnoxious white males (YOWMs) telling people their cars were ugly and veering into the oncoming (but slow-moving) lane.

The theme of this ride was "Let's Obey The Traffic Laws," but after heading up College and then Telegraph, the cyclists at the front made a right turn onto Bancroft, taking the whole ride with them. Bancroft is a one way street -- the other way. This turned out not to be too eventful, what with traffic at a standstill anyhow.

We were accompanied by two Berkeley bicycle cops, and folks folks were tittering about them going the wrong way on Bancroft. They were actually serving as sort of an escort: one would head to an upcoming intersection, park his bike in front of cross- traffic, and wave us through the intersection.

Not everyone was thrilled about this. Some cyclists were basically anti-cop, some were just leery of them, and some felt they compromised our autonomy. One of them seemed pretty friendly and behaved as if unobtrusively along for the ride -- the other was more actively law 'n' order. (A variation on the ol' good cop/bad cop configuration?)

As we went through an intersection on Cedar, a resentful motorist (stuck behind a police bike) laid on his horn for about a minute. One of our cyclists, festooned with bits of text indicating he was "Pedalling Positive" (HIV+), wheeled over and let out a most impressive scream, louder than the horn and lasting at least as long! The furious driver told the cop he wanted to make a citizen's arrest.

We turned left on Shattuck, heading south again. We were being tailed by a police car, which was barking orders through a megaphone: "Keep to the right!" (we moved to the left); "Don't stop, keep moving!" (we all slowed down). About here the YOWMs started really harrassing the bike cops. Their gratuitous insults seemed as pointless to me as orders being barked at us ...

At University a bunch of us veered onto the sidewalk and yelled gratuitous insults at McDonald's. This was a lot of fun (and, therefore, less pointless). I was told that I'd missed out on the "drive throughs" on a previous ride. This ride, McDonald's had their doors locked. :-)

A right turn down University, and folks started in with the infamous "Two wheels good ... four wheels bad!" chant. I don't particularly want to identify with the pigs in Animal Farm, so I'm not wild about this chant. I was glad to see that it was being done with a sense of humor, almost zombie-like; but we are living in a post-literate/post-post-modern era, where the few who have read Animal Farm have to struggle to figure out whether this chanting is irony or a affectation of irony. Damned if I could tell ....

Triple-A came into view. "The auto club! The auto club! The evil auto club!!!" Half the cyclists pulled into the parking lot and screamed and whooped. Too bad the place was closed for the day and nobody was there to appreciate it.

Hanging a left onto San Pablo Avenue, our demographics came under scrutiny. A motorist of color called us "crazy white people on bicycles getting in my way!" In front of the Tea Spot, a woman on a bicycle scrutinized us, mumbling something about "dykes on bykes," perhaps looking for such a contingent.

I was glad to see that the ride was 30-40% female (and with luck, the YOWMs won't reduce these numbers any), but as far as I could see, all but one of us were white (unless you count the little kids who joined us on San Pablo). Methinks this aspect of the ride could use some work.

On San Pablo we had some more "drive through" sites: the "solar car wash" (quite refreshing), the Exxon station, and yet another McDonald's. Some riders had thoughtful conversations with the cops, while others kept up the gratuitous abuse. The cops parted company with the rest of the ride at the Oakland border.

From here we seemed to be meandering aimlessly. Up to Market Street, a U-turn back down Market Street, and then on into Emeryville. I didn't want to head back to my workplace, so that's where I split.

An interesting ride. As I said, it was quite enjoyable and empowering. I wasn't thrilled with all of the participants, but that's true of any demonstration. I give it: Two Thumbs Up!

Jym's Home Page   <   Critical Mass Page

jym©econet.org