Seattle on the Fringe by Stacey Merrick : Offbeat and Unusual Entertainment, Activities, Events, Attractions in Seattle, WA.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Critical Mass happens once a month in Seattle and all major cities in the U.S., and it's happening tonight.  The last Friday of every month, bicyclists gather downtown and take over the streets normally ruled by cars. 

How did this all begin?  According to wikipedia:

The first ride took place on Friday, September 25, 1992 at 6 P.M. in San Francisco. At that time, the event was known as Commute Clot and was composed of a couple dozen cyclists who had received flyers on Market Street.
Shortly after this, some participants in that ride went to a local bicycle shop for a screening of Ted White's documentary Return of the Scorcher, about bike culture overseas. In that film, American human powered vehicle and pedicab designer George Bliss noted that, in China, both motorists and bicyclists had an understood method of negotiating intersections without signals. Traffic would "bunch up" at these intersections until the back log reached a "critical mass" at which point that mass would move through the intersection. The term caught on and replaced Commute Clot as a name at the time of the second event.

By the time of the fourth ride, the number of cyclists had increased to around 100 and participation continued to grow dramatically, reaching about 1,000 riders, on average.

The name was soon adopted as a generic label by participants in similar but independent mass rides that were either initiated in various locations around the world at around the same time, or had already existed before 1992 under other names. It is estimated that there are Critical Mass-type rides in more than 325 cities to date. The term "Masser" is sometimes applied to frequent participants.

This is a social gathering and a protest.  The thing that bothers me about Critical Mass is sometimes some of the bicyclists get all riled-up and pick fights with people in cars, or vice versa.  Critical Mass blocks motor vehicle traffic, and this often causes tension between motorists and bicyclists.  I love how Critical Mass is a huge presence and makes people who do not ride bicycles aware of bicycles on the road.  However, I feel that when cyclists get aggressive towards motorists at bicycle protests, it only angers motorists and, thus, makes them even more disrespectful of bicycles on the road, which is very dangerous for cyclists.

In Seattle in the summer, there are often hundreds of cyclists on a Critical Mass ride.  However, according to faithful attendees of this event in Seattle, there are fewer bicyclists on the ride this time of year, due to rain and bad weather, and it will be a more mellow ride tonight than a ride in the summer.