Bicycle Austin forum

Tlep

Member

Registered: 2013-01-22

Posts: 19

Critical Mass- Austin, TX 6:00 p.m. 1/26/2013

here's a link to the facebook event page and the critical mass group page:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/austintxmass/?fref=ts
https://www.facebook.com/events/468286956565902/

Critical Mass is a monthly bicycle ride to celebrate cycling and to take back the streets.
We meet on the last Friday of every month (holiday or not, rain or shine) at 6:00 p.m. on the UT West Mall where it meets Guadalupe (between 22nd & 23rd Streets).

NOTE: This is a slow paced ride, all levels of cyclists are encouraged to come out and ride with us. so no rabbits please, we try to make this great for everyone. typically someone there will have tools as well. just sayin.

Who runs Critical Mass?

Nobody. There are no leaders. Anybody can ride, and whoever happens to be in the front of the mass usually determines the route. Riders are free to follow all traffic laws or break all the laws as they see fit, with each rider being responsible for his/her own actions. Riders can also try to convince fellow riders that they should take up all the lanes of traffic or that they *shouldn't* take up all the lanes of traffic.

What route do you take?

It's random. Sometimes busy streets, sometimes peaceful streets. Whoever's in front usually determines where we go. Often someone suggests a special destination, such as the site where a cyclist got hit by a car, a bank that doesn't allow cyclists to use the drive-thru, In the summer months, the ride usually ends at a swimming hole, like Barton Springs, the spillway, or Sunken Gardens.

What's the purpose?

Everyone has their own reasons for riding on Critical Mass. Some see it as a protest of cars, others just like to go on a fun bike ride. After being menaced every day by cars, many of us find it exhilirating to ride with 50-100 other cyclists in a fun, supportive atmosphere. Critical Mass doesn't have any specific agenda or goals. While most of us would like to see an end to the car culture, Critical Mass doesn't have a specific plan to hasten that goal; it's just a bike ride. (Although many of us do work with other organizations that have specific plans for increasing cycling access.)

What should I bring to a ride?

Water. You'll get thirsty.
Lights. From October through March, it gets dark early.
Noisemakers. Some 99-cent stores have packages of little tooter horns.
Friends. The more the merrier!

MichaelBluejay

Webmaster

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,466

Website

Re: Critical Mass- Austin, TX 6:00 p.m. 1/26/2013

Wow, it's funny to see the stuff I wrote back in the mid-1990s still being used to describe and promote Critical Mass.  But since this was copied from my original text:

Critical Mass doesn't have a specific plan to hasten that goal; it's just a bike ride. (Although many of us do work with other organizations that have specific plans for increasing cycling access.)

I have to ask, is that true again?  Because by the time I quit riding over a decade ago, none of the CM'ers were involved in advocacy.  All of the advocates had quit riding CM.

Tlep

Member

Registered: 2013-01-22

Posts: 19

Re: Critical Mass- Austin, TX 6:00 p.m. 1/26/2013

You know, probably not. I'll have to edit your original text to fit the modern day CM. I use your words from over a decade ago because I want Critical Mass to be the fun ride that it used to be. not the lawless "riot" of a ride that it became. It's absolutely tragic that such a great ride has such a bad reputation. In Austin, Texas of all places.... where we're supposed to have the most kick ass bicycling community ever. However, all I can see is small separate "cliques". It's just like high school. I'm sorry, but last I checked, I hadn't been in high school for years. Quite ridiculous how much drama bikes can bring to a city... more like the people who ride those bikes per say.

Last edited by Tlep (2013-01-24 23:32:02)

dougmc

Administrator

Registered: 2008-06-01

Posts: 631

Re: Critical Mass- Austin, TX 6:00 p.m. 1/26/2013

I still go, some of the time anyways.  I advocate for bicycles, am a LOBV member (but am not a particularly active member) so maybe I count.  Barely. :)

I wasn't riding in it or doing any sort of advocacy a decade ago, however.

MichaelBluejay

Webmaster

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,466

Website

Re: Critical Mass- Austin, TX 6:00 p.m. 1/26/2013

I'd say you're more involved than most!  You promote lots of local rides, you serve as photo-historian, you help out with this forum and the email list, and you actively discuss bike advocacy on this forum -- plus other stuff that I'm probably unaware of.

Anyway, what's CM like these days?  Do tell.

dougmc

Administrator

Registered: 2008-06-01

Posts: 631

Re: Critical Mass- Austin, TX 6:00 p.m. 1/26/2013

If pictures are worth 1,000 words each, here's a lot of words.

Well, a few years ago it had hundreds of riders, then it sort of fizzled out mostly due to the TNSR I think.  There were months that nobody showed up.  But now it's growing again, I'd say thanks mostly to Tlep's active promoting of it.  If Facebook is any indication, there could be 60+ people there tonight, which would be more than has been there in over a year.

As for what it's like, it's gotten a bit fast in the last few years, and I think that's another part of why it got small -- new people got dropped so they didn't come back.  Though that's improved a little in the last few months.  And there's too much stopping and not enough riding, but that's always been the case in Austin for as long as I've been on it.

The "strict adherence to traffic laws" is pretty much the same as it's always been, but the "fuck cars!" attitude has been toned way down lately (which is a very good thing).  I haven't seen any real "drama" in quite some time, which is also a good thing -- the riders are generally friendly to everybody (as it should be) though they will respond in kind if somebody else starts out unfriendly (which is less than ideal.)

Five years ago when I started it was a "party on wheels" with a few hooligans looking for opportunities to cause trouble.  It's now more tame, but perhaps headed back to the "party on wheels" status, and so far the hooligans seem to be gone.

Certainly I've never seen the sort of melee that happened back in 2001 in any of those five years, but there was that incident where that guy pulled a gun a few years back.  Lots of mistakes were made by him and many of the riders that day, and I think that one incident also prompted a lot of people to not come back.

Critical Mass in Houston is freakin' huge, over 1000 riders.  It's pretty much like the TNSR is today, but even bigger and traffic laws are broken with gusto and it's even more of a party on wheels.  It clogs up roads for quite some time even without trying -- I'm sort of surprised that the police have mostly left it alone.  Still, the attitude seemed good -- I didn't notice people looking for opportunities to cause trouble, and people were friendly to each other and to the drivers.