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2011-05-03

Critical Mass - it's huge and it's spreading !:)))

future is close now :))


Everybody knows that we seriously need a change in our western lifestyle. This could be painful some might think - cycling however is giving totally refreshing answers to many of the problems of our overgrown civilization :) Totally positive answers! Solutions that'll liberate and spice up just about everybody's life :) In short: cycling is cool !:) Cycling is fresh and (surprisingly) NEW. Cycling is fashion. After cars, TVs, PCs, laptops and cells bicycles are now the latest "must have" trend - and Critical Mass is the movement that's been spreading it :))))
Budapest Critical Mass (twice in a year (only)) has been known for its huge numbers (82 000 for example). Now organizers have stated that the movement has reached its goals and now its finished ... Sort of - leaving the future open :) So this Budapest Critical Mass was entitled: "the First Last Critical Mass " (see this video of the event). Fortunately it was no saying goodbye, hopefully it was just the start of something new - maybe the next level ...

Speaking of which, Critical Mass have come a long way (even in Budapest where the first one took place in 2004) so it could be good to give some thinking (again) to what Critical Mass is ... goals, rules, philosophy and even policy ... 


 
What we see today is a worldwide change. Just look at the great SF CM epicenter, look at one of their recent post on facebook "theriotisover bike love begin" (see here) :)) Very-very powerful statement !:)) SF is the origin, the birthplace of CM ever since - so if they say so ... :))
(BTW: did you know that in San Francisco on the "bike to work" day cyclist make 75% of the traffic ? :)) "we are traffic" indeed :)))

Critical Mass In London has become ever so festive while keeping to the semi-classic rules with "corking" , revolting mass-leaders, and random where-to targets. You watch their video and you wanna be there and as of April 2011 London CM is coincided with a Royal Wedding and since London's going to host the Olympic and ParaOlympic games in 2012 the city will probably do some neat things in terms of cycling and commuting :)
Watching the London CM vidz you'll notice that police is sometimes helping massers with corking, and also the conflicts with car drivers trend to settle more vividly than ever (at least part of it owing to the fact there's dozens of cameras and cells rolling at a time :)).


You sense a great change everywhere. Cyclists' communities are confronting very inspiring philosophical, "political", "tactical" challenges. In SF there was a CM protest against high gas prices, which is weird in a way if you think, but the cool part is that SF cyclists do :) Last year London cyclist had a CM against British Petrol - on account of the oil "leak" (flood) disaster. In Budapest local-global GAS company is challenging cyclists communities with their campaign: they're selling bicycle tubes and stuff that cyclists might need - at their gas station which all in all translates to "gas stations welcome cyclists".
Somehow it's like the same thing was happening everywhere. What could this thing be? The ending of the era of oil dependency perhaps? Maybe cycling has overgrown its previous status of being just a viable alternative and it's now rendering car driving to a nasty old habit while putting cars on the endangered specie's list :) Critical Mass Oslo had this post lately of an article about European Union to zero down gas and diesel vehicles by 2050 (i.e. in less than 39 years no cars like today's will be allowed :))).

No wonder why in many cities (New York, London, Budapest for certain) police took this habit of ticketing cyclists in a form of a campaign (good thing that New York cyclists made a precedent on suing the city on ticketing - with success :)) In Budapest cyclists' spring out was (meant to be :)) decelerated by a month long police campaign doing equipment checking and alcohol test on cyclists !! (based on totally forged statistics). Surely, Hungarians are top 2 in alcoholism but not Hungarian cyclists, also, it's not the people and not the alcohol that kills in the street but the vehicles and it'd be nice to consider to provide a million times safer alternative for all those people going out for parties to come home safe by bike instead of driving their cars when wasted - a drunk cyclist just won't kill anybody :)))



Whatever police do a huge cultural change going on. A huge change in the culture, greater than anything we could have witnessed so far. Superpowers like Google's Youtube took the gloves and have their video categories starting at "A" - with "autos and vehicles" (obviously forcing it to the first place, that's why they don't offer ART as a category either which would be before "autos" not to mention "cars" :)). While Youtube still refuses to offer "cycling & commuting" as a video category it's just gaining a wider and wider popularity on Youtube and everywhere else. Cycling has become so URBAN, so obviously inseparable from urban commuting that we can say we really got somewhere by now :)))

In the midst of this huge change one may think about what Critical Mass really is or/and can be?
Ted White's classic films are still on, original SF CM thoughts and ideas are still on, for sure. But now that Budapest CM-ers made this statement that today is a turning point we have reasons to think (as always :)).


The original goal was (in one's humble interpretation) to spread a message that "we are traffic" instead of blocking it. The original goal was to "reclaim the streets". To demonstrate for the cities and for ourselves that we are many, we are masses. This was also a fight for our rights and a fight against cyclists' segregation. Critical Mass had rules of "no rules": no membership, no leadership, it's "just" a huge coincidence many cyclists cycling together in the streets :))) So beautiful !!!
Everybody must see this video


Budapest joined in later and louder and took a different path from the same origins. Here, in Budapest there is a leadership of a certain kind, there are organizers, there is a HQ too (none of these are official or legally registered though !:)), and monthly we only have mini Critical Masses ("Minimal Masses") on every last Friday, usually less than a 100 people.
You might find this strange but there's an idea behind that. Budapest's CM organizers priority is to show (demonstrate) that the cyclist community is HUGE. Yes, we can say that it's a "bike pride ride" and that it has nothing to do with original CM ways namely taking our share from the road in the Friday afternoon traffic. London, SF, L.A., Vancouver have obviously more fun doing their CMs monthly and without organizing. However in Budapest the power of the 2 HUGE Critical Masses demand enough attention for a whole year, it's in the media and everywhere. And last but not least there's a web-community of like 30 000 cyclists (on facebook) who think and act and talk and share ideas together on a daily basis which is really not bad.



Practically in Budapest Critical Mass is not an event - but a movement. And it's huge and it's spreading.

Spreading and catalyzing the spreading of urban cycling is really the main-main priority. Everything else comes only second to this. We have a main guy, Gábor Kürti (Kükü) (he's actually one of the 2 main founder & organizer guys, his co-founding friend is Sinya equally respectable :)) and he's a theorist totally obsessed with the spreading of urban cycling. He loves Denmark and met Danish Cycle Chic founder and cycling and commuting theorist Mikael Colville-Andersen, and adopted Colville-Andersen's ideas about fear from cars and traffic - cause he's certain that this could be a key thing to spreading. The point is to erase fear that prevents someone from choosing the bike, to erase fear from the culture and the thinking. Of course, cautiousness is important, and London cyclists efforts on warning people on lorries for example are vital (it is very sad to think of that young Polish girl killed by a lorry lately).

In Budapest's CM interpretation the key is spreading and to the biggest surprise to many people we encourage not to wear a helmet or any special safety clothing. Of course there is some weird parts in Collins-Andersen's reasoning (as Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute's Randy Swart pointed it out) but all in all we're talking about a chain reaction and for sure the more cyclists in the street will attract even more - and they'll get more respect and attention from other commuting parties. Cyclists have to get used to car traffic and drivers in the cars have to get used to the masses of cyclists in the street - that's all :) This will result in a new kind of traffic and a new kind of urban cycling style too - andd if cyclists without helmets traveling at a cozy pace in thick lines causing bicycle corks are synonym for Copenhagen style than we can say cities around the world are Copenhaganizing :)))
The only problem with that is that Copenhagen has no Critical Mass. Nor does Amsterdam. Should we take it as a message? No f* ways :) They don't have it cause they don't need it. For Critical Mas is a revolution - an explosion, a break thru despite the walls. Some cities have explosive content (bad thinking about commuting) and they call for Critical Masses :)) Some cities have a huge potential for cycling to spread and they call for Critical Masses. Budapest for example is really a city of this sort. We are at step-1 on a road of huge developments to come. In Budapest cycling so far has been spreading despite the shitty conditions. Now it's time for starting to make these better (talking about bike lanes in the first place), and the next step could be spreading owing to the better conditions :))


One thing's for sure: Critical Mass has been the BEST thing that happened to the world ... and it can never be finished cause we cyclists don't fight for a goal but rather we present ourselves and cycling. Budapest Critical Mass press announcement says: "we achieved the goals and now we're celebrating".

We can only take this as that Budapest has achieved a critical mass of cyclists in the streets which is a good starting point for a rapid and accelerating spreading of cycling.
Let's not forget that Budapest still has very poor conditions and some really ridiculous phenomenons such as the "bicycle path map" for the city published every year and it marks Budapest's huge ring as a a street with bike lane - however there's no such thing there, only the pavement and yes the city suggests that we just take that :) Ridiculous indeed. But it only means that Budapest has room for developments of any kind :)

And yes, there are more things in heaven and Earth than very cool bike rides on every last Friday of the month! They are crucial - no doubt, course they are!!! But these rides should not end by the end of the day leaving blank space till the next ones. CM communities should develop (if haven't already :)) into workshops and networks of those (in collective spirit, of course) with people thinking chatting partying and working and acting together on a daily basis representing cycling as a cause ...

-jepe-
2011-05-03

tags: Critical Mass




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