Critical Mass: A Bicycler's Dream or a Nuisance to Motorists?

For those of you who may not be familiar with it, Critical Mass is a movement for bicyclists who in a nut shell want equal treatment on busy city streets. They want to be able to ride safely in the same areas that cars drive on without the fear of being hit, or injured, and they want to get more people out of cars and onto bikes.

In theory I agree with them. Particularly here in Seattle, WA where I live, we definitely need more bike trails, more bike lanes, and more respect for those that choose to bike it everywhere rather than drive a car. Also, with the high rate of obesity, and all the health problems that this entails, biking is a fantastic way to excercise, and keep your weight down while possibly avoiding future health problems.

However, I see problems with the way in which Critical Mass goes about getting the public's attention. For one they think nothing of stopping traffic, literally. I've personally experienced being in a car in traffic when Critical Mass decided to blow through downtown Portland, OR. Traffic was stopped, and intentionally, all so these bikers could get their point across.

I used to live in Portland, OR where Critical Mass has a large following. Every Sunday night without fail, Critical Mass would take their bikes onto the Max train and ride up to the zoo. Then they would ride their bikes from the zoo back down to the train, and do it again, and again, and again. This would begin often around midnight, and I lived a bit up the hill from the train stop. It would not have been so bad, except that they would ring their bells loudly and whoop and holler as they were coming past my apartment complex. Since I and many of my neighbors had to be at work early Monday morning, we did not appreciate either being kept up or woken up by their antics. This particular group did nothing for their cause except irritate those who lived in our neighborhood. It did not make me want to suddenly go out and buy a bike and start riding with them.

I'm all for having a sign on your bike, wearing a t-shirt with a message, educating the public and talking to our city administrators about the need for more bike trails, lanes, and public awareness with regards to bikers. However, stopping traffic, picking odd hours to ride your bike, and being noisy at hours that people are asleep is not the way to get your point across. All this does is irritate people, and make them not take you seriously.

Another point to keep in mind is that Portland is very bike friendly, even more so than Seattle. With 156 miles of bike lanes, 68 miles of offstreet paths, and 30 miles of bike boulevards, Portland is in many ways a biker's dream. Seattle presently only has 25 miles of bike lanes, and 37 miles of paths. Honestly, I would have expected the sort of behavior exhibited in Portland to be more likely to happen here, and yet in the year I've lived in Seattle, I haven't heard of those involved in Critical Mass doing more than occasionally stopping traffic. In the case of Portland Critical Mass, there was really no reason for them to be using midnight on Sunday to make their point.

So, while I agree that we need to do more here in Seattle to make it safer and more accessible to bikers, I don't think joining Critical Mass is the way to do it, unless they change their tactics. Stopping and or tying up traffic is unacceptable. One of their mottos is "we are traffic," and I agree they are, however, they do not have the same power as a car, truck, or bus. Taking a group of bikes and then slowing down traffic to either a stand still, or crawling just so they can get their point across of their right to the road, is not the answer. More bike lanes, paths, boulevards, and educating the public about the health, environmental, and monetary benefits of biking are.