hexstatik

last friday, i met up with some friends at the vancouver art gallery to participate in my first critical mass.

Critical Mass is a grassroots reclamation of public space — a bike ride and skate — held the last Friday of every month. You are invited to enjoy the safety and comfort in the car-free space that we create by simply riding together! Bicycles, skateboards, rollerskates, self propelled couches, and any other form of human powered locomotion are all welcomed!

although i’d seen a few critical mass rides before, this once was quite large, with several hundred people. we rode through much of the downtown core, around false creek, along broadway to burrard street, over the bridge and around downtown some more. i’m pretty certain we did an excellent job of clogging traffic and causing chaos on the streets of vancouver.

it was very interesting to see the reaction of some drivers. while most took it in stride, enjoying the show as the hundreds of bikers streamed past, a few drivers got quite irate, some even getting out of the vehicles to yell at the “corkers” blocking traffic. they were always outnumbered and soon retreated to their vehicles once they realized the scale of the mass and the futility of trying to move their vehicles.

all in all, it was a great experience and a lot of fun. i do wish however that drivers would turn off their engines while they wait for the mass to go by - it seems a little pointless to protest against oil and our dependency on it, but then cause drivers to burn even more while they idle in traffic.

anyway, you can find a few photos on andy’s flickr page.