Showing posts with label Bicycle Protesters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bicycle Protesters. Show all posts

Critical Mass in San Diego

Regarding the post I made last night about the bicyclist in Downtown, the group is called Critical Mass, which I'm sure I knew, but flaked out on. When I was in San Fransisco I saw them hit the downtown area with a much larger group. It was, brilliant, to put it mildly.

Critical Mass is all over the world now. Of course, not everyone thinks they are as cool as I do.

Critical Mass is an idea that started in San Francisco in 1992 and was originally called Commut Clot. The idea was to show that they are no longer going to take the effects that automobile transportation has on the environment and the world. In order to emphasize this point the riders would take to the streets clogging up lanes, making commuters frustrated and protesting live on the streets in a disorganized but brilliant fashion.

Soon after its conception in the U.S., Critical Mass begun to catch like wild fire and eventually spread to over 325 cities world wide. Even Budapest has Critical Mass twice a year where they have reached numbers of 80,000 participants. Wherever and whenever it started, Critical Mass is definitely catching on in a growing environmentally conscious culture.

Even with all of the angst, and some very good points coming in from the other side, I still believe it is better to be alive, than a fungus.


Bicycle Protesters hit San Diego




















Just after 8:00pm a group of bicycle protesters emerged downtown, numbering well over 500. I wasn't able to count them as they went by, but considering my first estimate was 1000(based on the amount of times the traffic lights cycled as they road through the intersection of 4th and Broadway), I'm betting "over 500" is at the very least, accurate.

Three groups of bicycle cops were in the garden area of Horton Plaza (is the front of Horton Plaza an eye-sore these days or what?) when the protesters emerged. The bike-cops where ineffectual, as were the squad cars which were attempting to stem the tide as the cycles poured on through.

After the first group, a second group emerged which continued on down 4th street, turning left on Fst and into the Gas-lamp main area, disrupting traffic, to the cheers of hundreds as they passed by.

Most of the drivers who were paused in their travel to find parking and start their Friday night revelry cheered the bicyclists on, I noticed a few drivers who boiled into a state of road rage, but not many.

Most of the cyclists were in the college student age bracket, but there were more than a few 30 and 40-somethings out there in that pack, shouting "Go, go go!" when the police hit the sirens, attempting to disperse the pack -- It is good to have silver-backs around at times like those, to keep the youngsters from panicking themselves into a ticket.

In a city where the greater portion of people bitch and do nothing, it was great to see that many people out doing "something" because they felt change was required.

And for you City Council Members, recall that these were all voters, the riders and those cheering them on.


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