Helicopters hovered over Manhattan on the opening night of the 2004 Republican National Convention, their spotlights highlighting the streets people below. Groups of ten or more people were dispersed by police vans with flashing lights. Local officials anticipated protests of the RNC, among which would be a 2,000-person ride by the bicycle activist group Critical Mass.
Critical Mass (CM) is a monthly protest that brings together eclectic crowds of bicycle enthusiasts in cities across the nation. Riders gather in large numbers and ride down city streets to raise awareness, most times of the bicycle’s role in American transportation. Occasionally, like at the RNC ride, their message is overtly political.
“We’re seen as kids who are anti-authority,” says Casey Banazwski, a 26-year-old Buffalo resident and a participant in the local CM rides. “But we’re just having fun.”
In Buffalo, bikers meet every last Friday of the month. While most riders are out for social change, many share a fear that their day could end in either social change or a night in jail. At the June 2003 ride, police removed riders from their bikes by force. Witnesses told local news outlets who reported that Buffalo City Police officers arrested photographers and threatened riders.
Critics view CM as a bunch of anti-conformist punk rock rebels trying to cause accidents. Supporters say it is a revolutionary way to incorporate peaceful protest with fun. CM evokes strong feelings in both sides, yet what no one can deny is the power behind the image of a horde of bicycles descending on city hall with flags, signs, bells, and an obvious axe to grind.
A Defiant Celebration
The concept behind CM is to condense an idealistic social movement into a simple, recognizable image—a bike ride. Buffalo’s CM rides are generally held on the last Friday of each month, with riders gathering at 5 p.m. and departing at six from the steps of city hall. Each city’s CM varies, however, as there is no official national organization.
“Critical Mass is not an organization,” reads the disclaimer on critical-mass.org, one of the many unofficial CM websites that operate independently. “It’s an unorganized coincidence.”
The first CM was held in San Francisco in 1992 with 48 riders. It has since spread to over 300 cities from all over the world, from Boston to Jerusalem to Hong Kong. Supporters praise the phenomenon as a concept rather than an organization, dedicated to celebrating and appreciating bicycles.
“Critical Mass has a very different flavor from city to city,” says critical-mass.info, the most comprehensive CM guide site. “There’s a big variety in size, respect [for] traffic laws (or lack thereof), interaction with motorists, and intervention by police.”
Critical Mass is a “monthly bicycle ride to celebrate cycling and assert cyclists’ right to the road,” according to another unofficial CM website. The event’s name comes from a phenomenon in China, where roadways shared between automobiles, bicycles, and even livestock create a literal wilderness of traffic. There are no traffic signals for bicycles there, though, so cyclists have no way to cross the street and must wait at a particular point to cross. Once they gain a sufficient number of bikes—termed a Critical Mass—the group is large enough to force traffic to finally relent and let them cross.
Although primarily focused on incorporating bicycles into the larger framework of U.S. transportation, CM espouses political ideals into their rides.
Sam Newberry, a 21-year-old liberal arts major at ECC says that another mission of CM is to “step away from fossil fuels.” Also, the ride was used as a vehicle to voice discontent with the Bush agenda during the RNC.
While popular in certain sectors of the cycling community, gaining wider acceptance has not always been easy for CM. It took five years for the police in San Francisco to acknowledge the event as a valid gathering. The tension certain CMs have felt varies with the city, sometimes boiling over into confrontations with local police.
Critical Mass-acres
The RNC Critical Mass is the most public case of police involvement during a Critical Mass ride. Associated Press reports estimated the turnout at around 2,000 cyclists.
Initially, NYPD officers blocked off traffic so that the riders could pass through the city with minimal effect on traffic. Eventually, however, officers began halting and arresting CM riders for disrupting the flow of traffic. Policemen cut through locks on bikes to confiscate them, surrounded groups of bikers, and eventually arrested 264 participants.
In the following months after the RNC Critical Mass, the New York Times reported that out of the 1,670 cyclist cases that went to trial and were resolved, 91 percent resulted in either acquittal or dismissal.
In a trial on September 30, 2005 a federal judge ruled that cyclists must be warned before police seize their bikes, according to the Associated Press. However, the judge, U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley, also wrote that the bicyclists had “failed to raise a genuine issue of fact that their bicycles were seized because of that expressive activity and in violation of the First Amendment.”
“Rather,” Pauley continued, “The city perceived Critical Mass as an un-permitted parade that violated and posed a threat to motor vehicle traffic.”
Altercations have continued between the New York City Police Force and the New York City biking force. Police have continued to arrest cyclists during rides, which has spawned new protests and caused the formation of groups such as Time’s Up! and Free NYC Cyclists.
Last March, the city of New York filed a lawsuit to prevent CM rides in NYC, according to the Village Voice. They claim it is a safety issue, asserting that bicycle rights depend on traffic, weather, and group size.
CM supporters counter that the law does not place such conditions on bicycling, and therefore should not be prosecuted in this manner.
Two Wheels Good, Four Wheels Bad?
Gregory Wilder, a 20-year-old education major at Canisius College thinks that Critical Mass is about blocking traffic and therefore does not participate. “Drivers reciprocate by not yielding to single bike riders when they should,” he says. “Driving is for far away places and carrying heavy objects. Biking is for near places and looking cool.” Wilder enjoys biking because the exercise keeps him healthy mentally and physically, but doesn’t want to associate bicycles with what is, in his opinion, a disruptive group.
Some people who ride Critical Mass are fundamentalist bikers. These are the cyclists who believe in bicycle superiority. While the idea behind CM is to gain an equilibrium between automobile and bicycle traffic rights, some riders try to take up as much space as possible on their bicycles, turning two bikes into a force to be reckoned with to vehicular traffic. Riders are discouraged from these antics on websites and during rides, as taking up two whole lanes of traffic is likely to anger both drivers and the police.
However, most bicyclists aim to merge with traffic and become accepted legally and socially. Matt Cole, a freshman international studies major at the University of Buffalo is of this mindset. Cole asserts that CM portrays a certain message—“that bikes don’t block traffic, they are traffic.” Cole rides his bike from UB North campus to downtown Buffalo, just to participate in this message. He planned on starting a ride in his hometown of Syracuse, but someone beat him to it. Similarly, CM rider Casey Banazwski expresses that Critical Mass is “beyond fucking with traffic.” Banazwski enjoys riding because it’s fun and a good way to exercise. To him and to others, Critical Mass is simply a way to show this to the world.
Cities such as New York, Portland, Montreal, San Francisco, Reno, Austin, Tempe, Bellingham, Los Angeles, and even Buffalo have experienced their own “Critical Mass-acres.” Bikers accosted by police usually get charged with traffic violations and sometimes get arrested.
Police in New York City have responded to Critical Mass. Monthly, the NYC police attempt to prevent Critical Mass from occurring, incorporating helicopters, netting, undercover officers, loudspeakers, vans and a “large amount of personnel and equipment,” according to Bruce Smolka, Assistant Chief of the New York Police Department in an article published in Newsday. The World Car Free Network (WCN) reports that since the RNC, 518 Massers have been arrested. Smolka’s forces have been documented to pick bikers off of their bikes by their hair and shirts, tackle bikers, and fence them in. The Assistant Chief says that cyclists have a right to the road, as long as cars can use it too. Since NYC is primarily designed for motor vehicles, Critical Mass needs to apply for permits to appease the police force.
“They appeared to be hijacked by those determined to disrupt and block traffic, as opposed to the non-disruptive group rides that we previously experienced,” Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne says of recent activity in the NYC Critical Mass in Newsday.
“The city sees cyclists as a threat—it’s effectively criminalizing us and not seeing the situation clearly—and we feel this campaign is an opportunity for them to learn something. We want resolution, not conflict,” says Sara Stout, steering-committee member in WCN’s New York City office in an article published by the Village Voice. The WCN is trying to call attention to the situation in NYC to try and change the country’s outlook on cyclists by organizing a “Free NYC Cyclists” campaign.
CM in Buffalo
Eighty friends in front of Buffalo City Hall in broad daylight is a monthly sight—punk rockers with metal studs in the jean jackets, hippies with dreadlocks smelling of smoke, mothers with rambunctious children, tough-looking motorcycle dudes, college kids with messenger bags, and cute girls laughing. More than once, participants all over the United States and even in Buffalo have been arrested just for riding their bikes.
The Buffalo Critical Mass experienced this in June of 2003. The Buffalo Police arrested and threatened photographers, professors and riders, as reported in the Buffalo News, Artvoice, and on the Buffalo Critical Mass website. However, while the New York City bikers are experiencing heightened tensions with the police, bikers in Buffalo have found the opposite. This Halloween, Cole even dressed as a cop, complete with a hat and ‘80s sunglasses on the overcast day for the effect. Now, they have trouble with normal traffic. Rider Sam Newberry has experienced accidents both first and second hand. He says that biking in Buffalo can be difficult because of potholes and traffic on main roads. Matt Cole says that suburban biking is dangerous. Both stress the importance of obeying traffic laws and being assertive. “You gotta have the chutzpah” to bike, says Newberry.
“Once you have enough people acting with the same ideas in mind, that will be the accepted state. In this case, it’s bikes and bike riding,” says Newberry.
The people who ride Critical Mass are as varied as they are like-minded, which makes them an effective force. This diverse group simply appreciates the invention voted number one in Great Britain—the bicycle.
