March 27, 2009
critical mass |ˈˌkrɪdəkəl ˈmæs|
critical mass |ˈˌkrɪdəkəl ˈmæs|
noun
-the minimum size or amount of something required to start or maintain a venture.
Critical Mass in San Francisco was a bike ride of about 400 people on the last Friday of each month. The point of critical mass was to show that bike riding around the city is possible and anyone can do it, and to make more people aware that the roads are for bicyclist as well. This was the main idea behind critical mass but the more and more I went those these, the more and more people would abuse this amazing event.
A group of 400-600 people on bikes was a pretty amazing sight and on a Friday night, you could just imagine how much traffic it caused. It was great to see all kinds of ages and types of people, so many people in the bay area use bikes as their main mode of transportation but like in any other city, there are much more cars, so usually, it would be a mixed review. Motorist that were on the road would be frustrated because of the traffic and bystanders would cheer on the crowd.
With any event like this, there will always be those handful of people that do something inappropriate to spoil the entire event for everyone or even give critical mass a bad image. Whether it was drunk people riding bikes, or people yelling violently at motorist, bicyclist surrounding a vehicle (which happened on multiple occasions because the motorist would try and drive into the crowd to get by but would always end up being trapped), or whatever else that was more of a negative aspect than a positive one always seemed to happen every month.
Other than the negative aspects, I always looked forward to the last Fridays of every month. It always felt nice because I was sharing something so simple and awesome with hundreds of people. And riding in tunnels are just so much fun!
-the minimum size or amount of something required to start or maintain a venture.
Critical Mass in San Francisco was a bike ride of about 400 people on the last Friday of each month. The point of critical mass was to show that bike riding around the city is possible and anyone can do it, and to make more people aware that the roads are for bicyclist as well. This was the main idea behind critical mass but the more and more I went those these, the more and more people would abuse this amazing event.
A group of 400-600 people on bikes was a pretty amazing sight and on a Friday night, you could just imagine how much traffic it caused. It was great to see all kinds of ages and types of people, so many people in the bay area use bikes as their main mode of transportation but like in any other city, there are much more cars, so usually, it would be a mixed review. Motorist that were on the road would be frustrated because of the traffic and bystanders would cheer on the crowd.
With any event like this, there will always be those handful of people that do something inappropriate to spoil the entire event for everyone or even give critical mass a bad image. Whether it was drunk people riding bikes, or people yelling violently at motorist, bicyclist surrounding a vehicle (which happened on multiple occasions because the motorist would try and drive into the crowd to get by but would always end up being trapped), or whatever else that was more of a negative aspect than a positive one always seemed to happen every month.
Other than the negative aspects, I always looked forward to the last Fridays of every month. It always felt nice because I was sharing something so simple and awesome with hundreds of people. And riding in tunnels are just so much fun!
4 comments:
this. looks. amazing.
hey tony tony,
you found me.
i'm glad.
this is nice.
this daily thing.
daily things are good, right?
do you know http://www.habitblog.com ?
also daily and really lovely what happens there.
seems you are up to your old tricks. and some new ones. let me know if you are ever up this way, OK?
Amy- It was so much fun, there were always so many funny bicyclist there too, there was this woman each month that would have a bubble machine attached to the back of her bike. They do a critical mass in Los Angeles, maybe we'll go one day?
Lisa- That habitblog is so fascinating, my favorite thing is the little notes under each photograph. What a great idea, do you know if it's just a handful of contributors or is there room for guest?
Lisa- I take that back, I went through a bunch of days and saw a lot of the same names :)
Oh and I will definitely let you know when I'll be up that way!
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