reclaim your streets!

**borrowed image of Critical Mass, Budapest (e-mailed to me).

Atlanta --> www.criticalmassatlanta.org/

Wiki --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Mass/

today is the day to reclaim the streets, even if it's only for a moment. find out where your city's meetup is (probably at ~6PM, so hurry) and go ride around town with all of your best bike friends. for me the ride is not a protest - it's a celebration and an act of awareness. don't piss anyone off and have a happy Friday!

i'm working on the algorithm that would explain my opinion about CM. first of all, i feel like CM is a great time for people to come out and try biking in the city. CM is safe and slow and reminds people that biking in the city is doable and the most fun way to get around. the feeling and sights of the city make it so worth leaving the car at home when you can.

back to the math... if you have ever seen Critical Mass or ridden in one or read anything about it, you know that it is fairly controversial. Friday night douchebags in their cars hate it! it makes them arrive to their couch maybe five minutes later than originally planned. some bike commuters are against CM because they feel it makes them unsafe when one of the pissed off cagers comes across them days after a bad CM experience. participants, new and old, enjoy the experience and take it to the streets on a more regular basis. incorporating the bike into someone's daily life could change a lifestyle for the better, while making the rest of us safer... Atlanta seems particularly unsafe simply because the drivers are just not used to dealing with bikes on the road. they don't know the laws or how to react. more bikes on the road equals more awareness and a safer bike community. in the long run that makes for a happier and potentially healthier city.

so, maybe it could start out something like this...
1 Critical Mass
5 new participants - who realize they can ride in town and actually do it.
10 really pissed motorists (this is a high estimate)

the pissed off motorists may tell some friends and their uptight mental state could go either way. they could convert a non-bike hater to their side or be brought back to reality and find some compassion and fun in their heart. so lets say 6 months later and those 10 pissed off motorist equal a total of 15 still pissed off drivers from that Critical Mass event. i doubt that number is realistic at all and i would expect it to be much lower.

now, the 5 new riders will have a blast and will tell their friends. they will bring more friends to future CMs and continue to talk about how their bike has made them feel. they will be witnessed on the road and create a positive awareness for the community. some of their friends will either pull out a bike on their own or if they never ride at all, they will likely always pass a cyclist with care while wondering if the rider is a friend of theirs. so lets say that after 6 months the overall influence of the 5 new participants equals 50 positively influenced cyclists and drivers.

Six months after a hypothetical Critical Mass and the cycling community has a net gain of 35! now consider years or a lifetime later... this is purely a theory, but i've seen this effect with my own community and circle of friends and it's way cool. i've ridden CM for the past few years in Atlanta and once in Chicago, which was amazing. it seems every city has their own flavor but mostly its a positive vibe. i don't feel like i 'have' to ride every month but it is still fun to get out and play.

Happy Friday!