Critical Mass - Pre-Ride Planning

Where and When to Start | Planning a Route | Xerocracy | Getting the Word Out
Xerocratic Aesthetics | Flyers

It should be relatively easy to set up a Critical Mass ride. Every city has a population of bicyclists who are marginalised and threatened by the current transportation system, whether commuters, couriers, or people who ride just for the fun of it. Perhaps more importantly, these groups are just the tip of the iceberg. Poor air quality, environmental degradation and the general decay of living conditions due to motorised traffic are felt by everyone. There is a potential mass base for change in all these scattered, isolated groups, and a Critical Mass ride can serve as a rallying point to bring them together.

The preliminary steps to setting up a ride are fairly straightforward: pick a time, place and route. Beginning the ride in some area downtown is obviously a good choice, since so many bicyclists and commuters are already there. A well-known public area, easily accessible to most bicyclists, where large numbers of people can congregate before the ride is perfect. (In San Francisco, Critical Mass leaves from a plaza adjacent to the financial district, which is conveniently located at the foot of the main traffic corridor.)

Choosing a time is even easier: you want to meet in the early evening, say 5:30, both in order to accommodate bicycle commuters who are on the streets anyway, and to gain visibility by making sure Critical Mass is part of rush hour traffic. Having Critical Mass fall on a Friday marks it as the beginning of the weekend, and contributes to the celebratory feel of the ride. And what better Friday for the event to take place than the last Friday of the month? If Critical Mass continues to spread, the day may come when, on the last Friday of the month, the sun is always setting on a Critical Mass ride!

It is important that the meeting time and place remain constant, so that it is easy for people to take part on a regular basis, and more people can join in as the rides continue.

Picking a safe, entertaining route is integral to keeping Critical Mass novel and fun. There are several things to consider when planning a route:

Safety

• Bicyclists of varying skills will be taking part; planning a ride with lots of difficult hills or a very long distance is not a good idea. Maintain a moderate pace.
• The streets chosen should be large enough to accomodate large numbers of cyclists. (One way streets are especially good.)
• Keep it simple. A complicated route that veers all over the place might look fun on paper, but will prove to be unworkable on the ride. People need to be able to read and easily memorise the route, so they know where they're going and what the ride is doing.

• Varying the route from month to month makes each ride a bit of an adventure, and reaches a wider spectrum of people.
• The mood of the ride is influenced by the area cycled through. A ride through a downtown area, where whoops and hollers can echo off tall buildings, and there is a population of motorists and bystanders to interact with, will create a more festive mood than a ride through an industrial or suburban area. The latter two tend to quiet down the ride, which can be done to vary the mood. It's up to you.
• Have an end point, such as a park or bar, where there's the possibility for cyclists to socialise after the ride.

In San Francisco the organisation of the event has been as much a part of its success as anything else. Organisational politics, with official leaders, demands, etc., has been eschewed in favour of a more decentralised system. There is no one in charge. Ideas are spread, routes shared, and consensus sought through the ubiquitous copy machines on every job or at copy shops in every neighbourhood - a 'Xerocracy', in which anyone is free to make copies of their ideas and pass them around. Leaflets, flyers, stickers and 'zines all circulate madly before, during, and after the ride, rendering leaders unnecessary by ensuring that strategies and tactics are understood by as many people as possible.

Xerocracy promotes freedom and undercuts hierarchy because the mission is not set by a few in charge, but is broadly defined by its participants. The ride is not narrowly seen as an attempt to lobby for more bike lanes (although that goal exists) or to protest this or that aspect of the social order (although such sentiments are often expressed). Instead, each person is free to invent his or her own reasons for participating and is also free to share those ideas with others. Some people are there to promote human powered transportation as a viable alternative, others seek the respect of motorists and city planners and some take part simply because they like riding bikes and feeling a sense of community with all the other cyclists on the Critical Mass rides.

This 'organic system' doesn't lead to chaos, but rather a festive, celebratory atmosphere. Great pains have been taken to avoid the common pitfalls of other movements, with much Xerocratic space being devoted to arguments against moralising attacks on motorists and other unproductive tendencies. By presenting bicycling as a fun, positive alternative to the dreary destructiveness of car culture, Critical Mass has staked out a visionary approach to urban transportation.

Getting the word out is the first step. Flyers are a quick, cheap way to reach a large number of people. With a few friends and a copy machine, you can have your area saturated with Critical Mass announcements within a few days. However, the public walls of most cities have already been plastered with so many announcements that alternative strategies are useful.

• Thin strips of xeroxed flyers can be attached to bicycles around town.
• Small stickers can be put on anything bicyclists lock their bikes to.
• Bicycle stores and bike-friendly businesses can be asked to put flyers in their windows.
• Word of mouth, announcements by friendly local radio DJs, on stage in clubs, local papers, etc.

If you want to communicate, make it easy to read!

Make sure that the flyers passed out to participants are readable and tell people what they need to know about the ride. For instance, if there is a tricky intersection, or dangerous train tracks on the route, point it out on the map. Doing the route flyer on a computer can make things easier (if you're computer literate), and has the advantage of being easy to read and reproduce. The route sheet can also double as an informational bulletin/newsletter, with troubleshooting ideas, news from the last ride, and ideas for future rides.

As the San Francisco Critical Mass grew beyond the point where a single bicyclist could see both front and tail of the ride (about 300+), a xerocratic publication, Critical Mass Missives, started to appear. It contains happenings on the previous ride, news of other Masses around the world and discusses problems within or concerning the ride.

As the ride goes along, people on the street, waiting at bus stops, or sitting in their cars will want to know what's going on. You won't be able to stop and talk with all of them, and you'd be hard pressed to fit it all into one sentence even if you could. So for anyone who is curious, it really helps to have a small flyer made out that lets people know what Critical Mass is, why we feel this action is necessary, and that invites them to the next ride.

These flyers can be made to fit three to an A4 sheet of paper so that they're inexpensive and can fit well in your back pocket. Pass them out at the beginning of the ride, making sure that anyone who is interested has a stack to give out, and watch as they get passed out to hundreds of people who otherwise would have never heard of Critical Mass!

Those who hand out flyers along the route are the real diplomats of the ride. Often the face-to-face contact by these cyclists and occasional rollerbladers has been helpful in defusing tense situations arising from angry car drivers who have been made to wait. A cyclist will roll up to these frustrated commuters and explain the ride while handing them a flyer. This shows people that you've thought of them a bit, and it buys some time for the ride to proceed as they digest the message.

Like the corks, flyer distributors lend an air of self-control to the ride for motorists and pedestrians. Corking and flyer distribution is usually done on an ad-hoc basis, by cyclists who decide spontaneously to fill those needs.

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