Crytical Mass Rides

[Max]

Has anyone gone on any crytical mass rides in Pittsburgh?(the last Friday of every month). I mostly mtb, but every now and then I love to cruise the 'burgh, I love this city. So, my question is, are these rides worth it? Any info would be appreciated. Thanks, Max.

[leapfrog]

i have never been on a pittsburgh critical mass ride myself, but i'm involved in "mass culture" in other cities...namely chicago, indianapolis, and st. louis. each ride is different than others, due to the domineering personality of specific riders. in some cities, the riders are creative, intelligent, and co-operative people just looking to have a great time and possibly raise some cycling awareness at the same time. in other cities, riders use the power of the mass to become confrontational and aggressive towards car drivers rather than influencing them to look at bike commuting as sensible caring transportation. i haven't really heard anything bad about pittsburgh's mass and i would highly suggest you try out the ride. it most certainly different than any other bike ride you've probably been on. don't expect to go fast...and don't expect to go burly. it's all about sticking together and taking a leisurely non-competitive ride through downtown (usually) streets. do bring a noisemaker, or decorate your bike, or whatever. it can be a highly positive and addictive experience.

[DirtRagArt]

I do a one man critical mass ride 3 to 5 days a week from East Liberty to Indiana Township. The best is when I ride on Route 8 through Etna... people seem to get a little pissed when they come up on a bike doing 15-20mph on a 30-40mph highway, though there are two lanes going each direction.

[Johan]

i don't know about in pittsburgh, but most road racers in st louis seriously dislike cm here. there used to be a few races in university city every year. since cm came town, they have had several "incidents" with u city police. now the u city police fights to keep the races out of the city. (gee--could there be a connection???) there is still one race for now. but who knows about the future.

if you like commuting, do it. i generally ride to work 3-5 times a week, in all sorts of weather. i also ride to other paces too, library, video store, chineese food.....

[Max]

Yeah, Jeff, I usually have my own cm rides every Mon. through Frid. to and from work. ------------Max.

[hairygrump]

My opinion is like a lot of those posted above. I think that CM is a great idea that could potentially make people see cyclists as traffic, but only if those cyclists act like traffic rather than taking up as much road as they possibly can.

I've gone on the Minneapolis ride three times, and each time I enjoyed the hell out of it until a group of kids decided they'd use their newfound posse to encircle an SUV or take over the left side of the road on a bridge. It's just stupid shit and it doesn't show anybody anything about living on a bicycle that we want them to see. Obviously that guy in Austin shouldn't have run through that group of bikers, but I don't think he would have been wrong to get out of his car and punch one of them. Critical Mass becomes more of a hurt than a harm when it singles out drivers or intentionally baits people.

I don't do the ride anymore, but I support the principle. I think a critical mass of riders is when you see somebody biking next to you at every other stoplight on your ride into work every day. Parades don't convince anybody of anything, they just reinforce what people already believe. If this is how it comes out in Pittsburgh, I say do the ride every month, but I've given up on these dumb kids in MPLS. They're more interested in demonstrations than actual activism.

[hazard]

Attend at least one and see how it goes. Here in columbus, we have a moderate sized ride, pretty friendly and nonconfrontaional for the most part, the crowd is probably made up of 90% messengers, and a smattering of the rest from punk rock students to middle aged tandem riders sporting a "just married" flag.

I too, do my own CM ride 4 days a week, year round. dontchya love it !

[Goride]

Well, instead of telling you how bad the critical mass rides are without having ever attending one I'm here to tell you what a good time the Pittsburgh ones tend to be...and I've been on a couple. And I've hung up dozens of flyers for them around town.

Pittsburgher's: Quit complaining about them until you show up.

Max: Show up. Next Friday, 5:30pm, Oakland Dinosaur right outside of the Carnegie Museum. I missed last month due to the DC protests I attended, but two montsh ago there were 60 or so riders.. We did a 10mile loop or so, had a good time, and got some great response form people.

Hopefully I'll see some people next week, but if you aren't there, don't go spreading the word about how terrible it is.

-brad