We have the power to engage in a million tiny radical acts every day without ceremony. That makes the act no less radical, and in the end might mean more than a mass event.

“I still loathe inconsiderate, illegal and dangerous behavior by drivers and cyclists alike.” Well said. Well said.

Maybe it’s not apparent to you anymore, but the conditions are still shitty. Really shitty. Really really really shitty. And if indeed as you imply, shitty conditions are what sets the stage for rowdy critical mass rides then I question how you can’t look at today’s rowdy flare-ups with a bit of empathy rather than dismissing the riders as “morons” and going even farther in your tweets to say that all group and club rides are irresponsible. It seems to me that you might’ve lost touch with your roots.

I too do not condone everything that Critical Mass riders do. I too cringe when the circle of death happens and I too spoke out against them in LA when riders did them… but I’ve come to understand why group rides and critical mass exists and therefore when I see them behaving in let’s say “un-enlightened ways” I’m more likely to engage in constructive criticism where I have influence, and otherwise just shrug it off as part of the growing pains of a still new and growing movement. New… meaning, the concept of CM might be old to you, but the riders that participate are new and excited about getting out of their cars and onto bikes with a whole new community of people to meet.

To me the most important thing as a bike activist is to make sure that the new excited people stay motivated and eventually find their way into more progressive channels. Calling them “idiots” or “morons” is only going to make YOU seem curmudgeon. To call anyone names is to give up on people and frankly it’s just as childish as a circle of death. The fact is that new riders are attracted to critical mass because they generally feel the safety in numbers that the streets in the USA do not otherwise provide. Yes, the reality is that people who first experience the power of a group ride will be tempted to abuse it. BUT the fact is that after a year or two the new riders calm down and move on to integrate cycling into their daily lives as they get more confident and realize that there are better ways to exercise their power. Their newly acquired street skills reduce their anger and increase their safety. My point was simply to have patience and see it in a pragmatic sense and recognize it cleans itself up as it gets bigger.

In Los Angeles the group ride phenomenon is huge. The biggest on the planet. It didn’t start that way. 8 years ago our critical mass was 10-20 people at most. Not because cyclists weren’t pissed off or scared, but because hardly anyone rode bikes for commuting back then. Around that time myself and 7 friends started a fun evening ride called Midnight Ridazz. It was specifically not a protest, it was a ride to see downtown and end up at a bar for fun. We grew that group ride to 2000 people and eventually split it up into a calendar of 3-4 rides a night posted on MidnightRidazz.com along with many others on Facebook and other community boards. A side effect was that the “protest” ride called Critical Mass got bigger as a result of this excitement. By 2010 CM rides had reached about 500 or so and they were rowdy… people denounced the rowdiness. Last year during a particularly rowdy ride, the cops beat up a videographer (Manny a Wolfpack Hustle regular) who captured another cop kicking riders on film. This was a turning point in LAPD/City cyclist relations. It could have gone bad but instead the LAPD and the cycling community, myself included joined together on the LAPD bike task force and worked out the issues. Not only did the police engage us, but to their surprise, we engaged them. The LAPD didn’t realize it but people had been desperate for their attention. People have been dieing in the streets for years and no one seemed to care. The LAPD assigned us a laision to get on the Ridazz forum and answer questions and discuss how things were going to change for critical mass and all group rides. People were actually curious and excited about their involvement and it showed. Some 2000 people came out for that next critical mass. A cop hopped on someone’s tall bike and people started laughing and when the ride took off it felt like cyclists for the first time were protected on the streets. It felt like an institution backed by the city. It was amazing.

Long story short, Critical Mass works.

The police now escort and cork intersections for the ride as police do in many cities around the world including SF. And rather than a big rowdy mob scene, CM is pretty well mannered. No fights. No circles of death… lots of high fives and hand shakes and a better understanding of cyclists’ rights to the road on all sides…. This very same scenario will play out until cycling is accepted as a legitimate form of commuting and people feel safe enough not to need the safety of the groups.

In my travels via bicycle across the Netherlands a few years back, I would speak excitedly to the locals wanting to recruit them to start a Midnight Ridazz chapter or to find out where the critical mass was meeting but was perplexed to find that the people I spoke to didn’t get it. “Why would we go out at night on a group ride, we ride everyday all day.” It clicked. They already have their safety in numbers on the streets with their 50% mode share… Cycling is normal over there.

Ever since then I’ve been saying to our police and politicians here in LA: Make cycling a normal part of the traffic grid, a normal part of life and you will see the group rides melt away.

These new and excited people on Critical Mass may be unruly at times, but they are not morons Molly… they are an indicator that there is still a LOT of work to do. Engage them in positive ways… or become that irrelevant old school punk mumbling about the days when punk was “real.”

These folks always end up on the wrong side of history but that doesn’t mean too much at the time.