Critical Mass

Friday night I participated in the October edition of Critical Mass. For those not in the know--basically everyone--Critical Mass is a bike trek through Chicago's busy streets during Friday rush hour with many hundreds of bicycles. It is one of the strangest (or most frustrating) things you will ever see and honestly one of the most fun to participate in. The line of bikes, once the mass gets moving, stretches at least five city blocks, and although the front line stops appropriately at traffic lights the rest will keep moving through red intersections in order to keep the line together (done partly for safety, partly for order, partly for the fun of it).

Arguably the best part of the ride is the reaction to it. The majority of witnesses fall into the puzzled and/or awestruck category... Bar patrons plaster the windows or spill out into the sidewalk, pedestrians step to the curve to get a closer look or to question riders breaking to the side, car passengers think they've lost their minds. After all, the streets, which we associate with the dangerous, accelerating iron-grid of automobiles has been pacified by an endless stream of pedal-powered skeletons. Part of the wonder of even participating in the event is this dramatic reversal of authority. Even if the corking of traffic frustrates you to no end, there is little to say or do aside from just watching it all go by.

Howerver, some people are, I suppose, in denial. They will honk (which is greeted by the "woo"-ing of passing cyclists), try to inch their way through the mass (which is greeted by one excited cyclists pulling to a stop directly in front of them, thus ceasing the car's forward movement), or in extreme cases, get out of their car and try to pick a fight with their halting rider (which is greeted by swarming bicycles demanding for the individual to get back into their car).

Normally, routes are planned ahead of time and pretty much stuck to, but a few "tricks" in this month's map ended up bringing the ride into a benevolent chaos as the ride was given its own life on a wandering exodus from Daley Plaza. The group I was with for most of the ride ended up experiencing a radically different conclusion to the ride than I did after we were separated --DUE TO THE INTENSE SPEED AT WHICH I RIDE!!! -- but both concluded with a practical party social in the middle of triangle intersections. They got bagels though. (There were probably 3-4 different packs by the end of the ride.)

For more on the Mass, check out the website : Chicago Critical Mass or drop me an e-mail.