At first it might seem unnecessary for a book about the seemingly chaotic bike rides that take place on the last Friday of the month in some 300 cities across the world (including in Grand Rapids) . However, over the now 13 years (10 years at the time of publication) since the first Critical Mass ride in San Francisco in 1992, Critical Mass has spread across the world and taken on a life of its own both in its varying practice from city-to-city and in its underlying vision of a city based on the community that arises when urban geography is transformed from a car-centered to a bike-centered terrain.
It is in its discussion of the theory and vision of Critical Mass that Critical Mass: Bicycling’s Defiant Celebration is its most interesting. For many who have facilitated or participated in Critical Mass rides in Grand Rapids over the past five years Critical Mass has been little more than a bike ride with a small group of friends and has never achieved the level of “celebration” articulated by many of the contributors to Carlsson’s book and has never “transformed” the city in any tangible manner. Whereas we have achieved a certain level of militancy in terms of developing an anti-car attitude in the Grand Rapids ride, we have done so at the expense of creating a more celebratory and inviting space that could create a brief glimpse of what a city could be like without the destructive impact of automobiles. Such an atmosphere has been created in Chicago where Critical Mass rides regularly have more than 500 participants and have developed an underlying attitudes wherein the focus is on the mass of bikes on the streets and the community within the ride rather than rage at other cars on the street. In Chicago and other large Critical Mass rides, the streets are literally transformed and while their may be an underlying anti-car sentiment, the ride is more about facilitating camaraderie between cyclists than simply upsetting individual motorists.
Within the context of how Critical Mass rides “feel” it other cities, the more theoretical pieces in Critical Mass: Bicycling’s Defiant Celebration seem appropriate and in the case of cities like Grand Rapids, offer a vision and foundation for transforming Critical Mass. Underlying Critical Mass is the question of ownership relating to the form and function of public space, and in the case of Critical Mass, whether or not public space should be designed for the automobile, a form of private transportation that has largely destroyed the notion of community in the United States, or alternative forms of individual and collective transportation that foster and benefit community. Moreover, Critical Mass raises questions about the appropriate functions of roads as public space, asking if they exist predominately for the automobile traffic necessary to support a capitalist economy or if they can be transformed into an area in which truly communitarian activities can unfold. It is when these questions are considered that Critical Mass becomes more than simply a bike ride and becomes what Carlsson describes as a “social experience” that can, according to Joshua Switzky, “dictate the tempo and ambiance on the street” and ultimately demand “a democratization and re-visualization of streets as vital public space.” With the twenty-first century’s urban experience largely characterized by a series of seemingly random and inauthentic interactions, Critical Mass provides an authentic community.
Aside from the more abstract theoretical essays, the book also offers a number of practical organizational lessons that can be used by Critical Mass organizers. The book features an essay titled “How to Make a Critical Mass” that, drawing from the lessons learned by riders in the San Francisco Critical Mass, offers a host of tips and considerations for planning a successful ride that can be employed when planning a Critical Mass. Additionally, almost all of the essays offer tips covering a variety of issues—legal questions, communication during rides, promotion, choosing a route, dealing with aggressive motorists, and more—that will make a Critical Mass ride more successful. Additionally, the book features a considerable number of graphics and flyers that can be used to create outreach material.
Critical Mass: Bicycing’s Defiant Celebration perfectly captures the spontaneous bike celebration that is Critical Mass. By collecting contributions from around the world the book captures the nearly infinite variety in Critical Mass rides and with its focus on both the practical organizing of Critical Mass and the overlying theoretical implications of Critical Mass, Critical Mass: Bicycling’s Defiant Celebration offers a comprehensive overview that both long-term participants and those who have never ridden in Critical Mass will enjoy. Moreover, it offers a variety of important organizing ideas that could be used to positively transform and expand Critical Mass in Grand Rapids.
Chris Carlsson, Critical Mass: Bicycling’s Defiant Celebration, (AK Press, 2002).
