Critical Mass in Nap Town!

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A few friends and I are gathering a small group of bicyclists this upcoming year (for one and only one day) to ride through the streets of Annapolis and reclaim the streets that cars generally frequent on during rush hour.  This is certainly a dangerous but extremely exciting event to partake in and the more participants the merrier.  We are trying to spike an interest in other bikers to join in so that we have a large body of bikers to frequent the streets of Annapolis. I made the flyers (shown at left...date is non-specific to the event) that roll up and fit easily in the spokes of wheels with the goal to distribute as many as we can to bikes located around town. And we'll make sure to skip the police bikes.

Critical Mass is a bicycle-centered social movement or as most authorities would call it, a social protest.  It consists of a large gathering of bicyclists that meet and clot the streets slowing cars down and stopping all regular traffic patterns.  In some large Critical Masses, all intersections would reach their "Critical Mass" due to traffic being so heavily backed up.  Contrary to belief, the participants in the Critical Mass see it as a celebration and a unique spontaneous gathering where friendly law abiding citizens from the city would gather and reclaim the streets of their city.  

Past Critical Mass's have gathered up to 300 participants. It's a real traffic jam, but only for those commuting by car!  The event is to be held on the last Friday of every month around 5:30pm (right in time for rush hour) and requires little to no direction at all.  You just show up and follow whomever you wish or lead your own way around the streets.  The idea is not to use any official route when riding that way it is not percieved as a devised attack or social protest.  Sometimes a tactic called "corking" is used so that participants can reconvene back to the pack to keep the numbers strong.  Basically corking is when a few bikers block traffic from side roads so that the mass can freely proceed through red lights without interruption.  

Needless to say, Critical Mass pisses people off and especially those individuals in charge of traffic control. Eventhough all participants are law abiding citizens, people in their cars get frustrated and angry and as one can easily believe, they do outrageous things to release their road rage.  

The event originated in the streets of London where hundreds of bikers started the movement because they were tired of being pushed off the roads-roads that they had every right to frequent on. It's a powerful statement that will surely cause a riot! 

Chicago 2005 Critical Mass