spinnaker

So then you admit that 1-3 are also crucial to form a CM?

David13

chewy
I saw a video of one critical mass in vancouver yesterday. Just about like you said. A few people who complained. But most were all in favor. If I was in my car, I would just wait patiently. Like I do for the train, when I have to.
Maybe some of the people will learn patience. It's a virtue.
dc

WCoastPeddler

Hey, nothing wrong with being an unemployed, tattooed and pierced dropout who has time to organize a bike ride.

BarracksSi

In other words, nobody to take responsibility.

WCoastPeddler

What's wrong with that other than there's no single person to point a finger at if you don't like what's going on?

subdermis2000

I echo all the -ve comments of the other posters: CM rides only piss everyone off.

That said, CM is not the only way to actively promote cycling and cycling issues in your community. For example, in Winnipeg we've had a couple of highly organized rides to promote cycling and the needs of cyclists. The one in which I particpated had a parade permit (which includes the blessing of the police department for the ride), an assistive and cooperative police escort, and over 500 cyclists participating.

Talk to some LBSs and try something like that instead.

Story about the ride here https://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/st...pin-rally.html

chewybrian 

"...Congress shall make no law...abridging...the right of the people peaceably to assemble..."

Nothing in there about needing a permit, or someone to sue... I didn't see anything wrong on the ride I was in. People blew a few red lights, like a funeral without the purple flags. It which was the easiest way to keep the group together; illegal, but morally not so bad.

Back to the original question: I am not trying to be funny; this is how I would do it: I would go to the library, and create an email account on yahoo or some such place:

CMMissiwhatever@yahoo.com.

Also, I would make up a page at Myspace or some such place.

WWW.CMMissiwhatevermyspace.org

Then, put up some flyers with the email address, the myspace page, and the time and place of the proposed ride (last Friday of every month at 5:30 at Washington Park at the fountain...). Make sure to say:"email for more info". Put them up around the local colleges, which would get you the most hits. Put them up on or near local bike paths, bmx parks, etc.. I'd stick them on people's windshields at the parking lots for MUPs and bike routes.

When you get good email responses, give them the email password, and ask them to send out invitations to their friends as CMMissi... This way, nobody can tell who started the whole thing; it just happens. Then just show up and ride along. If there is enough interest, that might get the ball rolling.

P.s. edit: Notices on all the bike sections of area Craigslists, with the email invite, might work, too.

BarracksSi

To the OP:

Go ahead, do it. See what happens.

WCoastPeddler

Awesome! Nice to see that you're finally a supporter of CM!

BarracksSi

Bwahahahaha... ho ho ho... HA...

Let's see if, just for ONCE, that a CM ride doesn't draw any complaints.

I double-dog dare the OP to make it happen. It will make history as being the first ever Critical Mass that might succeed.

WCoastPeddler

Oooh... a double dog dare. This is going to be exciting.

chewybrian 

Below are a couple real-life examples, from this thread, of rides that did succeed. The large majority of responses from the public were positive. Doesn't that make them a success? Or, if one road rager throws up his hands because he was denied a green light, does that make the whole thing a failure?

The ideas that the rides are all confrontational seem to be just that: ideas. The posters critical of the concept did not (yet) post any real-life examples of confrontations, bad acts, etc.--only their impressions of what they think, or want to think, is going on out there.

I went to a ride and participated with an open mind. It was fun, and nothing bad happened. If people want to criticize the concept fairly, why don't they try it, or at least witness it, first? It's free, it's easy... I triple dog dare you, Barrack.

wunderkind

See here : https://www.bikeforums.net/commuting/575243-anyone-see.html

CM started with good intentions. But in our area, it has turned into a leaderless, lets make an excuse to cause mayhem and havoc to the city. I know for sure that the local bicycle advocacy group here does not participate nor sponsor this event. What the advocacy group has been doing and quite successfully is through working with the various levels of governments to introduce and improve bicycle infrastructure.

OP is better off with working with such groups. But if you want to cause a traffic backlog on Hurontario St or Eglinton Rd, be my guess. You do know how trigger happy them OPP juniors right?

Timber_8

Did I see a Double Dog Dare. Yea baby

BarracksSi

I might as well have written "poibuaesf o lhu f;hi f hwe;h ln;" because he's not gonna listen to what anyone else has to say anyway -- especially if they're telling him "don't f'ing DO it".

*add-on*Because, Lord knows you can't tell a kid "No" these days. After all, you're "infringing on their rights", whatever that means.

spinnaker

OK can we please have some etiquette here! Everyone knows the proper procession is:

1. Dare you
2. Double dare you.
3. Dog dare you.
4. Double dog dare you.


Please don't skip ahead and have a little class!

BarracksSi

To paraphrase Harvey Keitel's "The Wolf" --

"Pretty please, with sugar on top... Have a f'in Critical Mass."

Robert Foster

If fellow cyclists have problem with the image CM leaves and you have already seen that objection here just how positive or a response do you think the event will garner?

But if you must:

Follow the rules don’t block traffic and don’t anger the drivers the commuting and Club cyclists have to ride with the rest of the week.

However it would be better to model yourself after Critical Manners or Ride Civil.

Kimmitt 

It must just be that I'm late to the game on cycling that I actually wonder how many cagers will get away with negligently murdering bicyclists without consequence before people will actually get riled up.

BarracksSi

I think that cyclists need to learn how to ride safely first.

geo8rge

https://www.ehow.com/how_2087560_start-cult.html

WCoastPeddler

You're pretty quick to blame cyclists. Do you really think that all cyclist deaths have been the fault of cyclists?

Oh, and I suspect that if some cyclists insist upon calling motorists by the derogatory term "cagers" that it's not doing anything to help the cause.

BlazingPedals

It can't possibly succeed, because there's no stated goal. No metric by which to compare failure or success. I guess it could be considered a minor success if nobody gets arrested, but if they do I'm sure we'll hear a sob story here about how the police were mean to them just because they blocked all the lanes of traffic in both directions, banged on car hoods, corked intersections, blew red lights, and all the other pleasant activities that are part of a good, clean, fun CM ride. Those nasty cops!

BarracksSi

Oh there's a stated goal, all right -- it's to "raise awareness of cycling."

You know, that riding-on-two-wheeled-machines thing that people have been doing since the mid-1800's?

This is what they're doing to educate people who have never seen a bicycle in their lifetime, or never saw them for sale at their local discount store, or never saw their friends or family members ride, or who never watched even a minute of a bicycle race on TV,...

You know, just in case some people out there are completely unaware of the existence of this oldfangled contraption called a "bicycle", there are cyclists out there who want to shove it down their throats.

That's the purpose for Critical Mass.

And, as usual, a few billion Chinese don't even care.

IronMac

I have the email address for the originator of Critical Manners rides in the US if anyone would like it. (Of course, I'd ask her permission first.)

I'm in Toronto and after the Gardiner Expressway stunt all I can say is that CM does NOT speak for me.

The OP is in Mississauga which has a mayor that recognizes that they've made a huge boo-boo in not taking into account alternative forms of travel to the car. She is moving hard to rectify the situation so the question is why not work within the system?