Critical Mass: Riding the Gardiner
Critical mass: the event that pits the cyclists against the motorists for an afternoon on the last Friday of every month. The event is controversial for essentially everyone who is aware of its history and its motives. For some, it is an infrequent hippy event, somewhat like a parade, that rolls by and is gone in a few minutes. For the occasional rush hour driver, it can add half an hour or more to an already terrible commute. For the activist cyclist, it provides the one time a month when cyclists can take the road within the safety of a large, slow moving group.
Having been to a few critical mass rides in Vancouver, I knew what to expect for the ride in Toronto. However, because the May 2008 Toronto ride occurred during the first week of bike month, I thought that perhaps something more interesting than minor conflicts with motorists and people on crazy bicycles might be in the works.
The first hour of the ride was fairly uneventful. A group of several hundred cyclists draws applause from some and ire from others, but this is hardly new for any who has attended one of these events before. However, when we reached the Jarvis onramp to the Gardiner expressway, my interest was piqued. Several hundred cyclists is a significant force, but taking over a freeway was not going to be easy. Even if we could take the lanes, climbing onto the Gardiner moved the group from sitting mostly in legal territory (although near the edge) into sitting clearly on the wrong side of the law.
However, after losing a few cyclists on the climb up to the highway, the cars yielded quickly allowing us to push all the way across and take all three lanes. On Sunday, during the Becel Bike for Heart, a much larger number of cyclists will be doing exactly the same thing, but there was still a surge of excitement in the fact that we were traffic here and not just out for a joy ride.
As we rolled by the Spadina exit, I remembered the most appealing things about critical mass from my Vancouver rides: The complete lack of organized leadership. As we rode up onto the Gardiner, I assumed that we'd be getting off at the earliest possible exit, but that belies my assumption that someone had planned this and that they were acting in the same conservative (and responsible) way that most of society's leaders act. However, having observed the process of decision making in these kinds of groups before it was most definitely a small group of people taking initiative while the rest hesitantly followed.
It was a couple of kilometers past Spadina when I began to hear the police sirens and a squad car come roaring by at a ridiculous speed. At this point, we knew we were trapped between the police barricading the road at the next exit and the police in the traffic behind. For a quick second, I thought that maybe we were in real trouble, but the rational part of my brain took over and decided that they just wanted us off the highway as soon as possible. A few cyclists, either desperately wanting to avoid any confrontation with the police or vastly misunderstanding the purpose of their presence, decided to climb the embankments on the highway to get themselves out of the situation. There was a brief pause on the hill descending towards the Jameson exit with the police below before we continued up the offramp and back into the city streets.
A minority of people wanted to ride by the cops and continue down the Gardiner but most of us just wanted to continue on our way. At least one guy was thrown to the ground and subsequently arrested. The crowd wasn't very happy about the force used, but dispersed fairly quickly nonetheless.
On our way back into the city, we all had the time to reflect on what taking the Gardiner would mean to critical mass in Toronto and perhaps the wider relationship between cyclists and motorists in this city. After news making events such as these, crowds are always left in awe and always have the same look of bewilderment. Still, no one seemed to come to any conclusions other than being proud of accomplishing something that raises awareness without anyone getting hurt. I continued pondering until I arrived home and realized that for most of those not involved in the actual event, confusion about the motives of critical mass is probably widespread. An article in the Toronto star best illustrates the disconnect between critical massers and the general public. A common slogan heard at critical mass rides is "We're not blocking traffic, we are traffic". The Toronto Star and the Toronto police seem to both miss this point when the article closes with the following line:
"[Seargent McBratney] said police were unsure as to why the cyclists were blocking the lanes."
Having been to a few critical mass rides in Vancouver, I knew what to expect for the ride in Toronto. However, because the May 2008 Toronto ride occurred during the first week of bike month, I thought that perhaps something more interesting than minor conflicts with motorists and people on crazy bicycles might be in the works.
The first hour of the ride was fairly uneventful. A group of several hundred cyclists draws applause from some and ire from others, but this is hardly new for any who has attended one of these events before. However, when we reached the Jarvis onramp to the Gardiner expressway, my interest was piqued. Several hundred cyclists is a significant force, but taking over a freeway was not going to be easy. Even if we could take the lanes, climbing onto the Gardiner moved the group from sitting mostly in legal territory (although near the edge) into sitting clearly on the wrong side of the law.
However, after losing a few cyclists on the climb up to the highway, the cars yielded quickly allowing us to push all the way across and take all three lanes. On Sunday, during the Becel Bike for Heart, a much larger number of cyclists will be doing exactly the same thing, but there was still a surge of excitement in the fact that we were traffic here and not just out for a joy ride.
As we rolled by the Spadina exit, I remembered the most appealing things about critical mass from my Vancouver rides: The complete lack of organized leadership. As we rode up onto the Gardiner, I assumed that we'd be getting off at the earliest possible exit, but that belies my assumption that someone had planned this and that they were acting in the same conservative (and responsible) way that most of society's leaders act. However, having observed the process of decision making in these kinds of groups before it was most definitely a small group of people taking initiative while the rest hesitantly followed.
It was a couple of kilometers past Spadina when I began to hear the police sirens and a squad car come roaring by at a ridiculous speed. At this point, we knew we were trapped between the police barricading the road at the next exit and the police in the traffic behind. For a quick second, I thought that maybe we were in real trouble, but the rational part of my brain took over and decided that they just wanted us off the highway as soon as possible. A few cyclists, either desperately wanting to avoid any confrontation with the police or vastly misunderstanding the purpose of their presence, decided to climb the embankments on the highway to get themselves out of the situation. There was a brief pause on the hill descending towards the Jameson exit with the police below before we continued up the offramp and back into the city streets.
A minority of people wanted to ride by the cops and continue down the Gardiner but most of us just wanted to continue on our way. At least one guy was thrown to the ground and subsequently arrested. The crowd wasn't very happy about the force used, but dispersed fairly quickly nonetheless.
On our way back into the city, we all had the time to reflect on what taking the Gardiner would mean to critical mass in Toronto and perhaps the wider relationship between cyclists and motorists in this city. After news making events such as these, crowds are always left in awe and always have the same look of bewilderment. Still, no one seemed to come to any conclusions other than being proud of accomplishing something that raises awareness without anyone getting hurt. I continued pondering until I arrived home and realized that for most of those not involved in the actual event, confusion about the motives of critical mass is probably widespread. An article in the Toronto star best illustrates the disconnect between critical massers and the general public. A common slogan heard at critical mass rides is "We're not blocking traffic, we are traffic". The Toronto Star and the Toronto police seem to both miss this point when the article closes with the following line:
"[Seargent McBratney] said police were unsure as to why the cyclists were blocking the lanes."
posted by Timothy Fowler at 5/30/2008 09:51:00 PM
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