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Davis Critical Mass on 5/30
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Paul Dorn
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Jun 03, 2003 15:34 PDT
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Hello: I'm forwarding an edited message from an
exchange yesterday. Somewhat lengthy, but provides an
assessment and a beginning. Also, to date, this
Critical Mass discussion list has a robust four
(4)participants. Please invite any interested friends
to subscribe and contribute. If you know anybody who
rode on Friday, it'd be interesting to get their
feedback.
If there *isn't* any interest in Critical Mass in
Davis, then it's a mistake to try to artificially
manufacture one. If there *is* interest, then I'd
guess we'd all like to see Critical Mass happen in an
positive way that empowers cyclists and social justice
activists. Haphazard and loose is a recipe for
disaster, which will only demoralize potential
participants. My hope is this discussion list and
website can help facilitate Critical Mass if there is
indeed interest.
(FYI: The only announcement of the Davis Critical Mass
discussion list was a posting to the Davis Bike Club
e-mail list, which has more than 400 subscribers. So
that might provide a clue about the DBC and Critical
Mass. To their credit, the DBC did host Chris
Carlsson's presentation this spring--with only a few
murmers of misgiving--attracting some 70 or so
people.)
Pablo
*********************
Hello Bob, Karen:
This is exactly the kind of conversation that should
happen on a discussion list. If you haven't already,
please subscribe at by e-mailing to:
DavisCriticalM-@topica.com.
There was a lot of positive energy with Friday's
(5/30)Critical Mass ride in Davis, but also a lot of
problems:
1) Lack of size: Many participants shouted at passing
cyclists ("join us, join us"), indicating a broad
recognition by participants that it wasn't actually a
"Critical Mass". Better efforts to publicize the ride,
especially during the week of the event, would help a
lot.
2) Lack of leadership/direction: The best Critical
Mass tradition in San Francisco and elsewhere is
xerocracy and voting. People or groups of people
create a ride route proposal, make copies, distribute
them, and then a vote is taken by the mass on which is
preferred. Lacking this, the ride is "led" by whomever
is at the front, or has the loudest voice, or the
strongest personality, or best costume, etc. Better a
clear acknowledgement of a direction and route than a
group of tentative and uncertain bicyclists.
3) Lack of purpose: What were we there for? There was
a vague reference to opposition to the war. But where
were the signs, leaflets, stickers, art--all the stuff
that makes Critical Mass in SF fun, creative and
inspiring. There are many issues in Davis to be
concerned about ("causes"): militarism and oil wars,
abundant speeding and red-light running, more 3-car
parking garages than affordable housing, the bio-lab,
animal testing, etc. Critical Mass creates a social
space where people can discuss these while having fun.
4) Lack of communication: About 20 people show up,
loiter quietly, then, gee, ride off in the unknown.
There needs to be more conversation: What are you here
for? What do you expect? Where do you wanna go? There
was also no communication with motorists, who, like
Karen says, are not the enemy, but are victims of the
petro-auto industrial complex as well. In SF and
elsewhere, Critical Massers create flyers to hand out
to pedestrians and motorists, who are always puzzled
and not always hostile.
Anyway, there are many things to consider, but at
least the conversation is started in Davis. One of the
problems is a generally poor understanding of Critical
Mass: people hear of it, or see a film or news story
about it, and think it just happens spontaneously.
They miss the "organizational" side: conversations,
e-mail exchanges, meetings, planning, flyering, etc.
The question I asked people was, have you ever done
the ride in SF?
There are many useful articles and links on the Davis
Critical Mass website at:
http://www.geocities.com/daviscriticalmass/ (Any
others to suggest?) The site includes links to my
article on CM and a couple articles by Chris Carlsson,
one of the key partipants in the original CM in SF,
and its leading historian and theorist. We could
easily invite Chris back up to talk about the SF
experience. Chris and I are developing a
paper/presentation on Critical Mass for the Walk/Bike
California 2003 conference in Oakland, which we could
easily present here as well. We don't need to reinvent
the wheel; a lot of lessons have been learned in SF
and elsewhere.
I'm optimistic the next Critical Mass in Davis can be
more positive. If it isn't, and the experience is
negative for everone, then it'll be merely another
failed effort in Davis.
Tailwinds,
Paul
-----Original Message-----
From: Karen V [mailto:]
Sent: Monday, June 02, 2003 1:45 PM
To: 'DeBarge, Robert'
Subject: RE: Davis Critical Mass
I am not entirely sure if the bottle throwing was
related to the critical mass. I had a sense that it
did, because the guy yelled "stupid hippies", since it
was after the ride and I was by myself at that point,
and definitely the only "hippie" on the road - which I
am not really, am I? -, I though that maybe he was
referring to the ride. Anyway. Yes, I am interested to
find out more about your and Paul's ideas, if you
could get me in touch with him. Let's talk. Karen
-----Original Message-----
From: Robert [mailto:]
Sent: Monday, June 02, 2003 12:54 PM
To: Karen
Subject: RE: Davis Critical Mass
Bottle throwing, yikes, that's ugly (Good thing it
wasn't glass). I didn't see that.
You make some great points, especially about
flags/banners. Can I forward your message to Paul?
Perhaps you could post it on the discussion page?
Bob
-----Original Message-----
From: Karen V
Sent: Monday, June 02, 2003 12:02 PM
To: Robert
Subject: RE: Davis Critical Mass
Someone threw a plastic bottle at me, after I left the
ride. I chased the car and wrote down the number. Then
I chickened out, went home, while Daniel and the
others were taking over the intersection on Richardson
Bvd. Later I decided not to call in the number. Well,
I didn't want to give the ride any police attention.
That, and I really am a chicken. I don't like how
groups get ruled by mechanics that seem to surpass
individual choice. For example I don't like to run red
lights and taunt drivers by driving in the middle of
the road, but even if I don't, others do and drivers
see a group behave this way and get angry. Sometimes
getting out of line serves a purpose, but I think that
we were irritating people without explaining them what
our purpose was. Flags and banners are definitely a
good idea. The group was too small to be called
critical mass and too large and too unruly to be
called a bike ride. I guess I'd rather have gone for a
bike ride. People in cars are not the enemy - we are
all drivers, whether we own a vehicle or not, (as I
think, you and I don't), we still depend on motorized
transportation for delivery of stuff - to the local
grocery store where we ride our bikes. Anyway, I was a
little bit scared after the bottle throwing. I also
worried about people riding in the middle of the
street, running red lights and the reaction we had on
traffic. Some drivers were furious and performed
outrageous maneuvers to get around us. Thanks to both
you and Paul for taking the initiative to distribute
information. Karen
-----Original Message-----
From: Robert [mailto:]
Sent: Monday, June 02, 2003 11:38 AM
To: 'Karen V'
Subject: RE: Davis Critical Mass
Friday's ride:
Boy, that's a big discussion....
Kudos to Dave R. for calling the ride--someone has to
take the initiative. Given the fact that he really
didn't publicize it, it's amazing we got that many
people. Leafletting a few days before at the corner of
B/3rd would be a great idea, I think. We'd get many
more bike commuters. Also, I'm sure there are student
orgs we could contact who would also put out the word.
There's also the local Green party. Anti-biolab
folks?
You dropped out at the same time I did: With such a
small group, I do object to riding on First Street
when there is a GREAT bike path that runs parallel to
it.
I don't know if you've ever been on a SF CM ride, but
they are instructive as far as organization, tactics,
fun pedal-driven vehicles go.
Paul and I discussed starting a Davis Bike Coalition
because no such cyclist advocacy group exists here in
Davis.
Overall, I'm happy it's begun. Let's try to make it
bigger next month.
Best,
Bob
-----Original Message-----
From: Karen V [mailto:]
Sent: Monday, June 02, 2003 11:35 AM
To: 'DeBarge, Robert'
Subject: RE: Davis Critical Mass
Excellent. What did you think of the Friday ride?
Karen
-----Original Message-----
From: DeBarge, Robert [mailto:rdeb-@ucdavis.edu]
Sent: Monday, June 02, 2003 11:19 AM
To: 'vanhe-@ucdavis.edu'
Subject: FW: Davis Critical Mass
Karen,
Don't know if you've seen this yet or not....
-----Original Message-----
From: Lev Bronstein
[mailto:daviscrit-@yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, June 02, 2003 11:24 AM
To: db-@topica.com
Subject: Davis Critical Mass
Hello:
Critical Mass happened again in Davis last Friday, a
small but promising start. To facilitate this event,
to hopefully ensure that it becomes a positive force
for advancing cycling and progressive activism in Yolo
County, I've created a discussion list at Topica.
Interested people can sign up at:
DavisCriticalM-@topica.com
I've also created a website at:
http://www.geocities.com/daviscriticalmass/
I hope to see you at the next Critical Mass, on
Friday, June 27. Bring signs, flyers, bells, smiles
and good humor.
Happy cycling,
Lev Bronstein
=====
Paul Dorn
Davis, CA, USA
Tired of fighting traffic? Try bike commuting!
Paul Dorn's Bike Commuting Tips
http://www.runmuki.com/commute
"an extremely complete and well thought out guide" - Ken Kifer
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