Former NPA candidate Sean Bickerton slams Critical Mass
Critical Mass participants take over downtown streets during July's ride in 2007.
Crossing the Burrard Bridge, a Critical Mass participant raises his bike in celebration.
A former Non-Partisan Association city council candidate is calling on Critical Mass riders to “declare victory” and reform the controversial month-end bicycle ride in light of recent gains.
“I saw the point of it when there wasn’t any dedicated bike infrastructure, when there were no protected or separated paths,” Sean Bickerton, an occasional cyclist, told the Straight by phone. “But when we’ve got an integrated network of safe bike paths that are separated, I don’t understand how they can simultaneously insist on the right to take over the entire road infrastructure, tie up the traffic for an hour, endanger emergency vehicles, tie up needed police resources that are scarce, without any coordination, without a permit, without paying any of the policing costs that go with it.”
For these reasons, Bickerton feels, cyclists should “comply with city regulations and laws like everybody else using the roads has to do”.
Critical Mass sets off from the Vancouver Art Gallery at 6 p.m. on the last Friday of every month, with the number of participants varying according to the weather and time of year. The ride is often criticized because the route isn’t announced ahead of time, which would help motorists to avoid it, but is arrived at by consensus during the ride.
Brent Granby, president of the West End Residents Association and an avid cyclist, told the Straight, “A city is never just about the efficient transportation of goods and services; it’s also about celebrating the city itself and the values that we have.”
Granby, a regular at Critical Mass, disagrees with Bickerton.
“Fundamentally, I think he just misunderstands what Critical Mass is about,” Granby said. “Like in medieval cities, they would open up the town square and they would have celebrations, and they celebrate being together and they celebrate their values as a society, and that’s what Critical Mass is about as well.”
He added, “I don’t think it’s too much to ask on the last Friday of the month, and usually we’re only talking about four months in the summertime. It’s a great thing for the city. It’s tourism. It’s like the running of the bulls.”
Last year, Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson and police chief Jim Chu called for a predetermined route for the ride in a joint news release ahead of the July 31 event, but the idea was not implemented.
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Comments
Well yeah, that's the method of the progressive/eco-socialist movement. Over-stress and bankrupt the "system" in order to destabilize it enough to FORCE the "change" they've been brainwashed into demanding. The whole bike lane saga is a great example of the progressive bicycommunist's distain for actual democracy, as the silent majority are not at all interested in borrowing more money for redundant bike lanes while cutting essential programs. The vocal minority of lululemon-clad 90 pound bicycultists is over-represented in the media and endlessly pandered to at city hall. This has a lot to do with "grant" money from huge progressive "charities" with billions to give away to these angry little "community organizers" and the politicians and media outlets that enable them.
Miguel
By all means, have a parade, have a party. Plan the route. You might even get more people, if they knew where to go.
Critical Mass is unlikely to end any time soon. When cyclists are finally treated with respect and freely given their rightful share of road space (not as an inadequate, unsafe afterthought) then Critical Mass will have fulfilled its role. But by then it will probably have evolved into a much more broadly supported celebration with current critics riding along with us. One day our streets might look a lot like Critical Mass every day.
When will that be? The current separated bike paths would best be described as a patchwork of unconnected routes. Apparently Critical Mass for the time being at least has the support of Bickerton!
In younger (and healthier days) I too performed various acts of mass civil disobedience, We all understood at the time when we were protesting against the war in Vietnam, the bombing of Cambodia etc., that we stood a good chance of being arrested. That was the price to be paid for making a statement Chief Constable Chu and the Mayor (himself a Critical Mass alumn) wrote the organization requesting that they obey traffic laws. They got the proverbial finger. Where then is the consequences of their law-breaking??
Of course,cyclists who break the law are well represented on our City Council. Neither stop signs (Meggs) nor red lights (Robertson) seem to have much of an impression on cyclists in a hurry. Perhaps that is why there is no enforcement. There is clearly no political support for it.
Frankly, my sympathies are with the working parents trying to get home to their kids on a Friday evening, with emergency vehicles trying to get through, and with the many others my age who, after an hour stalled in traffic simply need a toilet. Let's all cast our votes accordingly. Bravo Sean!!
Critical mass is a case of the Inconsiderate Cyclists getting together for the sole purpose of disrupting traffic.
The "We are Traffic" motto is Bunk. Traffic involves people who are travelling in different directions following rules so that every gets a turn to go where they are going. Critical Mass is about blocking everyone and anyone who does not conform to their chosen route on mode of transportation.
Better Traffic is about cooperation; Critical Mass is about escalating conflict.
The bike lane in the dt core have increased and are planned to be increased over the next few years. Things are good here and are getting better. Hold your protest where there is no improvements, not just starting at the Art Gallery just because it incoveniences the most people.
As with a parade, if Critical Mass obeyed traffic laws it would cause significantly more disruption to traffic as a whole.
We have never seen or heard of an emergency vehicle beiing blocked, slowed down or otherwise hampered by the Critical Mass ride. We have often seen emergency vehicles blocked, slowed down and hampered by motor traffic, not only downtown but wherever and whenever motor vehicles dominate our roadways.
The Critical Mass ride runs for about three hours, once per month. Being a single-line parade, it temporarily occupies a few intersections as the cycles pass through. It takes less time to pass through than other similar-sized, downtown parades (e.g. Santa Claus, Saint Patrick's, and other commercial events) It never blocks the whole downtown. The remaining 720-odd hours of the month, our roads are dominated by motor vehicles. Month in, month out, year after year.
My confusion may have stemmed from Granby's quote in the article: "usually we’re only talking about four months in the summertime."
Except for the bridge. I don't know why we still do that.
If they just want to be a bunch of inconsiderable disorderly aholes and just block traffic on purpose, police should disband and arrest them. Hell, I would love to be the guy on top of the firetruck hosing them down with a water cannon.
it's hardly worth crying over, cops should be happy this isn't berlin where anarchists used to trash the entire city every year on chaos day
Ha, have to agree with that sentiment. The medieval celebration analogy is not helping their cause anymore than continuing with it while ignoring attempts at dialogue and cooperation from the city amidst the gains that have been made for cycling.
This is very much the time to concede some victory (not necessarily over the entire war but some significant battles) or face an even bigger backlash than CM has already created. Do they even care or they just gonna continue their oh-so-rebellious woo hooo! ways as they continue to piss people off even more.
What are they gonna do when this disruption faces disruption from others who do not wish to take part in this "community celebration?"