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Critical Mass in Vancouver BC has ridden on the last Friday of every month on and off since the early 90s and continuously since at least Feb, 1998

Contents 1 The Ride 2 Themes 3 Police 4 Politics 5 other rides 6 Websites/mailing list

The RideEdit

meet 5 to 5:30 pm, leave 6 pm-ish last friday of EVERY month at the Vancouver Art Gallery on the Georgia Street side [by the fountain] We go in the rain, snow, or sunshine -- every month of the year. Come out, bring your friends and families, bring costumes, noisemakers and signs.

The ride in Vancouver has been known for being peaceful with an emphasis on fun and inclusivness. The ride is very family friendly and strives to be inclusive to all genders, sexualities, ages, politcal outlooks, and the many cultural groups that make up Vancouver. We also invite any kind of self propulsion like skateboards, wheelchairs, pedal couches. Power assisted bicycles are welcome but reminded to show caution. We also try to support pedestrian rights and encourage walkers or runners to attend the ride though it can be hard to keep pace. Politicians regularly attend rides before elections to canvass cyclist support. The ride does not endorse any exclusive political position so often political groups with other agendas - (ie social housing, anti-olympic, general strike, global warming, political parties... to name just a few) will attend and try to catch some of the ride's momentum. Depending on if the masses of riders are receptive this strategy may or may not work. There is a professionally produced documentary produced about Vancouver Critical Mass and bike culture called, You Never Bike Alone, which does a good job of looking at the history and context of the Vancouver ride.

ThemesEdit

There are often theme/dress up rides. Some of these are regular:

• The May ride is often a pirate Theme.
• The October ride is always a dress up for halloween ride.
• The July ride, during Vancouver's Gay Pride celebrations is Pride themed.
• The June Mass-ive ride during B.E.S.T.'s Bike month is promoted as the biggest ride of the year, having thousands of riders. This tradition started in 2003 with the "1000 Wheels ride" when promoters hoped for 500 riders (ie 2 wheels per bike) and beat expectations when about 800 turned up. The 2004 ride was called the 2000+4 Wheels ride (ie 1002 2 wheeled bikes), and likewise for 2000+5. The June, 2006 ride was billed as a 3000 Wheel ride and one verified count put the turnout upwards of 1900 people. Often ride turnout number reports are given as simply "Thousands" because bicycles take up more road space than a traditional march/protest with people on foot. The 2009 ride was said to have 3000 people.

The themes of the ride changes as does the city.

In the past there were some notable special event rides:

• Wholesome Undy
• Clitoral Mass
• Dinosaurs Against Fossil Fuels Rides
• Tame the Lions Rides

PoliceEdit

Police and Critical Mass generally been on friendly terms. Sometimes police will take over corking at large intersections which can be a mixed blessing, the policy of the ride being that riders should take responsibility for their own corking for safety and solidarity reasons. Often police have issued tickets to motorists engaging in dangerous or threatening behavior which has helped to defuse road rage conflicts and given riders reason to be cooperative with policing. There have however been altercations such as prejudicial enforcement of mandatory helmet laws or the like, but only rarely often due to special circumstances. Less than a dozen arrests (all minor) or serious conflicts during hundreds of rides since 1998. There has been some suggestion of conflict with the police in the summer of 2009 likely due to security hyper-vigilance buildup for the 2010 Olmypics. Most of this conflict turned out to be media sensationalism which actually increased rider turnout. Police did not behave unusually despite dire predictions in the city's media.

PoliticsEdit

Though the Critical Mass ride isn't formally organised and cannot endorse any specific political position - generally there are groups which espouse ideas that really resonate about public space, the city, the environment, and social justice:

• Stop Gateway Highway
• Anti-olympic stuff
• Car Free Vancouver
• Rail for the Valley

(please add to this list but only cite large, local issues. Otherwise we should make a seperate section or page which lists more specific causes such as the Woodwards Squatters in 2002)

other ridesEdit

• Surrey critical mass
• There is a Midnight Mass bike ride on alternating Thursdays at midnight.
• There are ongoing cruiser bike rides.
• The Margaret Charles Chopper Collective has had regular rides on the first friday of the month in the past.
• There is a Vancouver Dead Baby Bikes club? (started in Seattle)
• The Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition organises regular group rides.
• There were rides called Electric Moon Bananas.
• Momentum Magazine often organises or promotes group rides
• There is a meetup group
• ...Please add to this rough list.

The fixedvancouver website often is up-to-date with these rides

Websites/mailing listEdit

• A good way to find out about the ride is the discussion velolove mailing list which was created for the purpose of promoting CM and bike culture in Vancouver after Vancouver's 2001 Bike Summer. This list has been unrealiable in the past, sometimes not working for long periods. It is great when it works and free for anyone to join. The list is moderated to prevent spam and keep it on topic.
• The most likely website to check for Vancouver info is the vancouver cm blogger page which is sometimes up to date, sometimes not, but tries to be and you are invited to email rusl.ca if you would like become a member and post there.
• This has been the Vancouver Critical Mass web page since 1998. However this page is very old and never updated anymore. The infomation on it is still generally accurate, and there are some useful resources still freely available there, and some ride history.
• Vancouver Critical Mass is documented in the 80-minute film You Never Bike Alone, looking at the how the monthly rides developed from the early 1990s to the present.

• There was an attempt to re-invent the website at velolove.gowlin.org but this effort was never fully realised and now the drupal site is over-run with spam
• The domain velolove.bc.ca is meant to link to the Vancouver Critical Mass website, however, lacking an up to date page to link to it currently points to the spammy drupal page above.
• some people who have run the velolove list have recently launched Velopalooza which is meant to be a Portland Bike Fun style community celebration during June Bike Month (by B.E.S.T.)
• This bikesexual.org hub featured the Dinosaurs Against Fossil Fuels years ago.
• The fixed Vancouver forum is one of the most active hubs for vancouver bike culture. Often social or polical rides will be posted here and nowhere else because this is the most up to date place to check. This website is not exclusive to fixie riders or fashion cycling.
• There are CM Vancouver groups on flickr, youtube, facebook twitter and elsewhere?... Could someone please add more of these links here? Thanks.