Critical Mass!

As planned, Killaine & I went in the ¨Critical Mass¨ ride last night. It was a really cool experience in ¨randomly organized¨ group culture and a ton of fun.

The evening started off with cyclists gathering in front of the Art Gallery in downtown Vancouver:

At a little after 6:00pm, the group slowly coalesced and started moving out ... the crowd was pretty huge - I can´t estimate how many cyclists there were (I´ll have to read the paper tomorrow - but 2,000ish would be a good estimate) - if you take a look at this picture, you can see the huge line of cyclists going off down Howe Street:
From Howe, it was up onto the Granville Bridge - for the first of several ¨bridge celebrations¨. Note that the entire route is completely dictated by the group - no pre-planned route, and no planning with any authorities. Complete randomness! Certainly, this caused huge traffic tie ups throughout downtown - all to celebrate the bicycle, and to experience the freedom of cycling without worrying about traffic.
These folks are ¨corkers¨ - meaning, folks that block vehicles to let the other cyclists past safely. Note that the lead vehicle being ¨corked¨ here is a hummer!
Then ... over the Georgia Viaduct - note the big crowd behind ...
... and ahead:


Then, along and over to the Lions Gate Bridge for another Bridge Party. There were lots of eclectic folk there, and lots of neat bikes - from beaters to the latest full suspension jobs, and even some penny farthings (!) and unicycles!

Finally, we headed back into downtown around Stanley Park (by this time, the police had caught up with the group, and diverted us into the park). Still, another bridge celebration on Burrard - we eventually left the ride at around 8:30pm to cycle home.

All in all, it was a ton of fun - lots of happy cycling people, lots of community, and just a real fun feeling that we were demonstrating how cyclists are an integral part of the transportation options within Vancouver.