“We ride as a group!” Critical Mass and the Psychology of Collective Empowerment

I recently presented this paper at the meeting of the International Society for Political Psychology, July 2010, San Francisco.

Michael T. Schmitt, Chad M. Danyluck, Alexandra Inzuzza, & Naghmeh Tafreshi
Simon Fraser University

One of the major technological advances of the last century is the automobile, providing unprecedented mobility, convenience, and individual freedom, but not without serious costs. The widespread use of the car has facilitated sprawl and undermined local businesses and communities (Sloman, 2006). Globally, 1.2 million people die every year in car collisions, and another 50 million are injured (World Health Organization, 2009). Cars are harmful to the natural environment in myriad ways. For example car emissions make up 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions (in the United States, 20% of total emissions are from cars) and emissions from cars are increasing as car ownership and use continues to increase (DeCicco & Fung, 2006). And cars increase the demand for oil, leading us to extract oil in increasingly risky ways.

Given these costs, it is not surprising that when imagining what a sustainable and more livable world might look like, many people imagine compact cities and towns where transportation by car is a rarity, and perhaps with the exception of walking, most commutes would be made by bicycle (Mapes, 2009). Although a major shift from cars to bikes has yet to be realized, this dream becomes a reality once a month, in cities across the world, for participants in what are known as Critical Mass bike rides (Carlsson, 2008, pp 139-143). These self-propelled crowds can number in the thousands, displacing motor vehicle traffic, and giving us a glimpse of a possible future.

The first Critical Mass bike ride took place in San Francisco in 1992, when a group of about 50 cyclists arranged to ride together, as a group, through city streets. Since then, Critical Mass rides have emerged independently in hundreds of cities around the world. Rides are typically held on the last Friday of every month starting at a set time and place. Once established, the set time and place requires no further organization or decision-making, helping the event to reoccur even without a formal organizational structure.

Although there are no recognized leaders or organizers, some participants do take it upon themselves to promote the ride, to explain how the ride works to new participants, and to shape ride culture. Some people make flyers to hand out, others might maintain a website, facebook group, or listserv to remind people about the ride and offer a forum for discussion. But none of these people see themselves as occupying a special position of authority, and if anyone did try to put themselves forward as being “in charge” they would be ignored and unsuccessful at influencing the ride.

Ride participants describe Critical Mass in different ways: some see it is a protest against car culture, others a demonstration for cyclists’ right to the road, and commonly, it’s described as a celebration of bicycles. Indeed, the ride does have a festive atmosphere, including music, costumes, and unusual, but spectacular bicycles. The only formalized goal of the ride, however, or at least the only one everyone seems to agree on, is that participants will ride as a group, with, as the name implies, a critical mass of cyclists to displace cars on city streets and fill them with self-propelled transportation.

However, this relatively simple idea dramatically changes power relations and who has access to road space. First and foremost, the shift in power follows from the intention and practice of riding as a group. To make this feasible, cyclists have to occupy parts of the road typically reserved for cars, if not in law, then at least in practice. So rather than riding single-file on the periphery of the road, Critical Mass takes up multiple traffic lanes, and occasionally the entire width of the street. Second, the group maintains a clear boundary that keeps cars and other motor vehicles out of the mass. In that way, the ride creates a car-free space on the road, dramatically changing the experience of cycling.

Of course, normal traffic rules are not accommodating to the practice of riding in such a large group. A ride could easily be passing through an intersection when a traffic signal turns red. If the cyclists obeyed the traffic signal, the mass would be divided, and cars would enter in between cyclists. In this situation riders ignore the signal and proceed through the intersection. Another practice that has developed to protect ride boundaries and keep participants safe is called “corking.” Essentially, corking involves using your body and bike to physically block motor vehicles from entering the mass.

As a collective event that shifts power relations, Critical Mass provides an opportunity to study issues of collective empowerment. Following the Elaborated Social Identity Model (or ESIM; Drury & Reicher, 2005, 2009), I consider the empowerment experience to result from participating in collective action that imposes a collective identity on the world, in the context of intergroup struggle. Following Marx, Drury and Reicher refer to this process as one of Collective Self-Objectification. Collective self-objectification describes the subjective sense that participation in a collective action results in a shift in power relations that is not mundane, but challenges dominant practice while realizing the collective’s idea of legitimate practice. Thus, it seems that Critical Mass rides might have the features that would lead to the experience of empowerment. The focus of this paper is to explore whether or not the Critical Mass experience is empowering, and if so, whether there is any evidence that empowerment results from collective self-objectification as described by ESIM.

We’ve examined these questions using qualitative data from a larger ethnographic study on Critical Mass rides in Vancouver, British Columbia. The data analyzed here comes from over 300 short interviews conducted with Critical Mass participants as they gathered to meet up for the ride. These interviews took place monthly from April 2009 to Feb 2010.

Evidence of collective identity
Before examining issues of empowerment directly, it’s worth taking a step back to ask whether there is evidence of collective identity operating in the first place. Although it might seem obvious, it is still worth checking that people were operating at the level of collective identity. Our interviews provided ample evidence that participants do think about Critical Mass in collective terms. For example, one participant describing the ride experience said:

…it’s so wonderful to have the whole street to yourself. May 2009 #41

It sounds strange at first to claim that you have the street to yourself when you’re surrounded by hundreds or thousands of other cyclists, unless, of course, the self is being defined collectively.

References to the ride as a single entity are common, for example,

…I really love just the idea that we’re all just one big organism. July 2009 #18

Evidence of Collective Empowerment
Moving on to empowerment, we can infer its presence from the behaviours of participants, who would not normally ride in the middle of the road or block car traffic with their body and bicycle. But we can also find evidence of empowerment in responses to our questions about what it feels like to participate in Critical Mass. Participants report that the ride is an extremely positive emotional experience, using words like euphoric, elated, and joyful. And they do mention issues of power more directly. One participant said…

…this is the one time you can ride and you feel like power and solidarity and you don’t feel threatened, like it’s just really a great feeling to be able to ride and just be like wow all these people we are on the same boat. June 2009 #40

And people do express feelings of empowerment that extend beyond the ride:

…the first time I rode in Critical Mass… I was on a high for a week. September 2009 #37

… I’m here because I know that CM is always going to be an empowering experience for me, and I always come out of it just feeling much more assertive about my right to be on the road… November 2009 #4

Participants commonly express a sense of liberation during the ride, noting that participating in the ride gives them a sense of freedom and safety that they don’t normally have on the road.

Evidence of Collective Self-Objectification
Is this empowerment, as suggested by ESIM, a function of collective self-objectification? Is the action, for participants, an “imposition of self or identity in the world” in the context of intergroup struggle (Drury & Reicher, 2009)? One common way of describing the ride is that it “takes over the street” or “reclaims space.” Such descriptions make clear that participants see the ride as subverting and inverting typical power relations and who has access to what space. Furthermore, participants describe the Critical Mass experience as a reversal of power relations within an oppressive system. For example…

…if you’ve ever gone in commuter traffic, you know that cars are aggressive, SUVs are aggressive, buses are aggressive. They will shove you off the road, they’ll drive you off the road, they’ll honk at you for being on the road so, it’s nice at least for one hour a month to take back that which is rightfully ours. May 2009 #19

…it’s just also an opportunity to feel like you’re not the minority on the road, but that you’re the majority. November 2009 #1

Thus, the shift of power is not experienced as mundane, but novel. As one participant explains,

…have you seen the zombie movie Dawn of the Dead where they show London with no one around? It kind of feels like that, like you’re just amazed that you can be riding down the middle of street that normally is totally taken over by cars and you wouldn’t be able to do that. May 2009 #40

The collective action is not only seen as a subversion of dominant practice, but the realization of legitimate practice.

I think critical mass is always a site for people who like to just enact their politics, really live their politics in a very physical and personal kind of way. April 2009 #5

I’m a firm believer that bicycles should be dominant on the road over cars anyway. August 2009 #20

One common theme that emerged in our data is the sense of togetherness and community that exists in Critical Mass. And this is another way in which Critical Mass imposes its identity and idea of legitimate practice. In her book, Car Sick, Lynn Sloman (2009) argues, “The car is an individualizing technology, which encourages us to make self-interested choices and adopt self-centered values” (p. 43). But during Critical Mass rides, rather than streets being antisocial spaces, they become the site for an emergent community. As one participant put it,

…it’s fun to have that sense of solidarity, like having something in common with so many people, cause I find that we so rarely have that in our society, cause we’re so individualistic. The fact that you have this community of strangers that there’s this one thing that’s bringing you together, it’s pretty fun. June 2009 #44

In addition, many participants saw the ride as an imposition of more environmentally sustainable practice. Quoting one participant,

…if we don’t start taking more trips by bike and public transit, we’re going to cook the earth, so we’re going to die. July 2009 #23

Conclusions
This analysis suggests that participants in Critical Mass rides do experience empowerment. Furthermore, results are consistent with ESIM’s contention that collective participation encourages empowerment through collective self-objectification. Whether such empowerment leads to other kinds of collective action outside of Critical Mass is a question requiring more study, but there are good reasons to believe that it does. For example, a group of a few hundred bicyclists calling themselves the “Bike Bloc” participated in protests against the recent G8/G20 meetings in Toronto—also home to a regular Critical Mass ride. Promotional material urging others to participate referenced Critical Mass directly: “We all know Critical Mass – and we love the feeling of empowerment we get from it month after month. But why stop there? We can do so much more” (http://attacktheroots.net/node/279).

References
Carlsson, C. (2008). Nowtopia: How Pirate Programmers, Outlaw Bicyclists, and Vacant-Lot Gardeners are Inventing the Future Today! Oakland, CA, USA: AK Press.

DeCicco, J. & Fung, F. (2006). Global Warming on the Road: The Climate Impact of America’s Automobiles. Prepared for Environmental Defense.

Drury, J., & Reicher, S. (2005). Explaining enduring empowerment: A comparative study of collective action and psychological outcomes. European Journal of Social Psychology, 35, 35-58.

Drury, J., & Reicher, S. (2009). Collective psychological empowerment as a model of social change: Researching crowds and power. Journal of Social Issues, 65, 707-725.

Mapes, J. (2009). Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists are Changing American Cities. Corvallis, OR, USA: Oregon State University Press.

Sloman, L. (2006). Car Sick: Solutions for our Car-addicted Culture. Devon, UK: Green Books.

World Health Organization (2009). Global Status Report on Road Safety: Time for Action. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization Press.

interview with Ian Bickis

Ian Bickis recently interviewed me for an article on Vancouver Critical Mass for Momentum. The full interview is below. The article will appear in the the Nov/Dec issue.  Look for it!

1) How informed do you think participants are of what critical mass is for and how it operates?

There is a wide range of knowledge about Critical Mass. Many people we talk to demonstrate complex and thoughtful understandings of the mass, its history and culture, and have highly thought-out beliefs about the purpose of the mass. But since we started looking at this in April, we also talk to a lot of people who have almost no knowledge of the ride and how it works. Many of these people are first-timers, but some have participated three, four, five times, and still have ideas about the mass that don’t jive with what we’ve observed, and what many long-time massers take for granted. For instance, many people are coming to the ride without any idea of what “corking” is, and how the ride will manage traffic lights. Perhaps more fundamentally, many newer riders assume that the ride is somehow centrally organized, and thus don’t feel any sense of agency or responsibility for determining how the ride works through their own behaviour. For example, they might think the route is predetermined, or that who will cork is pre-determined, and thus don’t engage themselves with those issues.

This lack of information mostly comes from the massive influx of new riders. It also comes from a local media drooling in anticipation of a Critical Mass blood bath (which hasn’t materialized), and from politicians who knowingly promote falsehoods about critical mass, such as the City and VPD promoting the idea that Critical Mass is some kind of organization with official leadership with whom they can negotiate.

What’s perhaps most interesting about this lack of knowledge and shared understanding of the ride is the response by Critical Mass participants. Some basic information about the ride is communicated regularly to the gathered participants by megaphone or small PA. Obviously, the message doesn’t always get across, and concerned massers have spontaneously employed some of the common practices for maintaining critical mass culture—distributing flyers about the ride, and distributing (and discussing) similar information on the Velolove list and facebook group. Addition, a small group of participants called for a meeting of those who care about Critical Mass. About 40 people attended and discussed issues facing the mass and ways of approaching them most effectively while respecting the non-hierarchical, emergent ideal of the mass.

The one point on which all participants seem to share a common understanding is that a lot of people are going to cycle together and take up a lot of asphalt.

2) How possible is it for some in the group to influence the behaviour of other (such as encouraging less antagonistic actions, not blocking oncoming traffic and keeping the group moving)?

First, let me say that the problems you list are not, in my opinion, the most important issues facing the ride. The most important issue to most Critical Massers is safety, and safety depends on comprehensive corking, and a pace and route that allows the ride to stay together as a group with no thin spots. Another safety issue concerns responding to anger in ways that de-escalate conflict and violence.

But to answer the more general question, it’s definitely possible for some massers to influence the behaviour of other massers, and help determine the behaviour of the mass as a whole. Perhaps the most important way of influencing others is leading by example. The more riders there are corking, the more motivated other riders will be to cork. If riders see other riders responding to aggression in a peaceful manner, the less likely they are to respond to aggression with more aggression. People can also intervene in situations to suggest alternatives, discourage others from certain behaviours, etc. In our research, we’ve seen how some people’s actions can influence others and affect the behaviour and experience of the ride as a whole. Another way in which people can influence the ride is through attempting to educate newer riders on how the mass works, and encouraging individuals to make choices that thoughtfully take others’ well-being into account. And quite simply, people can influence others by engaging in dialogue with other riders, before, during, and after the ride.

We see evidence of all these mechanisms of influence in the ride currently, and its clear many of them have been in place for sometime, or have emerged when people perceived the need. Importantly, the mechanisms of influence at work are non-hierarchical and non-coercive; they do not arise from any leadership or fixed organizational structure. In fact, attempts to influence the ride will fail if perceived as coming from an individual or group who is attempting to assume control of the ride, and thus threatening the ride’s integrity as anti-authoritarian.

3) Have you talked to motorists at all in your research to gauge general reactions to the critical mass? What have they said?

Anyone who has ridden in Critical Mass can tell you that a few motorists will express anger toward the ride, and a few more express amusement or enthusiast support. I can only assume that the attitudes of the less expressive motorists lie somewhere in between. We’ll have a better sense of this when we start interviewing motorists during the September ride.

4) From the perspective of a social psychologist, what are your general impressions of the ride? Do you think it effective and a good way to change societal behaviour and encourage/improve cycling?

CM demonstrates how, by coordinating their actions, individual people can rise up from a position of marginalization—freed from domination and empowered to create a different world.

Whether Critical Mass is effective depends on what you assume its goals are.

Critical Mass is highly effective at, albeit temporarily, inverting the bike-car hierarchy and moving a large mass of cyclists through the city safely, even in (or especially in) parts of the city where many people wouldn’t dare go without the mass.

It’s highly effective as a celebration. Nearly everyone we talk to about their participation in the ride says that it’s fun.

It’s effective at community building and maintenance. It’s effective at creating and maintaining bike culture.

One important way Critical Mass is effective is by transforming participants into more serious and politicized cyclists. Indeed, my own participation in Critical Mass led me to give up my car. So if people say that Critical Mass never converted a motorist, they’re wrong!

Critical Mass is effective at inspiring participants with a vision of the city in which cycling is a primary form of transportation and cars are not.

It’s certainly effective at helping put the issue of cycling on the political agenda. Whether that attention is positive or negative is debatable. And if it is negative, you could make a pretty convincing argument that the recent negative attention is the fault of local media and politicians, rather than the ride itself.

Compared to these ways in which Critical Mass is effective, it is less effective at encouraging motorists to give up their cars, or directly influencing cycling infrastructure and policy. But by inspiring and politicizing cyclists, and by making cyclists visible, CM likely leads indirectly to positive changes in infrastructure and policy that are dealt with more directly by other forms of cycling advocacy.

i am the people

by Carl Sandburg

I AM the people—the mob—the crowd—the mass.
Do you know that all the great work of the world is done through me?
I am the workingman, the inventor, the maker of the world’s food and clothes.
I am the audience that witnesses history. The Napoleons come from me and the Lincolns. They die. And then I send forth more Napoleons and Lincolns.
I am the seed ground. I am a prairie that will stand for much plowing. Terrible storms pass over me. I forget. The best of me is sucked out and wasted. I forget. Everything but Death comes to me and makes me work and give up what I have. And I forget.
Sometimes I growl, shake myself and spatter a few red drops for history to remember. Then—I forget.
When I, the People, learn to remember, when I, the People, use the lessons of yesterday and no longer forget who robbed me last year, who played me for a fool—then there will be no speaker in all the world say the name: “The People,” with any fleck of a sneer in his voice or any far-off smile of derision.
The mob—the crowd—the mass—will arrive then.

Critical Mass in Lawrence Kansas

I am excited to come across this picture of Critical Mass in Lawrence, Kansas, where I lived for seven years while going to grad school. Having been participating in and thinking about large Critical Masses in Vancouver, I have to wonder how different it feels to ride in a mass about 50 cyclists large?   How different must Vancouver CM have been in the early days, when the rides were a lot smaller.  How would that have changed the feel of the ride, riders’ sense of obligation to each other, the relationship to motorists?  In a really small ride, I don’t even think it would be necessary or practical to cork.

I didn’t use my bike that much when I was in Kansas.   I wonder if it would have changed anything for me if Critical Mass was there back when I was.

Media reports on August Critical Mass

The first two articles report on the VPD’s claims that they are meeting with Critical Mass “organizers” or “people involved in the monthly ride” in the hopes of negotiating a planned route. The third article, an editorial, calls these meetings a waste of time.

CBC  Critical Mass cyclists ride again but route still not set

CTV  Critical Mass cyclists gearing up for rally tonight

Province Editorial: A waste of time

the summer’s last mass

From my perspective the August Vancouver Critical Mass ride went safely and smoothly. On the whole, the atmosphere was peaceful and celebratory.  I saw a ride participant cork the mass to help a pedestrian get through. A man got out of his car to give us the finger and say “F— you all!”, but lots of pedestrians and motorists were supportive, waiving and smiling.  As far as I know there no one was injured on the ride.

The group managed for the most part to stay together and not let any areas get thinned out.  It was a big help that the ride was smaller that the June and July rides. I also noticed more consistent and comprehensive corking than in prior rides.

It’s become really obvious to me how important thorough corking is for a safe and fun ride.  In the July ride, I saw the mass ride through a number of intersections that weren’t corked.  So, I made a point to cork on this ride when the opportunity presented itself.  This didn’t work out so well with my plan to bike at the front, seeing how decisions are made about the pace and direction of the mass. After biking just a few blocks at the front, I saw an intersection that needed corking, so I stopped and rejoined the back of the ride.  I ended up corking about 4 times.  It was mostly uneventful–motorists sat in the cars quietly waiting for the mass to go by.  One motorist did yell at me about not obeying the traffic signals.

It felt good to cork.  I knew I was helping to keep the mass together and safe.  And as the mass went by, lots of people shouted their appreciation–”Thank you, corkers!” The VPD did its fair share of corking, too, and jumping in to diffuse some tense moments between cyclists and motorists.

The ride did take the Lions Gate Bridge, but it didn’t stay up there for the party break as in the past few rides.  Almost as soon as the last rider got to the bridge, people started coming back down. Several ride participants were keen to get off the bridge, and appeared successful in persuading the mass to turn around relatively quickly.  I also heard that the police were encouraging people to leave the bridge.

Before riding downhill out of Stanley Park, we massed up and a few folks asked people to be very careful going down the hill. Several accidents have occurred there in recent rides–mostly because of people going really fast and colliding.  Massing up helped concentrate the ride and it made it harder for anyone to go really fast.   And it did seem like fewer participants were zooming through the other riders at light speed.  We managed to stay together as a mass as we left the park.  This is quite different from last month when the ride got so spread out that at one point I was basically riding by myself.

The battery died on my audio recorder, so I wasn’t able to take field notes. But I didn’t mind.  It allowed me to be a more active participant in the ride and that made it more fun for me.  I followed the ride until after 9pm, when the mass had dwindled to about 200 people who I think might have been following a group of guys on their way to a restaurant.

auto-domination

Here’s a humourous illustration of the dominance of the automobile published in the charming and informative Boneshaker: A Bicycling Almanac, #42-100, 2008.

Unpublished letter to Bicycling

Dear Bicycling,

Though I admittedly just now got to enjoy Todd Balf’s thourough and careful piece on the Critical Mass phenomenon, (“Critical Mess,” Nov 2007), I am bewildered by the editorial decision to place a two-page Nissan SUV advertisement smack dab in the middle of an article whose purpose is to explain how and why cyclists are demanding a safe, shared portion of car-crowded roads. Even more suprising–there’s another Nissan ad not two pages later! Oh, and don’t forget the Honda Element ad right before Balf’s essay begins, and the Suzuki car spread at its conclusion. It’s tempting to think that you are toying with our ability to read between the lines, but in reality it makes me wonder where your allegiences lie. If nothing else, I suppose it was amusing to see the cars in these ads surrounded on all sides by bikes.

Yours nonetheless, Evan P Schneider

The night before the summer’s last Critical Mass

When Boneshaker: A Bicycling Almanac (#42-100, 2008) asked the PDX Bike Militia about Critical Mass, they said “It can be an empowering experience. I can’t see how it could aggravate the problem; it gives drivers a chance to experience what we experience everyday. And for us, it gives us some of the feeling of security that drivers posses daily. It is a shift in roles that is important in expanding folks’ perspective.”

:the context:

Tomorrow area cyclists will converge to create a Critical Mass claiming a right to Vancouver’s roads.  Unlike the July ride, the August ride hasn’t been preceded by a Vancouver Police Department statement or a local media frenzy. Aside from its size, the July ride turned out to be unexceptional. How the August ride turns out depends on the actions of  hundreds of individual cyclists who show up to participate in the ride, and of the police officers, motorists, and pedestrians who come in contact with the ride.

The May and especially June rides got spread thin and at least once split into two groups. This was cause for concern for CM participants as a mass spread too thin leaves riders vulnerable and encourages motorists to try and drive into the mass. On the July ride, I rode at the front to see how decisions regarding the direction and pace of the ride were negotiated.  A number of individuals were clearly riding at the front to encourage other front-riders to go slow and wait a long time at intersections for the rest of the ride to catch up. For the most part, these voices were persuasive and the front kept a pace that helped protect the integrity of “the mass” and the safety of riders.

:what we’re observing:

My research into Critical Mass Vancouver began in April 2009.  My researcher assistants and I have interviewed Critical Mass participants and we’ve participated in Critical Mass to experience it “wheels to the asphalt.”  Although we are  still in the early stages of the investigation, some initial observations are worth sharing. To those familiar with the Vancouver Critical Mass these observations may seem obvious; after all, these are points that came through really clearly in the interviews and in our own experiences in Critical Mass.

• Most people who participate in Critical Mass find it empowering. To cycle around the city and not have to worry about cars!  Fabulous.  For cyclists who feel marginalized on the road, its such a relief to know that by cooperating with other cyclists they can reverse the relative positions of cars and bikes. Participants are inspired to imagine a future in which streets are always so full of bicycles–so peaceful, quiet, safe, clean.

• Some participants have expressed ambivalence about making cars wait so that the mass could stay together as a group.  They feel bad about inconveniencing drivers and worry about whether annoying some motorists might have negative consequences for cyclists.  But people seem to believe that corking to keep the ride together as one mass is fundamental to Vancouver Critical Mass, and necessary for maintaining the safety of the riders.  As marginalized group, cyclists can’t invert the existing status relations without causing at least some irritation to motorists–who understandably take for granted their position of dominance over bicycles that they get to experience the 717 or so hours a month when it’s not Critical Mass.

• People who ride in Critical Mass have fun.  Critical Mass is a celebration–a mobile community happening where people make real connections and experience the sense of freedom that comes from being a part of something larger than the individual self, where through coordinated action the collective is able to accomplish something more than the sum of the uncoordinated actions of individuals. It is an effervescent community that is creative, funny, and diverse.  Its actions are coordinated not by organizers, but by shared expectations about the ride and the kind of behaviors that are required for a successful ride.

Michael

article about “Critical Manners” ride

I just published an article about the Vancouver Critical Manners Ride at momentumplanet.com.

Michael

why I started this research

I’d probably heard something about critical mass before, but the first memory I have of critical mass is from the Summer of 2005, when I was in Denver. My brother-in-law and I were taking the car to go play pool, and as we were parking we noticed a lot of cyclists gathering in the road.  We slowed down and asked what was going on, and they yelled “It’s Critical Mass!  Last Friday of the month!”  I had been in Denver for almost a month, and had been using my car–a green 1990′s Toyota Corolla Wagon–to get around pretty much every day.

I first participated in CM in Vancouver, summer 2006.  I went with a friend who had been on the ride many times, and was active and known in Vancouver’s bicycle community.  She introduced me to a lot of people and everyone seemed  happy, welcoming, and alive.

I didn’t know what to expect. Around 6pm, someone spoke to the crowd from a microphone—“Welcome to Critical Mass!” and then, “We ride as a group!” I got goose bumps. As a social psychologist with an interest in collective identity and behaviour, I knew I was about to experience in practice, in a way I hadn’t before,  many of the psychological phenomena I’ve studied on a regular basis.  In addition to piquing my professional interest, I felt I was going to be part of something big and exciting.

The first rides I participated in were about 1000-1500 cyclists.  I was amazed to see how well-coordinated the ride was.  We followed the people in front of us in a meandering pattern over bridges and through the city.  I think it was my first positive experience cycling downtown.  Until then, I had avoided it when I could.

When we went through intersections, some participants spontaneously “corked”, blocking cross-traffic with their bikes and bodies to keep the riders in one continuous group, and ensuring safety of the riders.   I was amazed to learn that the ride had no official leaders, and the route was determined spontaneously by the people who chose to ride at the front.  The mass was acting as a group, and the individuals within it felt compelled to behave in ways that protected the mass as a whole.

I could also clearly see that by acting as a group, we were able to create social change during the ride and shift the typical roles of motorists and cyclists on the road.  Cyclists went from being marginalized to temporarily taking the dominant position on the road.   This was social change!  It seemed to me a compelling example of how social change takes place more generally — when people get together and coordinate their behaviours in enough numbers.  This seemed to me a worthy topic of research.

After participating in CM, I felt motivated to consider my own behaviour. Would I continue drive my car and add to traffic problems, spoil the air, and contribute to climate chance? My answer was no.  I decided to get rid of my car, and commute by feet, bike, and transit.  In the three years since, I’ve never regretted that decision.

Michael