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.

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