Critical Mass

The weather is warming up and as part of my enjoyment of it and in recognition that the climate here is so very accommodating to outdoor exercise, I've been spending more time on my bike. I ride to work almost every day now and so, it seemed only logical that I participate in the monthly Critical Mass ride yesterday.

For the uninitiated, here's the nuts and bolts of it: a bunch of cyclists from all over the city (and by "bunch" in this case, I mean roughly 500) gather in front of the Art Gallery, explain the rules and then, under banner "We're not blocking traffic, we are traffic!", we go for a ride. The route is typically down major arteries, the ones we as cyclists are usually terrified to use due to the scads of car traffic. Volunteers from the group stop at intersections to block traffic from entering the stream (we call them "corkers") and the rest of the group move through the city like on big bus. We ignore stop lights because for safety, we have to stay as a unit -- hence the corkers.

It was a most amazing experience really. Imagine a city with no noise. The vast majority of agitation within a city rests with cars. Remove that component and suddenly, all seems quiet. You can hear the birds for a change. For a moment, I was taken back to Amsterdam: so peaceful... but with mountains, beaches and the ocean nearby.

We went over three of the four major arteries in and out of the city: the Granville Bridge, Burrard Bridge and the Second Narrows. In each case, we stopped at the peak and paused a moment to take in the view. It doesn't take much to remind me why I live here, but damn... that was awesome.

We cruised through Stanley Park, down Davie, Denman, Pacific, Robson, Granvile, Howe, Georgia... you name it, we were on it. A most wonderful ride.

For the Toronto folk, I thought that I might mention that there were two key differences here that made this ride considerably more successful than the one I went on out East:

1. The rules were explained before we left. In the Toronto case, there was no structure at all. Some people stopped at lights while others blocked traffic "for fun". It was chaotic and not much fun.
2. Vancouver had a police escort. There were numerous cycle cops with us on the ride to smooth over tensions with pissy drivers (seriously, you can't wait 10minutes? Get over yourselves!) and keep everyone safe. On top of that, some motorcycle cops were bringing up the rear just to make sure that the stragglers didn't get run over by afore-mentioned drivers. Having that kind of support from the community goes a long way.

So yeah. Lots of fun. You should try it. If you drive, maybe try getting out of your car for a bit, maybe even to join the CM. You never know, you might just like the quiet.