On the last Friday of every month, bike riders all over the world congregate in their own cities in numbers sometimes in the thousands (depending on the city) to take over and claim the streets as their own.
Critical Mass: The minimum size or amount of something required to start or maintain a venture.
So basically we rode wherever we want, held up traffic wherever we wanted to and took control of the city of San Francico's public roads. We would ride into intersections and fill it with a couple hundred cyclists so cars couldn't move and continue doing this for the next few hours. There is no designated route. There are no officials (except the police officers that follow us making sure confrontations between drivers and riders don't happen and so we won't go on the freeway). Anyone can lead as long as they have riders willing to follow. Drivers get angry and there have been confrontations in the past. The ride began in San Francisco in 1992 but now extends to to European, Asian, South American, Australian and African cities. It is absolute chaos. There were many times I thought cyclist were going to get hit by cars. The sound of cars honking in frustration was endless. The sound of old school rap tunes bumping on someone's good enough for a club bicycle stereo was endless.
If you would like to find out more or find out where and when cyclists in your own city meet ride:
Does anyone remember when Chevron named one of its oil tankers the Condoleezza Rice?
Burger Joint on Valencia St. with the fellas.
I remember...
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