The folks from hamilton350 hooked into Hamilton's Car Free week Critical Mass bike ride, with a bike-lift at the corner of King and James, downtown. The link between climate change and transportation is strong, and so is the movement to reduce our ecological footprint by replacing car trips with transit, walking and of course, cycling!
Showing posts with label critical mass. Show all posts
Showing posts with label critical mass. Show all posts
Friday, September 25, 2009
bike lift for the climate
The folks from hamilton350 hooked into Hamilton's Car Free week Critical Mass bike ride, with a bike-lift at the corner of King and James, downtown. The link between climate change and transportation is strong, and so is the movement to reduce our ecological footprint by replacing car trips with transit, walking and of course, cycling!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
don't forget
...the last Friday of Every month in Hamilton - meet at Hess and George Streets at 5:30pm and ride...
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Bela Lugosi is...Riding A Bike
MONSTER MASS (Critical Mass Bike Ride)
Hamilton's monthly CRITICAL MASS bike ride goes to the people with a Halloween special MONSTER MASS ride, Friday October 31, 2008 - meet as usual at Hess and George Streets in Hess Village, but expect the unusual in dress codes - costumes welcomed, encouraged, desired...
5:30pm
Saturday, September 27, 2008
big year for car free
47 cyclists showed up for the critical mass bike ride Friday, including a tall boy riding a tall bike (above). 250-300 people came out Thursday to the Gage Park movie night; 12 people to Recycle Cycles bike repair on Tuesday, our first ever Bridge Party on Pearl Street pedestrian bridge drew about 50 people, largely residents of the area. Monday's bus and hike to Sherman Falls had 20 soles (that's be 10 people) making the trip: it's been a good good week so far, with fine weather and lots of word of mouth action getting people out.
So, with today and tomorrow winding up the week (and the weather changing...) it's time to get out and celebrate some more: Car Free Parking Meter Party at the parking lot in front of My Dog Joe (1020 King Street West in Westdale) today (Saturday) from 12 noon to 3pm (a pinata full of prizes awaits you); and Sunday at 10am meet inside the Student Centre in front of the Union Market for the guided hike of Cootes Paradise with Brian McHattie.
Send your car free week pictures to tlchamilton@gmail.com
Friday, August 29, 2008
august ride
Recumbent rider Richard Dominick sends this photo from the August Critical Mass bicycle ride in Hamilton. Still going strong, since May 1998 - next month is the Car Free Week Critical Mass - so if you have yet to try it, it's not too late to join the movement. That would be the last Friday of the month, meet at Hess and George Streets in Hess Village at 5:30pm.September 26, 2008...
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
belated car free week events related...
"the 4th annual bike in movie at Gage park (Thursday, S. ) was a success with approximately 110 men women and children and two dogs in attendance to enjoy the 'Back yardigans' and the main feature 'A night at the museum'...we were entertained by hackey sackers with a ghetto blaster as the pre- game show" - Gord
And Critical Mass blew through town Friday (S. 28) with roughly 30 riders who went from Hess Village, through Westdale and back downtown via Main Street, ahead of a whole lotta cars...
(thanks to Mike Ventresca for the photos)
Thursday, November 24, 2005
still we ride!
TRANSPORTATION FOR LIVEABLE COMMUNITIES presents STILL WE RIDE
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 24, 2005Ewart Angus Centre 1A1
7:00 pm
STILL WE RIDE is an action-packed glimpse into a shocking showdown between the monthly Critical Mass bike ride and police in New York City.
On Friday August 27, 2004 in New York City, just days before the start of the Republican National Convention, 264 people were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and 'parading without a permit' during the monthly bicycle celebration, Critical Mass.
The ritual began in 1992 in San Francisco and has since spread around the world to over 300 cities. The August crackdown in NYC was the beginning of an ongoing effort to suppress free assembly for group rides.
The monthly cycle of arrests and bicycle seizures has forced the bike community into a legal battle with the city and politicized the very act of riding a bike.
Though the tactics of the NYPD against Critical Mass might seem like a somewhat isolated and case of police harassment of bicyclists, it has far-reaching implications. Still We Ride just might be a wake-up call to those who still believe we are living in a free society.
Information on the campaigns to stop the arrests will be available. NYC's cycling community hopes that people can report back to their own networks and communities to build cyclist solidarity around these issues.
You can find more info at the Still We Ride website: www.stillweridethemovie.com
Thursday, April 03, 2003
MASS ANXIETY
by Randy Kay, April 3–9, 2003
Critical Mass Hamilton came out of hibernation last Friday with a “Pedal For Peace Critical Mass Bike Ride.”
Perhaps it was the mention of the word “Peace” but as the first cyclists arrive at the usual meeting spot at Hess and George Streets, squad cars of Hamilton’s finest are there, one idling in the pedestrian zone, another slowly cruising the area. Two beat cops stroll by to add to the police presence.
The threat? Today it is a peaceful group of cyclists who will ride together in a “mass” and feel safe on city streets as they celebrate alternatives to the private automobile. In a ride that’s too fun to be fully understood as a protest, Critical Mass has the power to fleetingly transform streets normally dominated by exhaust–spewing, carnage–producing motor vehicles and aggressive drivers.
At 5:10pm, one officer suggest he is unimpressed with the numbers, as only a dozen cyclists are on site greeting each other, talking amongst themselves. But slowly, steadily, more riders appear, cruising in from the north, south, east and west, until 20 minutes later the area is filled with 50–60 cyclists, in–line skaters and an intrepid McMaster student on an unicycle. The officer doesn’t mention numbers again, but begins vainly searching for a “leader.”
Fortunately, the cliché about leaders is easily disrupted by a gathering of Critical Mass. For example: police want to know the route, but the route is organic and depends on the mood and initiative of the Mass.
The Mass weaves through the downtown as people make decisions on the fly, ride “leaders”constantly in flux. Tired of hanging around with the paternalistic police, bicycle bells start to chime and at 5:38pm the bicycles coast out of Hess Street toward downtown, two police cruisers, lights flashing, now in tow.
Making their way through wide, one–way streets lacking basic infrastructure for cyclists, the Mass slows the pace of the city to what is arguably a calmer, saner, safer speed.
As cities in Iraq are bombarded, some on the ride equate the profligate burning of fossil fuels with the burning of human flesh in oil wars. “No more oil/No more war/Time to take our bikes out more!” goes the chant.
This sort of pro–active peace–mongering has police on edge? From sidewalks, pedestrians watch in amusement or disbelief as the group glides by Copps Colosseum, the Library, the Farmer’s Market. A cyclist with a knack for alliteration shouts out: “For fossil fuel–free fun/Bicycles are number one!” On his back a home–made sign “Burn Fat, Not Fuel.”
The grins on the faces of cyclists gives indication of just how liberating a ride like this can be. The lack of safe routes in the city acts as a deterrent to thousands of would–be cyclists; for some, Critical Mass is their first positive experience cycling downtown.
The riders wave and smile at drivers and pedestrians as they go, pedaling over downtown streets George, Caroline, Main, MacNab, King, Bay, York, Wilson, Hughson, Cannon, James, King William, John, Queen and finally Hess, 45 minutes later.
As the ride coasts to a stop back at Hess Village, riders give a cheer, followed by a pause of anticipation as the police clamber out of their cars to begin an over–the–top lecture. Clearly frustrated, the two officers invent and exaggerate incidents, including the presence of a TV crew from CH who will, it seems, broadcast the “reckless” and “embarrassing” display to innocent children. (A call to CH assignment editor Mike Miles dispels the officer’s claim.)
Sergeant Paul Johnston claims that they were “invited” and bemoans the fact that the riders spurned their offer to “help.”
Officer Bob Nelson arbitrarily assigns leadership status to one person and hands out a couple of laminated cards detailing Bicycle Fines. Nelson berates the citizen cyclists, calling them “idiots” and threatens to interfere with the next ride by charging cyclists for any infractions.
In a city with high rates of cars running red–lights, drunk drivers and a legacy of hit and runs leaving behind dead cyclists, when it is suggested that cars — not bikes in a Critical Mass ride — are the real threat to children, Officer Nelson just scoffs and tells the cyclist to “grow up — cars are here to stay.” (Ironically, for a week in October, police will be busy shutting down large portions of the city to accommodate cyclists in town for the World Road Racing Cycling Race.)
Despite the dressing down, departing cyclists seem buoyed by the buzz of the communal ride. The next Mass is set (as always) for the last Friday of the month, Friday April 25, 5:30pm starting at Hess and George Streets.
Critical Mass Hamilton came out of hibernation last Friday with a “Pedal For Peace Critical Mass Bike Ride.”
Perhaps it was the mention of the word “Peace” but as the first cyclists arrive at the usual meeting spot at Hess and George Streets, squad cars of Hamilton’s finest are there, one idling in the pedestrian zone, another slowly cruising the area. Two beat cops stroll by to add to the police presence.
The threat? Today it is a peaceful group of cyclists who will ride together in a “mass” and feel safe on city streets as they celebrate alternatives to the private automobile. In a ride that’s too fun to be fully understood as a protest, Critical Mass has the power to fleetingly transform streets normally dominated by exhaust–spewing, carnage–producing motor vehicles and aggressive drivers.
At 5:10pm, one officer suggest he is unimpressed with the numbers, as only a dozen cyclists are on site greeting each other, talking amongst themselves. But slowly, steadily, more riders appear, cruising in from the north, south, east and west, until 20 minutes later the area is filled with 50–60 cyclists, in–line skaters and an intrepid McMaster student on an unicycle. The officer doesn’t mention numbers again, but begins vainly searching for a “leader.”
Fortunately, the cliché about leaders is easily disrupted by a gathering of Critical Mass. For example: police want to know the route, but the route is organic and depends on the mood and initiative of the Mass.
The Mass weaves through the downtown as people make decisions on the fly, ride “leaders”constantly in flux. Tired of hanging around with the paternalistic police, bicycle bells start to chime and at 5:38pm the bicycles coast out of Hess Street toward downtown, two police cruisers, lights flashing, now in tow.
Making their way through wide, one–way streets lacking basic infrastructure for cyclists, the Mass slows the pace of the city to what is arguably a calmer, saner, safer speed.
As cities in Iraq are bombarded, some on the ride equate the profligate burning of fossil fuels with the burning of human flesh in oil wars. “No more oil/No more war/Time to take our bikes out more!” goes the chant.
This sort of pro–active peace–mongering has police on edge? From sidewalks, pedestrians watch in amusement or disbelief as the group glides by Copps Colosseum, the Library, the Farmer’s Market. A cyclist with a knack for alliteration shouts out: “For fossil fuel–free fun/Bicycles are number one!” On his back a home–made sign “Burn Fat, Not Fuel.”
The grins on the faces of cyclists gives indication of just how liberating a ride like this can be. The lack of safe routes in the city acts as a deterrent to thousands of would–be cyclists; for some, Critical Mass is their first positive experience cycling downtown.
The riders wave and smile at drivers and pedestrians as they go, pedaling over downtown streets George, Caroline, Main, MacNab, King, Bay, York, Wilson, Hughson, Cannon, James, King William, John, Queen and finally Hess, 45 minutes later.
As the ride coasts to a stop back at Hess Village, riders give a cheer, followed by a pause of anticipation as the police clamber out of their cars to begin an over–the–top lecture. Clearly frustrated, the two officers invent and exaggerate incidents, including the presence of a TV crew from CH who will, it seems, broadcast the “reckless” and “embarrassing” display to innocent children. (A call to CH assignment editor Mike Miles dispels the officer’s claim.)
Sergeant Paul Johnston claims that they were “invited” and bemoans the fact that the riders spurned their offer to “help.”
Officer Bob Nelson arbitrarily assigns leadership status to one person and hands out a couple of laminated cards detailing Bicycle Fines. Nelson berates the citizen cyclists, calling them “idiots” and threatens to interfere with the next ride by charging cyclists for any infractions.
In a city with high rates of cars running red–lights, drunk drivers and a legacy of hit and runs leaving behind dead cyclists, when it is suggested that cars — not bikes in a Critical Mass ride — are the real threat to children, Officer Nelson just scoffs and tells the cyclist to “grow up — cars are here to stay.” (Ironically, for a week in October, police will be busy shutting down large portions of the city to accommodate cyclists in town for the World Road Racing Cycling Race.)
Despite the dressing down, departing cyclists seem buoyed by the buzz of the communal ride. The next Mass is set (as always) for the last Friday of the month, Friday April 25, 5:30pm starting at Hess and George Streets.
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