critical massive

it was good to see a record (in my limited experience) turnout for nottingham's critical mass on friday. an army of colourful, flag-bearing, slogan-brandishing road-reclaimers assembled near the texaco garage from 5 onwards, and by 5:45 there were over 40 of us (the notts indymedia report claimed 60 or so, which i think is a slight exaggeration, but not on a stop the war level). numbers were boosted by the visit from the makers of still we ride, a film about new york's critical mass and the unwanted police attention it receives. the film was screened at the broadway on wednesday and its filmers generously stuck around to swell the numbers at our own more humble affair. i was also buoyed from having read about budapest's colossal critical mass that took place earlier in the week, attracting over 30,000 cyclists!!!

would you trust this officer?

after much milling about, bantering, and obstruction of pavements we set off up derby road in the direction of canning circus. there was definitely a carnival feel and we emphasised the celebration aspects of the event. tash was ready and waiting at the top of the hill and then seemed to teleport himself around various locations after that taking the fine photos that i've used in this report. down to maid marian way where we toured a few roundabouts and received audible support for cycling (see top pic). some taxi and 4x4 drivers seemed less enthusiastic but their aggressive revving was drowned out in the cheers, bell-ringing and horns. round the ring road to the broadmarsh then we turned up into the lace market to release some of the angry motorists who were threatening to mow people at the back down.

in case you're wondering that's an asda jacket detourned to read 'asbo'

unfortunately, after coming off the main roads we got a little lost in the narrow lanes of the lace market and ended up coming down hockley. a guy had parked his car in the cycle lane at the bottom of the hill and attracted sarky comments. unfortunately he lost it and aggressively remonstrated with the entire mass, later grabbing the camera woman and shoving her against the wall. it took a big group of us trying to defuse the situation to make the guy give up and the incident ended with the rather embarassing situation of having to grass the guy up to a passing posse of neighbourhood wardens. whilst the majority waited across a side street a police car pulled up, lights flashing. we were asked to get out the road and then they headed off again. critical mass obviously isn't considered such a threat by nottingham police as it is by their new yorker counterparts...

in a change from previous critical masses we ended up by heading down mansfield road to the sumac centre. as we came down the hill past the forest rec, we picked up some zealous supporters in the form of a group of local kids in hoodies and masks. evidently seeing the revolutionary potential they lay down on pedestrian crossings and were quite disappointed to find out that we were just finishing up as they ran home to get their bikes. hopefully they'll remember to join us at the start of next month's. found myself using the stock activist phrase "we should have had flyers" rather a lot ;)

it was fun, it was (mostly) friendly, and who knows, it may even have made one or two motorists rethink their mode of transport. see you next month!