Dublin Critical Mass
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news report 
Tuesday June 05, 2007 12:50
by bikelane
Critical Mass is a phenomenon that is believed to have started in San Francisco on Friday September 25 1992. From such small beginnings the idea has spread across the planet and gathered momentum, with a massive 30 000 cyclists taking part in the Car Free Day cycle in Budapest on September in 2005.
There are as many reasons to go to a Critical Mass as there are participants, yet over the years an assortment of journalists have claimed that Critical Mass is either a bicycle protest about asserting cyclists rights, or others have speculated that it is about climate change.
Maybe it’s both, maybe it’s neither.
Because Critcal Masses are self organized, non-commercial events structured in a non-hierarchical way there is a multitude of ideas and opinions represented. But one thing most critical mass-ers would agree on is that Critical Mass is a celebration of cycling and other self-propelled methods of transport.
Over the last few days small flyers have appeared attached to bicycles around Dublin to publicize the cycle happening this Friday the 8th of June. One cannot rely on Internet postings or emailing leaflets to lists to publicize an open event like this as there are so many cycling commuters who are then left out.
It remains to be seen how many will turn up this Friday, but it is hoped that the numbers participating in the Dublin Critical Masses will swell over the summer so that we have hundreds of cyclists by Car Free day 2007, after all we’re not blocking traffic –we are traffic.
On yer Bike!
Comments (11 of 11)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11Come celebrate cycling in Dublin.
Friday June 8th 2007
6.30pm-7.30pm meet at the Garden of Remembrance
Ring your bells.
Bring bicycles, Rollerblades, Unicycles, Skateboards, Feet (or any other self-propelled methods of transport).
All are welcome.
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How did the bike ride go?
hopefully well, any photos?
it was crap
Actually print off some fliers (don't just put them up here on indymedia), and flypost them around the city.
Maybe someone in Shell to Sea could get some stickers like they have , and could stick them on the bike racks around town and even further afield.
Leaflet cyclists at traffic lights.
Set up a webspace on Bebo or somewhere and send out friend requests to every email address you can find.
Ring up the radio talk stations and complain about critical mass blocking the traffic, then call up and defend the bike ride. This works with writing to newspapers as well, don't forget Northside people and the Herald etc. Get politicians to complain - get other ones to take part.
Send out a Press release that you've hired Katy French to do a photoshoot to for publicity. Then tell the press that your "commitee" has prohibited it because it's sexist- generate some publicity for free (she won't mind, soome controversy will help her career).
Spread the rumour that the next critical mass will be a nude bike ride like the one they did in London.
Take a day off work and do nothing except work on publicising CM. Just one day could make all the difference.
All easy for me to suggest, but not that hard surely?
Yep - all easy for you to suggest - yet will you go and do any of it yourself.
why not do it YOURSELVES, come away from the virtual imc world, meet in the real world, call a time to meet up, inform others so they might come to, commit to it, work on it, print, get word out, and make it huge....
remember there were 30,000 in budapest a few years agol 2005:
http://www.indymedia.org/en/2005/09/825163.shtml
from last years post for first crit mass:
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/75670
photos last year
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/75739
a couple of hundred people did the docklands cycle, theyd be keen if they knew about it, get it organised, contact totally dublin magazine, they might put an article up for you.
good luck to yez
dunk
ps, how many people actually turned up for it, anything happen?
heres the san francisco crit mass on the international day of action, vids, audio, photos, text
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/06/09/18426228.ph...26398
london naked bike ride
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/06/373139.html
In 2004 there were 58 riders, in 2005 a creditable 250 riders, rising to a massive 800 in 2006.
I used to go to the critical masses which were good until they peaked around 2003-2004 when they were piggybacked by Reclaim/Repaint the streets/DGN. I think this was a mistake as it turned CM into a march as opposed to a ride and that pissed off myself and a lot of cyclists as we were more or less sidelined by marchers.
Dunk please dont lecture people about organising in the real world and getting off the internet. Every one of your posts seems to consist of links to other sites and no actual ideas or suggestions of your own, which actually alienates people from ever responding to anything you post.
Any chance of getting this back together?
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