Critical Mass Cycle

by Car Free Tue Sep 01, 2009 12:44

I though that there was supposed to be a Critical Mass happening in Dublin on World Car Free Day, Tuesday, September 22nd, like is happening elsewhere in the world. Unfortunately, it seems like this has been abandoned, and yet again there will be nothing to celebrate World Car Free Day in Dublin this year. Maybe somebody colud explain why the Critical Mass initially planned for September 22nd has been deferred to September 25th. What was the reason for this?

by Extremely annoyed Wed Sep 02, 2009 02:43

I agree with the previous comment. Critical Mass should have been held on the same day as Car Free Day Tuesday September 22 as it was originally meant to be but for some reason which the organisers refuse to explain why despite already been asked by the previous commentator it has been moved to Friday September 25 a meaningless day with no signifigance at all.

by Lindsay Wed Sep 02, 2009 03:35

There's two of you now. Why not organise a cm for 22/9 between yourselves? You have three weeks to gather a few more people.

by Conor. M Wed Sep 02, 2009 03:50 conorm at riseup dot net

Whoah! I just said it would be nice to see a cm on car-free day. There was no cm organised for the 22nd. I just put the story up, with no other people involved, i was throwing it out there. I organised a meeting and left my e-mail address loads of times, either of you could have came to the meeting or emailed to let me know what you thought should be brought up.

In the second post it says 'the organisers refuse to explain why despite already been asked by the previous commentator...', I looked at this thread 2/3 days ago and there was only one comment. Im not trying to organise a cm to aggrevate or annoy. I love bikes, I want to cycle, but there is an endless stream of criticism. There will be another meeting next week. Ill put something up on indymedia soon, please, anyone who is interested, mail me or come along to the meeting. Enough moaning and groaning, lets go for a cycle!

by Amanda Wed Sep 02, 2009 15:33

I'm looking forward to this CM hope lots of people can come. I'll be there anyway and I think it's fitting that it's on the Friday which is incidentally the 17th anniversary of the first Mass in San Francisco.

See you there!

by Mikey Wed Sep 02, 2009 23:17

This is deadly! Fair play, the other two moaning away there, why didnt ye organise a critical mass???

I'll be there, and I'll bring my mates, the other two commenters will probably just sit at home moaning about other peoples efforts, but not doing anything themselves. Can't wait anyway.

--NO TO LISBON--

by Pete Wed Sep 02, 2009 23:35

Critical Mass started on September 25, 1992, in San Francisco. 10 years later, it's still going strong and has spread to over 300 cities, it looks like this Mass was organised at the PERFECT time, well done Conor.

As for -car free day-, yeah, its a pity.. but hey! What can you do but the best you can. I'm looking forward to it and I hope its big.

10th Year Anniversary of CRITICAL MASS

10th Year Anniversary

by critical mass critical mass Thu Sep 03, 2009 01:03

Ive never been to a critical mass!!!!!!!

CANT WAIT

wheres the spire?

by Conor. M Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:45 conorm at riseup dot net

thanks to all the positive comments! I hope you all come along.

There is a google group set up called Dublin Critical Mass. You can guess what we're discussing.

Anywho, get involved... heres the crazy link to the dcm 'page' - http://groups.google.com/group/dublin-critical-mass?hl=en

''The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of
transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in
heart''. -Iris Murdoch, writer (1919-1999)

by ex cm'er Wed Sep 16, 2009 18:22

I agree somewhat with some of the previous posters about the slightly strange choice of date to restart a protest (or whatever it was) thats been dead for several years. I think Car Free Day would have been a good day to get some attention in the media. Putting posters up around town and flyers on bikes is time consuming, and even if you get 500 flyers on bikes, from experience that usually translates into 25 people showing up for CM. If you can somehow get a mention in the papers the day beforehand (circulations of 100,000+ or so) then it tends to beef up the numbers. Cycling has been in the media a lot recently, and a stunt on Car Free Day like showing up in a group all on the new rental Dublin Bikes outside the Council offices, with some message saying something like "Thanks for the bikes, now how about some lanes?" would have garnered a lot more attention than a Friday night spin.

Its also a bad time of the year to try and kick things off again. The clocks go back soon, the weather is turning sour (or more sour, to be precise) and if I remember correctly from one CM circa October 1999 or 2000, its actually quite tense and dangerous cycling artificially slowly in a group in the dark around the city centre. The dimmed sky light coupled with the dazzling car headlights behind us was extremely intimidating, and made us wrap things up for the winter, that was the end of the rides until the following March.

You could argue that this is actually the best time to raise awareness of cyclists as it starts to get dark - but again I think that CM is a slightly negative way to show cycling to the public in the city. It shows a group of cyclists slowing everything down to a crawl, blocking public transport as well as cars. I guess this is maybe just my own personal changed opinion - that the best way to show people in cars that cycling is good is to sail past them while they're stuck in traffic, I cant imagine any motorist ever changed their mind about their choice of commute while being stuck behind a CM. Maybe this time CM will change the pace as an experiment. I'm still undecided about whether to go or not.

But I also agree with the sentiment expressed that if people arent happy about the date, then yes, they should organise something on that date themselves. Its a shame that it took a death on the quays to provoke an action for Car Free Day but it is good that there will (probably, with the consent of the family) be a ghost bike placed on the quays next Tuesday.

I guess one last thing which would stop me from going is the possible (ab)use of the ride by political groups. I dont doubt the enthusiasm of the people organising this ride, but part of me still feels that this ride will be used for oxygen for anarchists or maybe the anarchist centre Seomra Spraoi. I think that if any political group ("organised" or not) is looking to benefit from the ride somehow, then they should be honest about it. I guess I'm not comfortable with political organisations using fronts or a ride that isnt advertised as any way political at all to try and entice people into their politics - be it the SWP, FF, Sinn Fein, or anarchists. I think thats what spoiled it in the past before, for the cyclists anyway - activists with other aims trying to encorporate the CM into their sphere.

Anyway, might be there on the 25th, maybe.

by Bad Back-er. Thu Sep 17, 2009 07:57

Lots of people find cycling difficult because of a bad back or.. etc. etc.

There are "electric bikes" out there which do not need a license or (compulsory) insurance.

These "pre-mopeds" are legally allowed to have a 200w battery powered motor and do a maximum powered speed of 15mph.
(They go faster but the motor cuts out when you hit the pedal.....they become "ordinary" bikes.)

Most of them can go more than 25 miles on a single charge.
These are ideal for city commuting.

The "Salisbury" is a nice example:

http://www.powacycle.co.uk/HTML/Salisbury-LPX-Large-pic....html
.
Trouble is they are expensive ( starting around €1k ) and incur the full VAT rate.
Perhaps a campaign should be launched by the cycling community to have them zero rated for VAT.
.

by Sandra Thu Sep 17, 2009 09:42

During a holiday in China I noticed that in some big cities petrol driven motorbikes are banned. So people go to work on scooter-like battery bikes, and in some places there are special bike and pedestrian lanes for this kind of transport. Owners can remove the batteries and recharge them by plugging them overnight into a household socket. In a big store I noticed that a deluxe model cost about 1,750 yuan, or about 175 euro (!) (The monthly salary of a newly qualified schoolteacher might be around 1,250 yuan.) The battery bikes apparently don't require motor tax and the retail price does not include VAT, since very few commodities in China are rated for indirect tax.

I'd say there are possibilities for a battery bike assembly industry in Ireland. How about it IDA?

by Bad Back-er. Thu Sep 17, 2009 10:04

They are not classed as "mopeds" when the power is less than 200w and the powered speed does not exceed 15mph.

When you pedal past the 15mph speed the motor simply cuts out.

This link gives the legal position of powered bikes in the UK.
(Ireland and the rest of the EU are the same.):

http://www.powacycle.co.uk/Are-electric-bikes-legal.asp

by Conor. M Thu Sep 17, 2009 19:16

First of all, the first section here tells us what to do, Im trying to do what I can, I have a life, and like you (I'm sure) I have problems too and I cant do everything. Also, the people working on the mass are obviously doing it in their spare time because they want to see people having fun on bikes in the city. You seem to have a lot of opinion on the issue so why not get invovled, even a little. Having someone who doesn't use their name criticising everything is getting annoying. Also, I believe you were the one who complained about the mass being political and I took that into consideration and decided to advocate a different date to the car-free day becuase you percieved it as activism, or a protest or whatever.

The second section deals with how bad of a date we picked. Sorry, but its done, thanks for the negativity.

You said, 'part of me still feels that this ride will be used for oxygen for anarchists or maybe the anarchist centre Seomra Spraoi'.

Im really pissed off with this because your pulling bunnies out of a hat. I think you should come, I've tried to communicate with you before, but you've remained sceptical instead of getting involved. Like I said, I think you should come, but maybe your better suited to an armchair where you can criticise with immunity. Thanks for never trying.

I can't wait. It's going to be really nice and I'm looking forward to seeing all the different types of bikes. My chain broke recently (AHHHH!) but it should be back in order soon. Im looking forward to seeing everyone, except.... eh? oh yeah, thats right, the ''ex-cm'er'' never used her/his name. But, really, I hope you come, if you think we're going to try to take down the system you can simply, tug your brakes, turn around and go home. Thats right, you won't be forced to the frontlines comrade : )

by Lara Hill Tue Sep 22, 2009 21:17

We had some very positive chats with cyclists this evening when we were looping flyers around bikes to advertise Critical Mass on Friday. People seem really glad there's going to be one started again in Dublin. It was cool cos you could strike up a conversation saying 'it's great to see you cycling on World Car Free Day' and then tell them about Critical Mass coming up.

by Dunk Thu Sep 24, 2009 11:33

fair play to lara and conor and all who are DOING something, no matter how small, to make a difference,

ireland, even in the activist indymedia circles, remains closed and niggly???
fuck the begrudgers.

go out there and have your cycle and enjoy it, even its only the 2 of ye, what harm, if ye have fun, know why your doing it, that spirit will communicate itself...

even more so now, in these times of DOOM AND GLOOM, resession and negativity, your passion, positiviy, creativity are more needed.

rothar abu

(for car free day, in bcn, lots of people watched http://www.ageofstupid.net/ - like a fair few other places around planet, are we awakening??? )

by feelings from carbusters prague Thu Sep 24, 2009 11:44

together with a car-free street festival in Prague center: "EXPERIENCE a DIFFERENT CITY“

Highlights of the September 2009 Prague CM

- 5.000 participants /and few dogs/

- longest route /13,5km/ included 2 highway bridges

- longest altitude difference 150m

- bike peloton stretched for 1,7km

- several DJ s and mobile sound systems

- participant who traveled longest distance /by bike?/ - Japan

- the ride was promoted in junction with the new documentary release showing last 5 years of Auto*Mat movement in Prague www.automatfilm.cz

More about 20/9 events in Prague at http://www.auto-mat.cz/aktivity/zazit-mesto-jinak-cyklo...izdy/

22.9. at 6 p.m. – Carbusters magazine invites you to the Carbusters Fest at the club Bunkr at Parukářka to celebrate World Carfree Day 2009. Bands playing are Dutchess and the Kittens, Plastic Ted, Terror Incognita, White Stones, musician Justin Lavash and DJ Dustan Clake. Come to have fun, try a wheel of fortune or learn juggling! Action is prepared in cooperation with NGO’s (Nadace Partnerství, Greenpeace, Arnika, Auto*Mat, Nesehnutí, Duha), which will have presentation at the festival. Entrance fee is 2 EUR.

http://www.carbusters.org/index.php

Best from Prague

by cmbp Fri Sep 25, 2009 13:09

Is held annually in Budapest. I was sad because i had to miss it, but now here in Dublin i can join to you!

see you tonight

and here is 2 vids from CMBP:
http://www.indavideo.hu/video/Critical_Mass_2009_tavasz...d6dfa
(a huge amount of cyclists)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q_45HGoo2w
(and a LOT of bikes in the air)

by smoothie Sat Sep 26, 2009 17:58

A friend texted me to say that about 25-30 showed up for it. Not bad. What route did it take? Any photos?

by Conor. M Sat Sep 26, 2009 18:47

45-50 people were at the mass, it was great craic... I'll do a write up, watch this space