Big June Ride!!! Critical Mass Vancouver (28 June, 2019)

🚲 June is bike month! Let's ride! 🚲

Celebrated around the world, Critical Mass is a grassroots reclamation of public space that occurs on the last Friday of every month. The ride is a celebration that allows cyclists and all other non-polluting forms of transportation to move safely and comfortably through city streets in a car-free space.  The tradition of Critical Mass was recently revitalized to remind us that car-culture is not the way forward for a healthy and liveable future. Riders are invited to show Vancouver, both Council and citizens, a better way to get around: one that more equitable, efficient, fun, and healthy.

Deck your wheels with bells and lights, colour, flowers, music and whatever freakiness you can pull together! Instruments, boom boxes, noise makers, loudspeakers and confident voices are welcome! 🚴🚴 Refresh your memory, etiquette and jargon by reviewing the Critical Mass glossary. 🚴🚴 Critical Mass is a leaderless collective phenomenon that is defined by the spirit of freedom, love and solidarity, while expressing awareness of public safety and climate justice, the vitality of healthy communities and the desire for a liveable future. Critical Mass is an alcohol/ drug free event and is inclusive to all self-propelled beings.

Event Details:

Where: Vancouver Art Gallery (facing Georgia St.) 

When: Meet between 5-5:30, ready to ride at 6pm.

Why: Whatever moves you! (Click here for a brief history of CM).

How:

The ride stays together for safety and fun. If you are at the front of the ride, you are an informal leader. Stop if you are approaching a red light, but continue as a group if the lights change red while passing through an intersection. Always stay together with fellow cyclists. Communicate with each other and with everyone else: pedestrians and car-drivers probably wish they were riding, too.

Participants at the front will often need to peel off to block motorized traffic from entering the Mass. That's called "corking". Corkers keep the ride safe and allow the Mass to pass through intersections where the lights have turned red. Thank them for corking!

Never cork alone. Join lone corkers, and for intersections there should be six or more corkers. And remember, do not cork oncoming traffic in opposing lanes.

If you're at the front, please don't speed or take narrow roads or paths. It stretches the ride out and makes life harder for corkers, riders, and those waiting for the Mass to pass. Be aware of the ride's slower participants, and keep a slower pace. If the Mass has thinned out or has broken into more than one group, which happens following hills or where the street has becomes more lanes, the front should wait at green lights for the group to "mass up".

Don't stay on any given street for very long, so that public transit can pass. And always let emergency vehicles through. Please don't ride on sidewalks or in opposing traffic lanes. Be courteous and respectful to everyone you encounter; make it the best day ever!

Who decides where we go?

You do! Some rides have a destination that may be suggested at the start of the ride, but the route is always decided by the riders in the front. If you have an idea where the ride should go, move to the front and participate with others in a group decision. Remember to make it fun and interesting, and that Critical Mass has no leaders.

A special note to those at the front: It becomes unsafe for those in the rear if the Mass strrrreeeetches out, there are big gaps, or the body of the Mass looses its tail. If the front can no longer see the rear, or the Mass has just passed through a "choke point" -- stop at an intersection where there's room for the entire Mass to completely bunch up again (and where the front of the ride can see the rear again).

Questions? Contact Stina.