Always eager to check out what's happening in town, I rode my bike over to the city plaza today to be a part of Chico's very own Critical Mass. For those of you not familiar with this group, Critical Mass is a gathering of bikers to protest the unnecessary daily use of cars. The demonstration is held in cities all across America, usually on the last Friday of the month. By riding together as one massive group through the city streets, Critical Mass creates a scene that is impossible to ignore.
Having lived in Chicago, IL for 7 years before moving to Chico, I've known about Critical Mass for some time. Every last Friday of the month, I would find a long parade of bicycles riding past my apartment complex, with bells ringing and riders cheering. It was an impressive sight to see, but at the same time, I always had mixed opinions about the group. Even though I'm an avid biker and have participated in similar group rides before, the Critical Mass in Chicago always angered me for the fact that they always disobeyed traffic laws. They'd constantly run red lights and breeze through stop signs to try to keep the group together as one massive unit, and it would literally piss off all the people in their cars. I've heard stories before where some drivers have been so angered by the bikers' recklessness that they've jumped out of their cars and threatened bikers with violence, sometimes going as far as pulling out guns on them. It's not exactly the type of reaction that bikers are looking for.
So today as I was biking downtown to meet Chico's Critical Mass, I had some reservations about doing this ride. At the city plaza, there were about 80 bikers gathered, most of them college students. As we waited a half hour for stragglers to show up, one student started passing out pieces of cloth emblazoned with the group's logo: an angry fist coming out of a bicycle. My fears about drivers with guns suddenly started to return.
Finally at about 5:30 pm, our procession of activist bikers began the ride. Like a miniature version of the final stage of Le Tour de France, we circled the water fountain about 20 times, confusing the hell out of the homeless men in the plaza, and then took off up Main Street, filling all 3 lanes of traffic. We slowly proceeded up the Esplanade as passing cars started honking wildly as us. But these weren't angry honks...these were celebratory ones. It felt like we were all in a bicycle parade, with some riders dressed in crazy Halloween costumes (or maybe this was how they regularly dressed themselves. Always hard to tell with these students here in Chico). As we rode past the student houses off campus, half drunk frat guys with their shirts ripped off were lifting up their beers to us, while plastered sorority girls were stumbling out of their 2nd story windows onto roofs to get a better glimpse of us. Even though our group of bikers was highly chaotic with minimal leadership, it somehow managed to stay together as a single group, and to my surprise, everyone obeyed the traffic lights and signs.
Once we hit campus—a "No Biking Zone"—we figured that our "strength in numbers" would allow us to bike through it without the police stopping us. We didn't stop to consider, however, that the police would show up in a car, suddenly block our path, and then warn us to get off of campus. I wonder if this was what Tiananmen Square felt like. So instead, we rode the extra block or two over to the parking garage, and then like crazed idiots, went up and up the ramps to the top of the garage, hooted and hollered, and then went right back down. The ride ended back at city plaza, circling the water fountain once again and confusing the homeless even more.
Overall, Chico's Critical Mass was a huge success. There were no confrontations with motorists, no dead bikers, and no guns. Plus, we even had bystanders on bikes join in our procession around town, which is always a positive sign. Critical Mass is a fun, relaxing way to spend your last Friday of the month. Check to see if there's one in your area, or start one yourself. Just remember not to piss off any police officers. I hear they carry guns.
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