Just wondering? ...cos we have a Critical Mass group here in Hobart - as there are in other places around the world - who meet one Friday a month to cycle about in a circle and make noise.
The thing is, I kindof agree with what they are doing - in principle. But.
I think the way they go about it just seems entirely divisive. I also find the whole I-ride-a-bicycle-as-an-in-ya-face-shouty-sustainable-lifestyle-statement thing a bit of a turn off really. Being a keen advocate of cycling and all of its many benefits, I'd be keen to join in the fun every Friday though, were it not for the fact that their intent seems to be non-celebratory and entirely divisive in nature. I don’t think I’d fit in with my camelback and baggies either - the rest of them in day-glo reflective jackets and boots. You can't change the minds of the car driving masses by being conspicuously and self-righteously different. (But maybe, afterall, that is not their original intent?). Cycling is something that should be joyously celebrated and not piously suffered in an oh-look-at-me way for some worthy cause, whatever that may entail.
We were confronted by one of the Critical Mass lot on a bicycle a few months back, while we were out on a fun evening XC ride. He eyed us suspiciously as he cycled up the road and snidely said "I hope you didn't use an internal combustion engine to get up that hill, did you?". ...just seemed to sum things up perfectly.
