Every last Friday of the month in SF (and in cities world-wide) there is an event called Critical Mass.
To understand what 'Critical Mass' is in this context, first look at the Wiki definition of the general term:
Critical mass is a sociodynamic term to describe the existence of sufficient momentum in a social system such that the momentum becomes self-sustaining and fuels further growth.
As a simple example, consider a big city. If a person stops and looks up at the sky, nothing will happen. People nearby will go on about their business. If three people stop and look up at the sky, perhaps some people will momentarily turn around, but then continue on their way. But only a small number of people is required - say, 5 to 7 (depending on such factors as the culture, time of day, width of the street, etc) - to cause others to stop and look up at the sky, too. This number is called the "critical mass" or tipping point.
In SF, thousands of people jump on their bicycles and ride around in a huge "mass" through the downtown area of the city, completely taking over the streets. Traffic signals and even road directions are not only totally disregarded but the police actually ride along with everyone to sanction it. I took a lot of pictures yesterday during the ride (my first time doing it) and the best ones are linked below.
My most favorite one is this one. We rode through a one-way tunnel the wrong direction against traffic! It was soooo FUN!
Most of the cars appeared cool about being completely stuck for a while (some even honked in support and gave us high-fives as we passed by) and only a few were really pissed off about it. Most of those people were responsible for Twitter filling up immediately with negative reports about it (what else are you going to do stuck in your car with an internet-capable cell phone?). But once the cyclist got home the "this was so cool!" (click here for the CM-SF edition) reports started evening things out.
This was a LOT of fun and I can't believe I never did it earlier. Very cool!
Posted June 27, 2009 12:54 PM @ (GMT - 6)
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