// Situation Critical
Posted on Sunday, December 11th, 2011
For those of you unfamiliar with Critical Mass, it is a regular gathering of cyclists in cities across the world. They organize a meeting at a central location, and then ride around the city, taking over the streets and blocking automobile traffic along the way. You can read the history of this event here on its Wikipedia page.
A few years back, I had my first participation in a Mass in San Diego. My housemate, a few of our friends, and I all hopped on our bikes, excited for the experience. The San Diego group meets at the Bea Evenson Fountain in Balboa Park. What a sight it was! A congregation of hundreds of cyclists, most just chilling with their friends conversing, laughing, and possibly some drinking or smoking. Several bikers were circling the fountain, obviously anxious, anticipating the cumulative ride.
Someone gave the signal, and we all start to move out. It was a huge exodus of flashing red tail lights and LED headlamps. A few novelty bikes were in the mix, such as some double decker frames or bikes with a trailer attached behind, possibly with a boombox or even a keg of beer. Road, mountain, BMX, and fixie bikes all riding together; it was a beautiful scene of harmony.
We set off towards El Cajon Boulevard, a fairly main street in the city. The leaders rode out ahead to block off intersections, a technique known as corking. This allows the group to ride freely through intersections, even red lights, without worries about cross traffic. We were completely dominating a four lane road. As we collectively pedaled up towards the San Diego State University campus, I started to get excited. Were we going to ride the campus, hundreds of unstoppable bikers? Yes, we did! It was awesome. The few people lucky enough to be on campus were witness to a very rare occurrence.
We rode in and out of the campus, then turned back towards downtown. When we reached downtown, we were almost two hours into the ride so some riders had disbanded, but most rode on. We cruised through the busy concentration of buildings, right by the Padres stadium and all the bars/clubs in the Gaslamp Quarter. We then started to head towards Ocean Beach. The numbers were thinning now; we were down to less than one hundred cyclists, but still looking like a commanding force. My friend and I got as far as Point Loma before deciding to turn back. If I had been more familiar with the geography and aware of how close I was to OB, I think I would have continued to the beach; it would have been only about fifteen minutes more. But we had ridden for over three hours and were ready to go home, take our shoes off, and relax. On our way back we met with three other massers and together we rode up by the Presidio above Old Town to return to our homes in South Park. What an awesome night!