Friday, September 28, 2007

Critical Mass and the Blues

Link
After work on Friday, I met up with friends at Justin Herman Plaza* for a happy hour of social cycling: it was the 15th anniversary of Critical Mass on Friday, the controversial monthly bike ride which puts rush hour traffic at a standstill to give bikes the right of way. The event gets a bad rap but it's generally a peaceable party, really a parade to celebrate two wheels rather than four. And for every aggressive cyclist there may have been (I didn't see any), there were a dozen or so unofficial marshals, dedicated to communicating to the pack about pedestrians and safe-guarding potentially dangerous cars. It took Allegra, Chris, Emily, Greg and I an hour to pedal with the mass down the Embarcadero and back up Market St. to my doorstep where I bid adiu as they continued on down Octavia Blvd. After 15 years of calling attention to urban cycling concerns, cyclists now number 30,000 in San Francisco and the city leads the country in bicycle signage (how can you not love a "Sharrow"). The San Francisco Bike Coalition is one of my favorite causes.

*earlier at the Plaza I attended a noon-time kick-off concert for the San Francisco Blues Festival.

Listening to: a remix of Feist's "My Moon My Man"

1 comment:

Karen said...

Great start, Deb! I look forward to continued reading.