[*BCM*] Courteous Mass?

[Ben Moss]

I love the Oct. 8 Courteous Mass idea - let's do it!

Ben

On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 10:56 PM, Hiroyuki Yamada <hyamada at mit.edu> wrote:
> I'd be up for this sort of mass as well. Mostly because I missed most
> (read:all) of the Boston summer masses due to being silly and
> out-of-town the whole summer, so I would be in favor of any and all safe
> and populous city bike rides. (I ride in and out of the city all the
> time, but it's much more enjoyable with a mass.)
>
> Any interest in advertising at this week's [critical] mass for an
> october 8th courteous mass? Actually.. now that I think about it, the
> 8th might not work for me, but in general I would be up for riding a
> 2nd-friday-of-the-month ride.
>
> I can get access to a large amounts of printing, but I don't think I
> have time to design one or cut them into 1/2 or 1/4 sheet size... If
> someone has an old design they can re-work, I can print 100 or so copies
> and give them back tomorrow night for someone to cut up for friday. Or
> just hand out full-size posters, but that's a monstrous waste of paper
> for what amounts to "Come ride again in 2 weeks!"
>
> -Yuki
>
> On 9/22/2010 10:46 PM, Rebecca Albrecht wrote:
>> In 2008 my son, the guy that rides the high bike with the air horn and I
>> organized  the courteous mass rides. They were to be held the second
>> Friday of the month. For the first ride we had a fair number of people
>> though it poured midway through the ride. By the time of the second ride
>> Brendan had gone off to college, and just a few people showed up. I
>> didn't continue after that. I and I know a significant number of people
>> would like to do a more "courteous ride". It would be nice if critical
>> mass could become more courteous.
>>
>> Here are some very basic guidelines of how it could be
>> 1. When CM  comes to a red light/yellow light, or to cars waiting at the
>> light CM stops behind the cars giving all the cyclists a chance to mass
>> up. Weaving through cars waiting for the light to change just makes a
>> big mess of things, understandably annoys car drivers and separates the
>> cyclists. Personally I do not like to weave between cars to get to the
>> front. I prefer to claim a lane which I feel entitled to be in when the
>> light changes.
>> 2. Once CM has started through the intersection&  then the light changes
>> they should just keep going (well, maybe not in Cambridge!) so that
>> everyone stays together which will result in less of a log (bicycle?)
>> jam for the cars/pedestrians. I think "corking is fine because it serves
>> the purpose of keeping CM together.
>> 3. Do not travel in the on-coming lane of traffic.
>> 4. Be aware that the riders stay together by adjusting the pace.
>>
>> Although complaints are continually made that CM is a protest ride, I&
>> it seems most people like to do the CM rides because it can be fun and
>> feels safe to ride amongst a crowd of cyclists once a month.
>> Occasionally there are the anti-car chants which I wish could be changed
>> to be more pro-cycling instead. In CM it is the "leader" of the ride who
>> determines whether CM waits for red lights etc. And that is a big
>> obstacle. The leader can be continually changing and it is difficult to
>> get that person to follow a few commonsense guidelines. For the whole
>> month I ride in a very focused manner so I find that the relaxed nature
>> of CM rides can be fun. Maybe we could change the rides to be Courteous
>> Mass rides -same place/same time but with balloons for everyone (so we
>> can identify one another) who just wants a fun ride and wants to follow
>> some very basic guidelines.
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