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| Come to Mass With Us! Depending on weather conditions, Critical Mass - Honolulu meets at the State Capitol, on the Hotel Street side, at 4:30pm and the ride begins at 5:00pm. Same time and location every month, the last Friday of every month. Starting April 25, Anna Bannana's will be hosting a post-ride party for all the Critical Mass riders, the last Friday of every month! *PBR special- $5 pitchers *vegan potluck (bring food to share, as well as your own bowl and utensils) *movies *meet other riders! This is immediately following the ride. See you Friday! |
| Reports On Previous Monthly Rides Critical Mass Report April 25, 2008 Submitted by Webmaster Duane Since I had to work until after 5:30pm, I did not attend the Mass personally. After work and knowing the Mass would end at Anna Banana's, I headed straight for the bar to greet the arriving riders and to meet a couple of people I expected to have ridden that day. I asked some one who did ride in the Mass to write an update for the site, but I haven't received anything from him, yet. If/when he does write something and send it to me, I will post it. For the last two months, Critical Mass has garnered a lot of negative publicity, due to the obstruction of traffic by Mass riders. A lot of newspaper articles and TV news reports appeared in the media. I have to confess that the Critical Mass - Honolulu website has received more hits in the last two months than in all the time the site has been up, at least since I took it over a few years ago. In fact, traffic to the site was so low and attendance at the rides was less than two people at times, that I contemplated shutting the site down, since I felt that CM Honolulu had died-out again. The February Mass was vastly different from most of the Masses I have seen or heard of in the recent past. The number of riders was large and traffic got obstructed most of the way around town. This caused some angered motorists to complain to HPD and the March Mass was met with a number of police officers trying to - and, in some cases succeeding - ticket riders and impound bikes. The March Mass ended with a bicyclist, who was not riding with Critical Mass, to be tackled and injured by a police officer trying to make an arrest. More negative publicity came of it. A local bicycling advocacy organization even asked me to remove their link from the site and I obliged them by removing all links to bicycling organizations from the site's Links section. None of the bike shops listed on the site have made a similar request, yet. For the April Mass, according to people I spoke to afterwards, there was a large police escort through the entire route. The escort included police cars, motorcycles and bicycles. It seemed rather funny that so much police attention would be paid to a group that, only three months before had degenerated into irrelevancy. But, it was not unexpected, due to the large number of complaints HPD and some other groups have received as a result of the February and March rides. So, the Mass apparently wound its way around town and Critical Mass took their police escorts on a wide tour of the town. Only when the riders stopped at Anna Banana's did the police leave the riders to attend their after-Mass party. The Mass, from beginning to end, stayed in one lane and no traffic was obstructed. No one got hurt, ticketted or arrested this time. After the ride, news cameras were there to conduct interviews with some of the riders, though I didn't have the opportunity to see the news reports myself, despite KHON TV and the HOnolulu Advertiser contacting me for interviews. For the interviews I supplied them with the contact email address where all media inquiries are to be sent. As far as attendance at the April Mass, it seemed to be a fraction of what the February and March rides had, possibly due to the advance knowledge that HPD would be out in-force. I also noticed the absence of certain people who had been strong cheerleaders for the obstruction of traffic that had occurred in the last two rides. This was not surprising. Nevertheless, the riders all appeared to be in good spirits when they arrived at Anna Banana's. No one appeared to be either disappointed or angry with how things turned-out. I have always felt that Critical Mass Honolulu should be an activist organization, constantly pressuring for improvements to benefit the cycling community. Calling for more bike racks in certain parts of town, reporting potholes which specifically endanger cyclists, pressuring for more bike lanes, etc all culminating at the last Friday of every month with a group bike ride. It doesn't seem so much to expect. Yet, my suggestions had been shotdown by other people involved with CM in Honolulu, with the claim that Critical Mass is not about activism, it's only about the ride and nothing else. Sadly, their perspective held sway and I think it is the reason so many people have dropped-out of CM over the years. If we're not activists, then what is CM Honolulu good for? Nothing that I can see. As far as the Mass for May and beyond, I think we'll see more police presence until HPD is sure that Critical Mass will behave itself. Effectively ending the traffic-obstructing rides that generated so much attention to CM and hits on the website in the last two months. The people who advocate blocking traffic will lose interest and will stop attending. I think that some people will keep coming for Mass in the future, but I am certain that numbers will dwindle as all the "fun" has been taken out of it. Personally, I hope that a new crop of cycling advocates will come out of all this, letting people in power know that the cycling community has needs and will not be silenced until we receive them. I have repeatedly put out calls for srticles to be written for this site, yet received few. People who are so quick to call for the blocking of traffic lanes are very unwilling to sitdown and write an article for this site. Once again, I am asking for bicycling-related articles to be submitted for this site. If there is something you wish to share, please send it to me and I will post it. Articles irrelevant to cycling issues will not be posted. Let's see if we really have some cycling advocates out there or not. |