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Critical Mass rolls through Norman on Friday night.
Cars flew by with little regard for the 30 or so cyclists taking up a lane on Main Street. Some honked and others screamed obscenities at the group, but Kara Joy McKee, the cyclists’ unofficial leader, just smiled and waved back.
For some Norman residents, the final Friday of every month means riding their bicycles together through busy city streets as part of a loosely organized social movement called Critical Mass, an event held in more than 300 cities around the world.
The riders meet at 6 p.m. in front of Buchanan Bicycles at 561 Buchanan Ave. at Campus Corner and ride through the city for about an hour. On Friday, the cyclists made their way down Main Street and finished their tour back at Buchanan Bicycles.
McKee, a 2007 OU graduate who works as the volunteer coordinator for Food and Shelter for Friends and as the facilitator for the Norman Sustainability Network, said she helped organize the first Critical Mass rides in Norman in 1998 with the club OUr Earth.
“In Norman, it’s about showing that cycling can be fun, that riding in a group is a great time, and it also gives people an opportunity to go somewhere on a bike that they haven’t been before,” McKee said.
Terry Slade, a Norman resident for 35 years, said that Friday’s group was the largest he had seen.
“It’s just a really fun bike ride, but the main thing is to promote awareness of bicycle riding, and just to show that bicycles can be ridden on the street,” Slade said. “A lot of people think that’s against the law. It’s really a lot safer to ride on the street than on the sidewalks.”
Slade said he got involved in Critical Mass three years ago, after watching a documentary on cycling. At the time he had not ridden his bike in years, but jumped back on and since has participated every month except for once when he missed a ride because of illness.
“I’ve always thought it’s just a matter of getting the word out. I think if everybody in Norman knew about it, there’d be hundreds of people every time, it’s just people don’t know about it, and we don’t really have resources to get the word out,” Slade said.
In different cities the bike rides can take very different forms in terms of the number of riders, the frequency of events, and even the purpose of the rides.
Environmental engineering junior Rob Etheridge has been riding with the group for about a year. He said the purpose of the rides in Norman is simple.
“Just getting people together to ride bikes and learning how to maneuver through traffic,” he said.
Multidisciplinary studies junior Abby Lasiter said she enjoys seeing her friends and meeting new people.
“It’s good to see everybody kind of coming together just to ride, for fun, not really any goal or destination,” she said. “It’s like an all-in-one great thing. You’re getting your exercise, you’re learning more about your community.”
McKee said she wanted to correct misconceptions and stereotypes about cycling and cyclists.
“It’s not about being poor and not being able to afford a car. If you interviewed a majority of these people here they probably could afford a car, it’s more of a philosophy,” McKee said. “We can get where we need to go without using fossil fuels, without polluting the environment, and we see our friends when we’re out here. We say, ‘Hey!’ It’s a community spirit; it’s a really different thing than being caught up in a box all of the time,” said McKee.
In several cities, there have been incidents of conflict in the past between Critical Mass cyclists and motorists or city governments. A 2005 documentary, “Still We Ride,” documents Critical Mass bike rides before and after police got involved in New York City.
The New York City rides became so large that it blocked traffic and caused so many problems that police began mapping out routes and leading the procession through the city. McKee said Critical Mass riders have become aggressive in some cities. In San Francisco, cyclists even attacked a car that tried to drive through the crowd.
McKee said that she was trying to avoid the same problems in Norman.
“It’s become a protest where cyclists are very angry about car culture, and they often behave in ways that really defame cyclists,” she said. “In Norman we don’t do that. We don’t see a need to do that. We want to cooperate with the cars, but we’re trying to build this partnership for better transportation in Norman that works for everybody.”
– Kevin Hahn contributed to this story.
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maka 3 years, 7 months ago
With the looming economic crisis, a lot of people could benefit greatly from learning about the viability of bicycling as a primary means of transportation. Before I started biking, I thought that living a mile away from work meant I couldn't possibly give up my car for a bike. After all, I'm nearly 40...and I have injuries and...and...excuses, that's what I had the most of! That was three years ago. Now I think nothing of riding three miles from my home into the center of Norman and riding around for several miles during the day before riding home again.
mustafa 3 years, 7 months ago
The fact that you chose Main St. the busy traffic area in town, tells what you are really about: being a bunch of self-rightous pains in the A. Only a total idiot or a member of Critial Mass, would ride a bicycle on Main Street or Berry Road. Yet Berry is the city "Bike Route,' what idiot is responsibe for that? I ride frequently from the north to campus I always take Wiley or Pickard or Lahoma Never Berry! DUH! Instead of encourageing other idiots to risk their lives making some self- serving, flaky statment about "the environment" why don't you encourage them to be smart and avoid heavy traffic areas? Otherwise the reason you have obsenties shouted at you is because you deserve it. DUH
jgutz1 3 years, 7 months ago
Here in Norman, bicycle route signs abound on nearly every city street (including Main Street, Lindsey, Berry, Flood, and nearly every other – more than in most cities. However, neither the roads nor sidewalks (upon which riding is actually unlawful unless one is a child and unsafe regardless) for the most part, are bicycle friendly or safe, or car-friendly in the lawful responsibility to share the road. If promoted and accommodated, bicycling has the potential to increase the efficiency of urban city planning, while decreasing congestion, parking problems, accessibility issues and the overall need for local automobile trips. Being invented in the early 1800s, bicycles have been on our roads for much longer than motor vehicles. However, today, we (motorists and bicyclists) share the roads - the rights thereof and additionally the responsibilities, though members of both parties fail to respect this. I bicycle about as much as I conversely must also unfortunately drive and see very well both sides' arguments.
jgutz1 3 years, 7 months ago
While bicyclists may legally ride on any road also driven by automobiles, including by FHA law, the shoulders of interstate highways, they are required by law to follow the same road rules. They must ride on the correct side of traffic, with and NOT AGAINST, and may NOT just simply ride through stoplights, cutting cars off who've the right of way, and additionally must respect pedestrian crosswalks - all of which (as serious rules) I see frequently violated by a few. As a courtesy, and a courtesy only, bicyclists are supposed to ride towards the edge of the road, and may ride in groups of four or larger as one entity two riders abreast (in two columns). Cars are required to give at least 3 feet between themselves and bicyclists while passing (effectively an arms length). Often, though, the quality of road or amount of dangerous debris near the side is such that it is truly unsafe for all parties that bicyclists ride at the curbside. Thus a rider may unfortunately have to occupy the centre for a minute.
jgutz1 3 years, 7 months ago
Sure, if a bicyclist is the first at a four-way stop sign in a residential area, it makes sense to clear it and not slow traffic, but no other time and only if he or she is obviously first to the sign, and again, like a motorist, he or she must signal left or right. Yes, this would qualify as failing to halt at a stop, however I feel with my frequent eye contact with motorists, less bothersome to continue if I've already the right of way.
jgutz1 3 years, 7 months ago
Furthermore, nobody can win a fight for the road. Either way all will lose if one wins. Bicycles can neither solve extremely large distance commuting problems nor the transport of large amounts of goods, although in many cities bicycles like pedicabs (rickshaw-like) or those with trailers and cargo capacity are being used to transport goods over short distances, very efficiently, for only the cost of one person’s labour. Sometimes, inclement weather simply puts the keenest of us all inside our cars. On the other hand, more cars on the road cannot solve the issues of traffic congestion, lack of parking, the quicker eventual depletion of a very useful natural resource if overused, pollution, increased stressful driving as well as the mortal effects of our increasingly sedentary lifestyles.