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December 31, 2004

NY Newsday: Critical Mass enjoys peaceful New Year's ride

from NY Newsday By Wil Cruz

More than 200 Critical Mass bicyclists zigzagged through Manhattan streets Friday night, sans permits and in procession, rounding off the latest battle between the riders and the police department.

The cyclists gathered at the north end of Union Square Friday evening while police on motorcycles lined up on the south side. Community affairs officers, as they had at previous Critical Mass gatherings, handed out fliers that threatened cyclists with arrests if they rode in procession.

"These are not criminals," said Attorney Norman Siegel, pointing to the cyclists before they rode off. "I'm disappointed in the Police Department."

At 7:30 p.m., the riders, screaming, whistling and saying "Happy New Year!" headed west on 17th Street. A police vehicle blocked traffic as some motorists honked their car horns.

In the end, the demonstration went off without incident. Police and organizers reported no arrests.

The Critical Mass culminated a year in which the cyclists and the city, particularly the NYPD, had numerous clashes. Leading up to the Republican National Convention during the summer, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly for the first time cracked down on the gathering, a fixture in the city a decade.

Last week, a federal judge sided with the cyclist organizers and turned down the city's push to force the riders to have permits. The judge ordered the case transferred to State Supreme Court.

Critical Mass is the last Friday of every month.

Friday night, organizers were hoping for more cyclists. Though some riders had gotten scared away in previous months because of arrest threats, they said, some probably stayed away because it's winter and the holiday.

Before leaving Union Square, cyclists accused the police of being ambiguous about procession rules.

"They're just playing this game... and not being clear," said Jack Horowitz, 57, a farmer and feed dealer from the South Bronx. "They're just saying it's illegal and trying to frighten people.

"I thought we had progressed as a city," he added.

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December 29, 2004

The Villager: Critical Mass gets ‘ride of way;’ injunction denied

From The Villager

By Lincoln Anderson

It looks like it may be a happy new year — or at least New Year’s Eve ride — for Critical Mass. On Dec. 23, U.S. District Court Judge William Pauley III denied a request by the New York City Police Department for a federal injunction to stop the monthly Critical Mass rides in Manhattan unless they get a permit.

In his decision, Pauley noted that the city had been allowing the group bike rides for the past 10 years, but now is demanding that they obtain a permit. That and other questions about the sudden crackdown on the event led Pauley to feel that the situation was too murky to issue an injunction. Also, citing the judicial principle of comity between the state and federal courts, Pauley did not want to intrude in what he considers to be a matter for the state courts.

“After allowing the Critical Mass rides in Manhattan for 10 years without permits…the Police Department has acquiesced to the very conduct it now seeks to prohibit,” Pauley wrote in his decision. “To issue an injunction on such a gossamer thread would stretch this court’s jurisdiction beyond the limited elasticity of [the law].”

Pauley also ruled against the city’s request that the riders get a Parks Department special events permit to gather at their usual departure point, Union Sq.’s north plaza.

Since the August Critical Mass ride before the Republican National Convention, when police arrested over 250 of the bicyclists, the police have taken a tough stance against the event. Each ensuing month, the police have made arrests, sometimes as many as 40, at the rides.

Participants in the local Critical Mass ride — an event that takes place in 400 cities worldwide — hailed the decision and said it’s now time for the city to stop “targeting” the riders.

“It means the N.Y.P.D. cannot continue to take the hard line,” said Norman Siegel at a Dec. 24 press conference. “Second, I think it means that the hostility will abate.”

Assistant Corporation Counsel Sheryl Neufeld of the city’s law department said in a statement: “We are disappointed with the court’s ruling…. The city is considering its legal options, including whether to appeal.”

The city’s law department noted that in his decision, the judge wrote: “ ‘to the extent that Critical Mass participants violate city laws, this ruling does not condone their conduct.’

“The court simply found that the city’s claims against Critical Mass belong in state court, not federal court,” the law department said.

The case was in federal court because the city filed a counterclaim to a federal lawsuit by five riders who sued the city over their locked bikes being confiscated by saw-wielding police at the Sept. 24 Critical Mass ride.

Asked if the city planned to have police keep arresting the bikers, Kate Ahlers O’Brien, a law department spokesperson, said, “My general sense on that is police will continue to police the ride as they have been doing.” However, she added, “It’s a ride — they got a court order to let them proceed. There’s no reason to inflame it. They’re going to ride and we hope it will be peaceful.”
A police spokesperson issued the following statement on how police will respond to the upcoming ride on Dec. 31.

“Like everyone else, bicyclists are still required to obey the law and we’ll still enforce it. That includes stopping at red lights,” the spokesperson said. He wouldn’t say if police plan to ask the riders to follow a set route. “That’s our statement,” he said, declining to provide more details.

Attorney Siegel said the “difficult issue” that remains is “How do you have a semi-planned event — that the police are trying to expedite so it doesn’t take all night?”

Siegel said making the riders stop at every red light would just make the ride last longer. Currently, the riders stream through intersections at red lights, blocking, or “corking,” car traffic. The rides usually last for more than an hour.

“Hopefully what happened in San Francisco will be repeated here,” Siegel said. In that city, police escort the riders, he said, under a policy worked out under Mayor Willie Brown.

“The N.Y.P.D. has the chance in the next week,” Siegel said, “does it stop, does it continue or does it get worse?”

Leah Rorvig, 22, a volunteer with Time’s Up!, the group that publicizes the rides, said a key aspect of the event is that it continues to be “decentralized,” with no leaders and no set format.

“Critical Mass, the real joy of this is it’s a decentralized event,” Rorvig said. Rorvig, an East Village resident, said she, personally, will stop at red lights — but that she couldn’t speak for how others will behave. “We are committed to maintaining the spirit of Critical Mass, which is decentralization,” she said.

“What we’d like to have is a police escort. That really facilitates rides very successfully,” Rorvig said. Under this scheme, the police would follow along with the ride on scooters or in cars, insuring safety. “I think the cyclists would be willing to accept some limits — like don’t go on the F.D.R.,” she added.

Rorvig and others said that the police, in fact, did provide escorts to Critical Mass for the last 10 years. She said she would follow a route if police gave one, but again, couldn’t say what the rest of the Critical Mass bicyclists will do.

In addition, the riders argue that they should merely be given summonses if they break traffic laws, not be arrested.

Barbara Ross and Judy Ross, two sisters who attended the Dec. 24 press conference, said they have been doing the Critical Mass rides since when the rides started at Astor Pl., then Union Sq. S. They said in the last two years the rides have gotten larger, averaging 500 to 1,000 bikers, depending on the weather and circumstances.

Barbara Ross said she commutes to work from the East Village to Midtown by bike and appreciates the feeling of safety in a large mass of bicyclists that the monthly group rides provide.

They said in the past the police were cordial with the riders. There was even a special unit assigned to follow the ride.

“We started to get to know them. It was like the same group,” said Barbara Ross. “If they rode on bicycles, it would be even better. We kind of missed them when they weren’t there anymore.”

Siegel said it’s time for Mayor Bloomberg to get involved and tell the N.Y.P.D. to back off of the ride.

“The mayor has been terribly quiet on this controversy,” he said. “The mayor is pro-environment. If he doesn’t want this to turn into an election 2005 issue, he’s got to tell the police to chill out.”

One woman at the press conference wore an “I bike. I vote.” button.

“There’s over 100,000 bike riders in the city of New York,” Siegel noted.

A call to Ed Skyler, the mayor’s press secretary, was not returned.

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Letter to the Villager: Cops cause Critical Mass mess

From The Villager

To The Editor:
Re “Police and bikers take stand in Critical Mass case” (news article, Dec. 15):

Apparently all the news media have missed the point that it’s likely that all the route diversions on Oct. 29 can be pinned on the cops and not the riders. The police press release on Saturday morning Oct. 30 blamed the cyclists for every evil in the city because they failed to stick to the police-mandated route. The failure to follow the routing was the key to the city position — and the city conceded they screwed the cyclists on this, and lied to the public — how can anything else the city said be trusted?

Steven M. O’Neill

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December 23, 2004

AP: NYC CM requires no permit

From the Associated Press

NEW YORK -- The city's bid to force cyclists to obtain permits before their monthly bicycle rally through Manhattan was dismissed Thursday by a federal judge.

U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III said the issue should be resolved in state court.

Cyclists had argued that since no one claims to organize the Critical Mass rallies, issuing permits would have been difficult.

City lawyer Sheryl Neufeld said the city was considering an appeal.

The bike rides, which started in San Francisco in 1992 to make a statement about cyclists' rights, have become large enough in New York that police tightened the rules, leading to the arrest of hundreds of cyclists days before the Republican National Convention.

Pauley noted that police had not required permits for nearly a decade and had even aided the rallies by blocking cross-town intersections and letting cyclists run red lights.

Attorney Norman Siegel, who represented five cyclists who had their bikes seized, said he hoped the judge's argument "will deter the city from seeking to appeal."

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December 20, 2004

NYMetro: Protesters Spun Their Wheels.

From NYMetro's year-end wrapup. By Logan Hill.

On the Friday after Thanksgiving, a police helicopter hovered high above Union Square, while squad cars and vans assembled on the streets below. Dozens of NYPD officers gathered on street corners; some even unloaded large rolls of the orange rubber netting first used this year for mass arrests. At the square’s northern end, framed by the Starbucks, McDonald’s, and Barnes & Noble, loomed the threat: bikers.

No, not Hells Angels (though the police did seem to be preparing for Altamont). More than a hundred goofy-looking bicyclists, bundled against the cold, wheeled around aimlessly: middle-aged men on fancy Peugeot twelve-speeds; college girls on mountain bikes; hipsters on vintage Schwinns; even tough guys on modified, low-riding choppers. They—and the beefy plainclothes officers teetering conspicuously in their midst—were there for the monthly protest-and-party-on-wheels called Critical Mass. For ten years, the environmentalist ride has coalesced on the last Friday of every month and roamed the city. On this night, confused but determined cyclists waited to see if the police would arrest them, while activists moved through the crowd, handing out postcards: a foldout “Green Guide to Lower Manhattan”; notice of a “¡Fiesta! to save Community Gardens in the SOUTH BRONX!,” even an invite to a “Sex Workers’ benefit show.”

Meanwhile, two friends in baggy sweatshirts—who insisted their names were Serge and Jean-Paul—waited for the ride to begin, while officers used a van’s radio to test the speakers with which they’d bark out their commands to disperse. Suddenly, booming over this green protest, was a radio ad for “the new Mitsubishi Galant!”

“Oh, man—they’ve gotta be messin’ with us,” Serge howled, tightening the grip on his handlebars. “Mitsubishi!?”

This year has been a wild and ultimately depressing ride for New York’s activist left—from the war in Iraq to the Republican convention and Bush’s reelection. The year began with rage over the war—and the hope that a modern grassroots move-ment would overwhelm Bush. MoveOn.org broke online fund-raising records; Al Franken anchored Air America; Fahrenheit 9/11 stormed the box office; and thousands of the city’s activists hatched plans to protest the Republican convention. St. Mark’s Church filled with anarchists; dot-com dropouts launched savvy Websites; direct-action advocates debated the best use of disruptive tactics; famous artists organized festivals and readings; theater troupes announced absurd shows; hip Brooklyn activists booked plane tickets for unhip swing states they’d never set foot in. Binding all this together was the sense that protest might matter again—that it might even help elect Not Bush. That lasted till November 3.

“Bush’s reelection is doubly awful here, because so many people were working very, very hard,” says Bill Dobbs, of United for Peace and Justice, which organized the 400,000-person march on August 29. “It makes the results harder to bear.”

In the weeks following the election, many loudmouthed idealists went mute. Organizers took vacations, spent time with their families; there was idle talk of Canadian real estate. Others began the hand-wringing—a much-forwarded e-mail snipes, “Who Needs Ends When We’ve Got Such Bitchin’ Means?” Some are slowly moving on: UFPJ has planned its next rally, an anti-nuke gathering, for May 1 in Central Park. Mostly, though, activists are settling down.

Through it all, Critical Mass has kept pedaling. The rides, which originated in San Francisco and have since spread around the world, began here ten years ago as a modest protest against traffic and pollution. But in 2004, Critical Mass grew to be much more than that. As numbers swelled from dozens to as many as 5,000, Critical Mass became a kind of repository for what remains of the activists’ battered optimism—and a regular forum for the cops to practice their new and improved anti-protester tactics. Plus, of course, it’s a great party.

“What else are you going to do?” asked an activist named Ludmilla. “Stay home?”

Or, as Serge put it, “I just like to come out and, you know, get punk rock.”

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December 15, 2004

The Villager: Police and bikers take stand in Critical Mass case

From The Villager By Lincoln Anderson

Top police brass and determined bicyclists testified last Wednesday in the ongoing federal trial on whether the monthly Critical Mass bike rides in Manhattan need a permit.

The witnesses were questioned and cross-examined by city attorneys and by the pro-bono attorneys for Critical Mass, Norman Siegel, former head of the New York Civil Liberties Union, and Steven Hyman.

Chief Bruce Smolka, commanding officer of Manhattan South, said because the monthly rides have no set route they require a detail of several hundred police officers, “who could be solving homicides, doing other things.” If the riders would agree to a route and stick to it, he said, the number of police needed would be less.

“The fact that they start in the park is one thing,” Smolka said, referring to the riders’ usual departure point of Union Sq. “They have to work with us to select a route.”

Asked what number of bike riders requires a parade or procession permit, Smolka said, “I don’t know that there’s a minimum number,” adding that it was a judgment call made by the head officer overseeing the policing of the ride.

Judge William Pauley III asked the chief why police are asking for an injunction against the ride unless it gets a permit, since police have been making arrests at the rides without an injunction in place.

“I believe it would be a deterrent — it would keep people away,” Smolka said.

Lieutenant Daniel Albano of the Police Department’s legal bureau said before the September Critical Mass ride, Smolka asked him to try to meet with Time’s Up!, the nonprofit environmental group that publicizes the rides, to try to find someone to apply for a permit “so that we could make this a fun event, rather than a confrontation.” Yet Albano was unable to persuade anyone to be the permit applicant.

Asked if that confirmed to him the statement by its participants that Critical Mass has no leaders, Albano said, “It’s confirmed to the extent that they say it — I don’t know if I believe it.”

Taking the stand as the city’s third witness was Elizabeth W. Smith, the Parks Department’s chief of marketing and corporate sponsorship. Smith explained that Parks is asking Critical Mass to apply for a permit to gather at Union Sq. before their rides. The permit — needed for gatherings of 20 or more people — would cost $20. She said Critical Mass is an appropriate event to be issued a permit for the space, though adding if there was another permitted event at the same time, the bike event would get bumped. She claimed some Greenmarket farmers recently complained the bikers’ gathering had hindered their loading up their trucks after they were finished vending.

During a court recess, Siegel charged the Parks permit is just another example of the city “targeting” Critical Mass. He said it particularly bothered him on civil rights grounds because it was the equivalent of forcing people to get a permit for “just standing around.”

“There’s no rally, there’s no speakers,” Siegel said. “The city is saying they can’t stand on a public street? Hell no!”

The city has conceded that the state traffic law requiring bicyclists to ride no more than two abreast on streets does not apply in the city. According to Siegel, the city previously opted out of this provision of the traffic law. A rule that does apparently apply is that bikers are supposed to try to ride as close to either curb as possible. Chief Smolka said that the Critical Mass riders, in addition to biking in a procession without a permit, also face charges of disorderly conduct for “taking over the roadway or sidewalk to the exclusion of other people.”

However, testifying for Critical Mass, Steven Faust, a founder of the 5-Boro Bike Tour, said the bottom line is that bikers need to ride in whatever manner is safest for them. The city’s bike lanes are woefully inadequate he said, in that they are too narrow, except for possibly Lafayette St., which is not as bad, he said.

“Given New York City conditions, one has to ride where it’s safe,” Faust said. “There are some situations where it’s very appropriate for a cyclist to be out in the middle of the street.”

Also testifying for the bicyclists were Wylie Stecklow, who, like Faust, rode in Critical Mass for the first time in October, and Matthew Roth, a Time’s Up! spokesperson, who has been in 35 Critical Mass rides.

Pauley is expected to rule on the injunction/permit issue sometime before this month’s Critical Mass ride on Fri., Dec. 31, and could rule as soon as the end of this week.

Afterwards, Roth said it was clear that Pauley was concerned about what granting the injunction will mean, in that bikers arrested for defying the injunction would be hauled into state court on a misdemeanor charge, though they would now face up to a year in jail.

Since the unusually large August Critical Mass ride before the Republican National Convention when over 5,000 participated and about 250 were arrested, police have continued their crackdown on the event. Smolka contended that the numbers of participants in the Critical Mass rides have been growing. Yet, since last year, rides have regularly averaged around 1,000 bikers, according to Critical Mass.

“It’s a decision they’ve made because they’re cops,” said Roth. “They’re not going to back down. They’re not like that…. People should sit down and make better bicycle policy.”

Critical Mass riders say the most effective way for them to move through the city is to run red lights, that the ride actually goes faster and blocks less traffic that way. They also counter the city’s claims that they could potentially block ambulances; they say bikes can nimbly disperse and clear a path rapidly, as opposed to gridlocked automobiles.

But make no mistake, Critical Mass is trying to convey a message that bikers deserve their share of the road. By biking in numbers, there is a feeling of safety from the danger of cars.

“The whole point is it displaces automobile traffic for a brief moment when we roll through,” Roth said. “It’s to make it a visual statement that bikes need to be on the road.”

Critical Mass occurs in hundreds of cities worldwide.

To hear it from one Portland, Ore., self-described “bicycle-powered gardener” who attended last week’s court proceeding at 500 Pearl St., a clear-cut resolution to the case may not be reached anytime soon. Sara Stout was in town for Thanksgiving and joined the November Critical Mass ride, which police essentially stopped from occurring.

“I expected a big police presence,” she said, “but it was shocking to see that they wouldn’t let you ride — when riding in a procession hasn’t been established as illegal.”

Stout decided to hang around for the court case to see how things work out.

The Portland Critical Mass ride continues to face “police harassment,” she said.

About 10 years ago, Portland tried to force the riders to get a permit for use of a park after their rides, but Critical Mass won in court and the issue remains unresolved. Stout said the Berkeley Critical Mass ride is suing Berkeley over civil rights issues.

Stout said it’s her experience that when police get confrontational with Critical Mass, the more conciliatory riders are scared off, leaving a core of riders who are more confrontational with the police.

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Greenwood Village Block Association criticizes cops on CM

In a letter to the editors of The Villager, the Greenwood Village Block Association expresses disapproval of police tactics with regard to Critical Mass:

To The Editor:
The Greenwich Village Block Associations is a community-wide coalition of neighborhood organizations dedicated to preserving and improving the quality of life for residents of our historic neighborhood. At our last meeting we discussed Critical Mass, in part, because Union Sq. served as the gathering point for the November ride. The New York Police Department has legitimate concerns about the potential hazards posed by a massive group of cyclists making their way through city streets. Questions arose, however, concerning what well may be an overwhelming use of N.Y.P.D. resources.

Critical Mass has occurred all over the world for more than 10 years. The cyclists of Critical Mass are involved for a variety of reasons: some as a form of protest and some purely for recreation. Indeed, some riders that participated during the Republican National Convention were dismayed that what they expected to be a peaceful ride evolved into a protest. The G.V.B.A. is critical of cyclists who fail to obey the law, particularly those who ride on the sidewalks; we support N.Y.P.D. efforts to crackdown on unlawful conduct. We have, however, heard disturbing anecdotes about bystanders who have been subject to police interference. We also understand that on occasion police officers have overacted to minor infractions, confiscated bicycles and arrested riders, rather than issuing summons. It seems that the N.Y.P.D. is taking a confrontational stance towards an event that could be managed in a more cooperative spirit.

The G.V.B.A. understands that the efficient deployment of police resources is a sensitive and difficult challenge. Greenwich Village is experiencing a rapid increase in the number of liquor-licensed premises and we are encountering the severe problems that these establishments often create. Large numbers of tourists, some of them rowdy, visit our community. Residents complain that inadequate police resources are directed towards solving these problems. Indeed, the 6th Precinct has had the number of its officers reduced by more than a third over the past five years.

The G.V.B.A. hopes that the N.Y.P.D. will defuse the antagonism that has been fostered around Critical Mass and decrease the police effort required to supervise it without curtailing its spontaneity. We believe that our police officers could be better employed dealing more strenuously with other problems, including our own.

Marilyn Dorato
Dorato is secretary and presiding officer, Greenwich Village Block Associations

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December 12, 2004

NYT Letters: The City's Clampdown on Critical Mass

NYTimes Letter to the Editor by Bill Gifford

To the Editor:

If the city succeeds in outlawing group bicycle rides like Critical Mass, perhaps the cyclists could think of another way to express themselves. If they all drove their cars around Manhattan, en masse, they'd bring traffic to a standstill -- and it would be perfectly legal. We out-of-towners have been doing it for years.

Bill Gifford
Mount Gretna, Pa.

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December 07, 2004

AP: Police and cyclists continue legal battle over Critical Mass rides

From the AP, via CNN By ELIZABETH LeSURE

On the last Friday of every month, New York City's abundant yellow cabs, buses and delivery trucks are briefly forced to yield to a phalanx of bicycles -- a gridlock of pedals and handlebars known as Critical Mass.

The monthly takeover has been a ritual in New York for the past few years, closely monitored by police but rarely controversial -- until August.

That's when more than 250 cyclists were taken into custody during a ride days before the Republican National Convention, igniting a struggle between cyclists and police that continues to play out on the streets and in court.

The police department is now trying to block the rides unless cyclists get a permit. But participants say there is no formal organization to apply for one and that a permit isn't needed because bicycles have the same right to the streets as cars do.

The unresolved issue has led to legal battles, and another court hearing was scheduled for Wednesday.

"After six years, the city has decided to target them, and that's wrong," said attorney Norman Siegel, who is representing five cyclists whose bikes were seized during the September ride.

Critical Mass was started in San Francisco in 1992 with the goal of making a statement about cyclists' rights and has since spread to cities around the world.

It is not a formal organization, riders say, and has no leaders. Some take part because they want to encourage bicycling as environmentally friendly transit, while others say they do it because it's fun to ride in a big group.

Critical Mass has tussled with authorities in other cities as well. In San Francisco, more than 100 people were arrested in July 1997 after then-mayor Willie Brown called the ride a "critical mess." Three police officers were hurt and nine people were arrested during a ride in Buffalo, New York, in May 2003. And in Portland, Oregon, where police have cracked down on the monthly events, this year's Halloween ride drew only about 100 people.

The Manhattan rides, which begin in Union Square, have been taking place regularly for several years. While there were some tangles in the past, police and participants largely agree that they had reached a kind of unspoken truce until this summer.

Matthew Roth, a volunteer for the environmental group Time's Up, which promotes the rides, said he recalled friendly banter between participants and officers on scooters. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, in an opinion piece in the Daily News on October 28, said that in "years past" participants stopped at red lights, used bike lanes when they existed and generally observed traffic laws.

But the August ride came during the Republican convention, when city streets were the setting for dozens of massive demonstrations. Thousands of cyclists came to the Friday night ride, including many there to protest at the convention. By the end of the evening, 264 had been arrested.

Police and participants disagree on how the trouble began.

Kelly wrote in the Daily News that the events had been "hijacked by groups of cyclists intent on disruption and on violating the law."

But Roth said he believed the police -- not the riders -- became confrontational. "I think the radical change has come from One Police Plaza," he said.

A month after the convention, at the September ride, nine people were arrested and 40 bikes were seized. Five cyclists then sued the city, claiming the bikes were wrongfully confiscated, and a federal judge ruled that police could not take bicycles unless their riders violated the law.

The city also asked that cyclists be required to get a permit for the rides, but the judge said the request was not filed in enough time to affect the October ride, which resulted in 35 arrests.

On November 15, the city once again asked a judge to block cyclists from riding without a permit. The city also went a step further, asking that they be prohibited from gathering in Union Square Park before the ride.

The issue remained unsettled for the November ride, and police told cyclists who gathered in Union Square that they would be arrested if they rode in a group. Some riders fanned out around the city, and a group congregated again in Washington Square Park. Seventeen were arrested.

The next ride was planned for New Year's Eve, beginning at 7:30 p.m. at Union Square. A second ride was planned for 10:30 p.m., starting under the arch at Washington Square Park and ending in Central Park with music and fireworks, according to the Time's Up Web site.

Copyright 2004, The Associated Press

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December 05, 2004

NYTimes Editorial: Critical Mess

From NYTimes By the Editorial Staff

The sight of hundreds or even thousands of bicycles on busy streets is something that sounds more like Beijing than New York, but on Manhattan's avenues, it has become a regular event. In monthly rides meant to promote healthful and nonpolluting commuting, cyclists have gathered and then pedaled for a few blocks en masse, often up Park Avenue from a parking lot at Union Square.

The ride, called Critical Mass, is part of a grass-roots effort that has taken hold in major American cities and hundreds of other cities worldwide. In recent months, though, what for six years had been a generally uneventful spin in New York City has drawn the ire of the police, who regard the bikers as a safety and security hazard and illegal to boot. The city has asked a federal court to halt the rides unless organizers get a permit, as they would for a parade. That could bring the rides to an unfortunate end.

Some cyclists have contributed to the showdown with unnecessarily aggressive behavior like blocking traffic and running red lights. Even so, the police seem to have come on awfully strong. Other cities, among them Chicago and San Francisco, have found ways to reconcile bikers and the police. But politics and increasingly frayed tempers have complicated matters in New York.

The turning point seems to have occurred before the Republican convention last summer, when regularly scheduled rides - on the last Friday of the month - took on overtones of a political protest. In July, some cyclists headed to the F.D.R. Drive, where bike riding is not allowed. At the end of August, just before the convention, Critical Mass attracted 5,000 riders. As part of a general crackdown on protests without permits, the police detained hundreds of riders - including, apparently, innocent bystanders. Since then, scores more Critical Mass cyclists have been arrested.

Norman Siegel, a prominent civil rights lawyer who is representing five riders whose bicycles were confiscated, agrees that Critical Mass riders should obey traffic laws. But he has reasonable concerns about what the police want. By petitioning to bar future rides by groups of even a few cyclists unless they have permits, he says, the city is seeking to pre-empt Critical Mass altogether.

Critical Mass has no organizers, and there's no way to know how many riders will participate in any given month. That's a problem if a permit to ride must be regularly obtained. The movement - which takes its name from a documentary film about cycling - spread from San Francisco in the early 1990's through the Internet and word of mouth. Various Web sites keep riders informed, but there is no hierarchy, and there's no formal leader of the pack. Critical Mass by its nature is no leaders and all followers, joined together by a love of cycling.

There is no law keeping bikes off the streets. The sudden appearance of thousands of riders obviously poses a challenge, but need not inconvenience others if riders do their part and obey traffic laws as they should. There are no doubt scofflaws among Critical Mass bikers, just as there are among car drivers. But the problem now is that instead of issuing summonses, the police have been arresting the cyclists, handcuffing and taking them away. That is not the best use of New York's finest.

In a city like New York, with heavy traffic congestion and overburdened mass transit, bicycles offer an alternative that ought to be encouraged. Bicycles do not create dangerous air emissions. They offer health benefits to the riders. And they're easier on the city's aging roads.

Past efforts to encourage commuter biking included the path on Sixth Avenue, a project of Mayor Ed Koch. Few people used it, many complained about it, and it was abandoned. But times are changing. As a way to promote cycling, Critical Mass has legs, in more ways than one. The city should work with riders to defuse their disagreement so the monthly rides can go on, in an orderly, lawful and safe way.

Copyright 2004, New York Times

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December 01, 2004

Villager: Net tightens around Critical Mass

From The Vilalger

Taking no chances that the monthly Critical Mass bicycle protest would occur without having obtained a permit, last Friday evening police greeted the 500 riders who gathered at Union Sq. with a warning they would be arrested for riding in a procession. Making that point clear, police with large orange R.N.C.-style nets blocked the sides of the square’s north plaza, the rest of which is blocked by metal gates.

Some riders agreed to meet up at 8 p.m. at Washington Sq. According to Matthew Roth, a spokesperson for Time’s Up!, some cyclists were arrested while walking their bikes away from Union Sq.

About 70 to 100 people congregated at Washington Sq. and started riding around the park, “building the mass.” However, police soon arrived and arrested a bunch of them in front of Bobst Library. In all, there were 17 arrests.

On Dec. 8 there will be a hearing, with witnesses’ testimony on the stand, in the ongoing federal case of whether the rides need a permit.

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