[*BCM*] A fine point

[rawillis3 at juno.com]

Most of the core of what is now the St. Louis Regional Bicycle Federation, myself included, first became involved in transportational bicycle "advocacy" through Critical Mass.  The movement was never very strong here in St. Louis, and with the migration of this core to more formal advocacy methods participation in CM has faded to near zero -- though in recent months a mix of college students and anarchists has apparently revived it some . . .

I would say that CM is inherently an anarchist movement.  The perceived problem: motorists dominating the roadways to the exclusion of utilitarian or transportational cyclists.  The method of addressing the problem: a monthly "unorganized" (and certainly undisciplined) moving party on two wheels, designed to draw attention to the presence of cyclists on the roads.  No mechanism for "controlling" the behavior of any participant, except maybe mild social pressure.

As for alternatives.  For awhile, as a project of the "living environments" committee of a local project-driven communitarian group here called Metropolis, I "hosted" a monthly ride on city streets the purpose of which was to help novice or casual transportational, or even recreational, cyclists get more comfortable biking on the streets.  This was never particularly well attended, except by the usual suspects.  The local chapter of Hosteling occasionally does something somewhat similar.

But in the end, if your purpose is to educate the public to the idea that transportational cyclists have a right to share the road with motorists, you are going against the grain of the dominant culture.  And to the extent that the dominant culture reinforces itself through hierarchical and authoritarian mechanisms, pervasive consumerism, etc., the alternatives are necessarily "political."

R.