[*BCM*] Courteous Mass?

[Hiroyuki Yamada]

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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