1st Critical Mass ride of 2009!

[Scott Swendsen]

Come join thousands (hundreds?  maybe tens of??) bicylists as we take to the streets of downtown Boise!

Friday, April 24th at 6:30 pm. ride starts 7:00 pm.

Come to Julia Davis Park Gene Harris Band Shell, right across Capitol Blvd from the Boise Downtown Library.  We are asking all participants to bring a food item that we will transport to the Idaho Food Bank using pedal power.

Critical Mass is a bicycling event typically held on the last Friday of every month in over 300 cities around the world. While the ride was originally founded in 1992 with the idea of drawing attention to how unfriendly the city was to bicyclists, the leaderless structure of Critical Mass makes it impossible to assign it any one specific goal. In fact, the purpose of Critical Mass is not formalized beyond the direct action of meeting at a set location and time and traveling as a group through city or town streets on bikes.

[Scott Swendsen]

Thank you to those dedicated cyclists who braved the cooler temps and gusty winds on Friday evening to come out to the first Boise Critical Mass of 2009!  Fourteen hardy souls turned up with cans of food in hand (or in baskets, panniers, coat pockets, cargo racks, etc) for our first food drive - a total of  about 10 pounds of food for the Idaho Food Bank! 

With about half of the riders being first timers (and due to cold temps and few riders), we "elected" to take a short ride down Capitol, back over to 9th and back to River and the Julia Davis Park.  We had all types of bikes - tandems, a tri-cycle single speed with a big cargo basket and 20 gallon can to haul all of our food (way to go Ian), mountain bikes, road bikes, etc.  We turned on our lights and flashers and took to the streets!

So when is a Critical Mass a good Critical Mass?  When we get some "feedback" from the vehicular traffic!  While most Boise drivers gave us room and respect, one large Chevy Tahoe SUV had to cut in front of our leaders, with the passenger shouting something (FU, I think!) and tossing some paper out the window (litterbug!).  So a pretty good Critical Mass, eh?

So to all of you riders who stayed indoors, warm and cozy, come on down the last Friday in May to the bandshell at Julia Davis Park around 6:30 pm.  Bring an item of food for the food drive, bring a friend, spouse, kid, or significant other, and bring your bike for the 2nd Critical Mass of 2009!  Lets take back the roads!!

Scott