Streetsblog Los Angeles

Critical Mass avoided controversy on Friday night, rolling to the Westside to UCLA Medical Center (where the last hospitalized victim from the Culver City Crash a couple of weeks ago is still recovering) to the traditional stop at Western and Sunset.  Tickets were kept to a minimum, I could count on one hand the number of times I saw officers pulling over cyclists, and I heard more discussion of New York’s decision to allow gay marriage than I did complaints about the LAPD’s handling of the aforementioned crash. The LAPD estimated that at its peak, there were 1,300 riders taking part in the ride.

Which is not to say that the riders, or the crash, or Christine Dahab were forgotten. I was asked seven times to sign a petition I helped write in my first ten minutes at the Wilshire/Western start point before the ride headed out demanding safer streets and better enforcement of traffic laws against aggressive drivers spurred by the Christine Dahab/Koreatown Ridazz crash. Talking with other massers along the route, I was surprised at how many people were familiar with the crash and how almost no rider blamed the big blue escort with the flawed police report that blamed the riders for this month’s horrific crash.

Lost in all the discussion of what was and wasn’t reported on June 15th, is that this was the one year anniversary of the LAPD ride-alongs with Critical Mass.  LAPD bike riders and Midnight Ridazz seem to have found a way to get along.

After the jump are three YouTube videos.  The first video shows the size of the ride about two miles after it started at Wilshire/Western. The second is with LAPD Sargent Helper who has ridden the past thirteen Critical Mass rides representing the LAPD about his experience with Critical Mass.  From a veteran to a pair of rookies, the last video is of two journalists from Santa Cruz that are taking part in a journalism fellowship with me.  Both of them have traveled around Los Angeles before, but never like this. Read more…

One year ago, the LAPD sent a small army to “escort” Los Angeles Critical Mass after an ugly incident where an LAPD officer was caught on tape kicking at a cyclists’ tires and then assaulting the man operating the camera at the May 2010 Critical Mass. The escort has stayed with the ride, changing the nature of Critical Mass for both the good (there are less crashes reported despite the ride swelling from 400 riders to well over 1,000 monthly) and bad (many long-time riders claim the LAPD are taking too large a roll controlling what is supposed to be a ride that highlights the specific challenges cyclists face.)

That new relationship could be challenged tonight because of the initial report filed by the LAPD in the “Christine Dahab v Koreatown Riders” crash in Culver City last week. However, many riders believe the relationships formed between the LAPD bike police who ride the mass and the Ridazz is strong enough to withstand one poorly written crash report, and the LAPD officers that accompany the ride also expect relatively peaceful evening.

“To my knowledge nothing special is planned,” said Sgt. David Krumer of the LAPD, “There was talk of possibly riding by the crash site and UCLA from ride organizers, but nothing is certain.”

Read more…

(There’s a graphic video of the actual attack available here.)

A lot of critics of group bicycle rides, especially Critical Mass, like to claim that they’d like nothing more than to drive through it in their SUV’s.  Apparently one maniac in Brazil decided to give that a try.

At last Friday’s Porto Alegre Critical Mass, the driver of a Black Volkswagon Gulf plowed through a group of 130 masser.  Fifty cyclists were hit.  Two are in critical condition as of Saturday night.  Following the assault, the driver of the Golf ditched the weapon and fled on foot from the unmarked car.  The police identified Ricardo José Neis as the lead suspect.

The above video shows the aftermath of the attack.  The translation of what the narrator says can be found on the You Tube website:

Say what you want about the LAPD’s role in Critical Mass, but such an attack here on the 4th Friday of the month is unthinkable. There were no major incidents reported at Friday’s ride in Los Angeles.

I got a notice in my inbox that the popular Internet Radio show Bike Talk will spend an episode discussing all things “Critical Mass” in Los Angeles. To say that it’s been an interesting year for Critical Mass is an understatement. To make things even more interesting, last month’s ride had some cyclists take the lead in acquiescing to the LAPD’s demand for a route before they would cork intersections. The ride went smoothly. The intersections were corked.

Meanwhile, a group of seasoned Ridazz led an alternate ride with about sixty riders taking a trip back to LACM’s roots.  For more on Streetsblog’s coverage of Critical Mass, click here.

As for the show this weekend, it will run this Saturday from 10:00 A.M. until noon at http://killradio.org. The show will also be archived at http://kpfk.org. You can join the conversation by calling 213.252.0998 or you can post questions or comments to be read on the air at the Midnight Ridazz Forum.

Incidentally, regular listeners and fans of Bike Talk might want to mark their calendar for January 15, 2011 for the show’s first fundraiser.  Details to come.

(editor’s note: Nope, I wasn’t there this month.  This is all second-hand reporting.  Alex de Cordoba did attend the mass and offers a report on the ride and thoughts on how it can move forward at The Engaged Observer. – DN)

Last Friday saw the fifth installment of the Los Angeles Critical Mass/ LAPD rides.  Back in May, after a violent clash between a group of officers and Mass riders in Hollywood, the police decided that if you can’t beat them, join them.  Ever since, the police have provided a rolling escort for the ride.

For many riders, that escort is becoming less welcome every month.

You would expect that a collaboration between riders representing a protest ride and the police would be bumpy; and perhaps expectations were raised too high after the amazing first LACM/LAPD ride in June; but reports from Friday’s ride aren’t encouraging that the relationship between cyclists and the LAPD are moving in the right direction. Read more…

This Friday at 7:30 P.M. riders and their police escort will pedal out of the Wilshire/Western starting point for the next chapter in the “new” Critical Mass.  Ever since the LAPD was caught on tape violently “policing” Critical Mass in May, police bicycle riders (and some using motorized vehicles) have joined the Mass to help make the protest ride as safe and smooth flowing as possible.  As word has gotten out that Critical Mass is now the safest bike ride in North America, the number of riders has swelled from a couple of hundred to an estimated 2,000 last month.

Of course, as the ride grows it also becomes harder to police.  Last month, as police tried to maintain order, the Mass was broken up into several smaller groups criss-crossing Downtown.  Also, because the police sometimes blocked automobile traffic at intersections, a practice known as corking, and then sometimes ticketed riders for continuing through red signals; there were cries that the uneven enforcement was causing more problems than it was fixing.

Sgt. David Krumer has been the Department’s liaison between the Critical Massers and the LAPD.  I asked Krumer if there were any plans to change the way the event will be policed this month.  The answer: sort of.  LAPD officers are only allowed to cork intersections if there is a safety concern or if they are escorting a parade along a set route.  For that reason, the LAPD has tried to get ride leaders to file a permit request with a route, but the leaderless culture of Critical Mass has made it impossible to do so. Read more…

When I rolled up to Wilshire and Western at 7:00 P.M. last Friday, there were already close to 750 cyclists present, everyone was in a good mood, and there was still a half hour before the ride was even supposed to start.  Ridecards were being handed out urging cyclists to follow the rules of the road and work with the police.  People were laughing and talking.  The LAPD was present throughout the crowd but they were in a much more relaxed mood than when I rode the Mass last June.  Seargent David Krumer even cracked a joke that I should read the Internet more often after I mock asked Roadblock “Is this where the bicycle event starts?”

As more and more riders showed up, the crowd swelled.  The police were escorting bus riders on and off Metro buses to their destinations.  A trumpet player was serenading the crowd while CicLAvia volunteers passed out brochures for the big event on 10/10/10.  Stephen Box was shaking hands, dapper in a sports jacket.  Teenage latinas, were mixing with caucasian hipsters.   Lycra clad athletic riders, snapped pictures of a tricked out bike that had more lights than Dodger Stadium.  All races and age groups were represented and the gender split wasn’t quite even, but was closer to even than any other ride I’ve attended.  It was starting to get so noisy that when many of the rides unofficial leaders were standing on the bike lockers screaming for Alex Thompson; he couldn’t hear them.  He was standing about 150 yards away.

By the time the ride reached the Los Angeles State Park, after roughly thirteen miles of cycling through Korea Town, Downtown and North past Union Station; the mood was different.  Not angry.  Not dispirited.  But as a whole, Critical Mass seemed confused as to how they felt about what they had just experienced.  The mass had broken into a bunch of smaller rides because of Massers stopping for every red light that wasn’t corked.  Another issue was the number of tickets our ride partners handed out.  One veteran rider joked to me that “we probably set a record for tickets.”  On the other hand, when asked by Bikeside’s Rachel Stevenson if I had a good time, the answer was “yes.”  And that was the same answer she received from everyone standing near us at the time.  Not everyone was confused and strong feelings have spilled into contentious threads onto Facebook, Midnight Ridazz, and other social media.

But at this point, it’s hard to say exactly what the overall mood of the community is.  Talking to a dozen people after the ride and monitoring social media and message boards is hardly a way to paint a complete picture of how people feel.  The mood seems mixed, but I think more people have a good view of the “new” Critical Mass than a bad one.  Numbers don’t lie, and Critical Mass is becoming a huge phenomenon in Los Angeles.  I mean, how many Fridays are we going to see all those cops and a couple of news vans?  What kind of mainstream attention had Critical Mass achieved in past years? Read more…

While the relationship between the Los Angeles Police Department and large group bike rides, such as Critical Mass or CRANK Mob, have improved by leaps and bounds over the summer; reactions to last Saturday’s CRANK Mob ride, aka CRANKMAS III, shows there is still some work to do.

Readers may remember that after an ugly confrontation between the LAPD and Critical Mass riders in May, the police decided to escort Critical Mass instead of react to it.  The result was a June Critical Mass that left ride organizers smiling and new relationships being formed.  But that’s not the end of the story.  As any complicated relationship between large groups, especially when there’s an imbalance of power, the relationship can get complicated.  Last Saturday, the third anniversary party of the popular CRANK Mob ride, was dispersed by the LAPD after community complaints about noise and other disruptions.  While police in riot gear were called to the scene, the event dispersed without any major confrontation.

But that hasn’t stopped some group riders from being outraged by the kind of interference that would have been a surprise just a year ago. A quick read through this comment thread on Midnight Ridazz shows how divided the community is about whether or not the LAPD should be on these rides or not.  In addition to an argument between regular Ridazz, you can see a discussion of what biking LAPD Seargent David Krumer meant when he discusses some of the restraint being shown by officers on these rides.  By the end of the thread, at least at the time of publication, Krumer writes:

I in no way implied that restraint referred to going in “guns blazing and batons swinging” or engaging in a use of force.

But that doesn’t mean that all cyclists view the relationship with the LAPD as a poisoned one.  Before Friday’s Critical Mass, leaders from Bikeside, the Eastside Bike Club and other community leaders will be working with Critical Mass riders to “POLICE OURSELVES” and make the ride more about promoting cycling and claiming their rights to the street rather than being confrontational or law-breaking.  A Facebook page encouraging riders to arrive early for training and an overview so that the rolling escort doesn’t have to step in and create conflict.  For those that don’t have access to Facebook, the principles that will be preached on Friday can be found after the jump. Read more…

Not that I'm going to complain about NBC's coverage of bicycling issues, in addition to three stories about Critical Mass they're also the only station to have covered Sharrows; but couldn't we have given the car advertisements a rest for one story?

By now you've probably heard the news about last Friday's Los Angeles Critical Mass, now with cops!, and have read touching accounts of cyclist' new B.F.F.'s. If you haven't, you can get a feel for how the ride went by watching the video above, and reading Kumbaya, posted here on Saturday and Undiscovered Country posted at Bikeside.

While the stories of police and cyclists hanging out and bonding are great news, there's another story that so far hasn't been written.  For one night, the fractured bicycling advocacy community put aside it's own internal divisions and rode as one.  Uncertainty about how the LAPD would react to Critical Mass and wanting to show support not just for Critical Mass, but for any cyclists, be they in a group or riding on their own, to ride the street.  I've never witnessed a ride featuring, amongst the literally hundreds or even thousands of riders, were board members for Bikeside, staff for the Bike Coalition, the most recognizable of the Midnight Ridazz and the writer of the LADOT Bike Blog.

Lost admit the bright lights, loud bikes and good times of the Critical Mass/LAPD ride was another story.  L.A.'s bike community may disagree on tactics and the value of paint on the ground; but when it comes to cyclists' rights there is no disagreement.  When it comes to our rights, we ride as one.