Bike the Bridge! Critical Mass 12th Birthday

The 12th Birthday of San Francisco Critical Mass was celebrated with a creative and sociable roll through town, a birthday cake, an unprecedented decentralized sound system effort (many rolling boom boxes and large and small sound systems all tuned to the same pirate radio station) and even a bit of demonstration when cyclists mounted the Transbay Transit Terminal's ramps to the Bay Bridge. Police on motorcycles screamed in, splitting up the group, which could have but decided not to take the bridge (at this time).

The group would have left quietly together but because of the police hysteria, the hundreds (probably thousands) of cyclists were split up into multiple groups, amplifying the effect throughout the city. Some paid a price due to equipment being damaged by the police action, but no arrests were seen by this reporter.

The Transbay Terminal, a priceless piece of the future of alternative transportation for the people, is always under threat from real estate interests who have wanted to gut it and redevelop it for years, and there is plenty of reason to demand immediate attention to the need for equal access to the Bay Bridge which rises up from and above the Terminal. Thus it's quite appropriate that the cyclists took the authorities by surprise by rolling up onto the lofty ramps of the Terminal.

Many people think we bicycle and pedestrian advocates won the fight for equal access to the Bay Bridge. Far from it! Despite promises, the car-first authorities fought long and hard to suppress the widespread public enthusiasm for the idea. There are major upsets forseeable on the horizon where the long-fought and hard-won promise to provide such access for bicycles and pedestrians may be stolen in a sea of graft, sleight of hand, abuse of authority and porkbelly concrete contracts.

The potential for interurban rail on the Bay Bridge is also being stolen, with the construction of the enormously costly and functionally defficient new east span, and the planned demolition of the stronger and more inexpensively retrofit-able existing east span.

In short: the transportation system is full of corruption just like the rest of this society, and when people can't get to jobs, services, or other human needs, you can blame the racism, classism, and greed of those who control it.

Critical Mass on the other hand brings freedom, joy and purity to the streets of a society otherwise mired in war and exploitation.

The Bike the Bridge! movement was a sustained campaign in the late 90's which included direct action as well as public outreach, demonstrations, and hundreds of hearings. You can piece together some of that legacy in archival web pages at http://www.bikethebridge.org/. For more background on corruption and the Bay Bridge, check out http://www.oaklandbridge.com/

Critical Mass happens on the last Friday of each month in San Francisco, meeting at 5:30 at Justin "Pee Wee" Herman Plaza, near the Ferry Terminal. In Berkeley it meets on the second Friday, 5:30, Downtown Berkeley BART (on "Constitution Plaza"). http://www.berkeleycriticalmass.org/ Critical Mass has spread to over 325 cities around the world since its beginning in San Francisco in September of 1992. What a wild ride it's been!

Note: The video is long in a way, but mostly to show what it's like biking up on the terminal. The sound quality is wacky (echo) because the reporter was using a borrowed hand-held digital camera (not a video camera) that takes little movies. Listen for the unexpected comments like "Have you ever made pickled green tomatoes?" and the nude cyclist, bike lifts showing defiance of the automotive tyranny, and other creative expressions.