Newcastle Critical Mass - Not Incident-Free
I went along to Newcastle’s Critical Mass this evening - the first time I’ve attended one of these events. There are two reasons for this - firstly, there wasn’t one in Newcastle until recently. Secondly . . . I do have my doubts over the effectiveness of these gatherings in either bringing the plight of cyclists to the attention of the rest of the world, or indeed in engendering sympathy.
Here’s the outline of what generally seems to happen:
A bunch of cyclists meet up at a loosely-defined location, and cycle through the city / town centre during the rush-hour. Their numbers are such that they almost have no choice but to completely dominate the road and motorised traffic, thereby creating a critical mass of cycles, which affect the whole dynamic of the roads.
So here’s what happened tonight . . .
A group of fifty or so of us met up at Grey’s Monument at about 6pm, and set off around the city. There were all sorts of bikes - a rider balance-impaired-through-injury on a tricycle, a fair slice of BSOs (featuring some Newcastle Cycle Chic floaty skirts), wannabe hipsters, old road bikes, a bike towing a sound system, and a couple of Bromptons.
Fifty bikes makes a big difference to Newcastle’s streets, and riding up from Central Station towards the Academy, we were backed up like the rest of the traffic, filling both lanes. Except the taxi driver behind wasn’t happy about this and was leaning on his horn & revving his engine. I’m not sure where he thought he was going to go when he got past us (into the cars ahead?), but I wasn’t comfortable with it, and interrupted my conversation about which Brompton is best to move a couple of ranks forward.
And then there was a crunch and screaming.
I looked back, and about a dozen yards or so behind me was a rider on the road in front of a taxi that was rapidly being surrounded by some extremely pissed of cyclists. the driver made to get out . . . and then thought better of it.
The police were called, and the driver had little choice but to wait for the Boys (and Girls) in Blue to arrive (actually, they wear as much hi-viz as your average safety campaigner on a bike these days) and try to sort this mess out.
The rider was largely unhurt (some apparent whiplash from being shunted from behind though), but his bike was wrecked.
So. Critical Mass - good or bad thing?
It depends on your take on these things. When people drive cars, they have immense power - power to go further and faster than our ancestors would have ever imagined. At the same time, their personal effective mass moves from being a few score of kilos to hundreds if not thousands of kilos. And they get surrounded by a steel exoskeleton that insulates them from the personal contact around them (which is why you MUST make eye contact with drivers) and protects them from the consequences of errors or aggression. Put simply - they have the perfect ingredients to adopt aggressive behaviour.
It’s little wonder that even the most mild-mannered are transformed into knuckle-dragging, heavy-right-footed bullying morons by such an experience.
And this in essence is the raison d’être and problem with Critical Mass:
When confronted by a playground bully, do you slink away, hoping that they won’t notice you, or do you stand your ground? In fact, more than that - do you walk up to them and tell them to their face that this is your playground too, and you’ll play where you damned well like?
Or do you take note of the fact that the bully is armed and armoured, while you are standing there wearing a fluorescent jacket and a hat based on the same technology as the cups issued by the coffee machines in hospital waiting rooms? Do you really want to provoke a confrontation under these circumstances?
Actually, I don’t know which answer is correct, and I’d welcome your thoughts / personal experiences on this. What I do know is that I did meet some lovely people on bikes in Newcastle this evening. So I probably will be back at the end of November.
Anyway - let me know what you think.
I’m not convinced that critical mass causes many drivers to change their minds about cyclists or their behaviour on the roads, at least not in a positive way, but it is a way of cyclists meeting up. Community is a good thing.
It’s particularly worrying when bus and taxi drivers act with agression towards cyclists. If anyone should know better, it’s professional drivers.
Re: taxi driver
I really don’t get it. How can someone with such overt physical aggression be allowed to operate a killing machine? On a professional basis too. The speed in the city centre is slow at the best of times, specially at rush hour. CM would not have slowed it down by much. I hope the validity of the taxi driver’s licence is under consideration.
Re: CM
How else can cyclists make a point? We are constantly pushed to the fringes, sidelined and ignored, we certainly must be allowed to gather at least. I am in favour of CM and all the controversy it stands for. Sometimes you have to take action to change the appalling status quo.
Re: our toon, like
For a safer, better, fairer, more inclusive Newcastle city centre, get the cars out of our toon. Now.
Looking forward to next time!
Friday 26 November for 17:30 at Haymarket.
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Would be interested to know if you stuck with the ride as it moved on. I kept clear of the taxi incident and encouraged the mass to move on (concerned not to mob the police). Numbers had thinned by the time we did the tyne bridge but still a good mass.
I can’t help feeling it’s a consequence: Nice letters to politicians are ignored, cyclists are hurt/killed by perople driving wheeled vehicles, and it’s ignored or the cyclist is blamed, petitions are ignored, cycle lanes are forgotten, police ignore car drivers who are aggressive to cyclists… and eventually cyclists get fed up and take matters into their own hands. I don’t know if it’s effective: it may well be a safety valve for pent up feelings.
I’m not sure Critical Mass helps our cause. I am not actively anti, just have chosen not to participate in the Sheffield CM rides. It seems to me that deliberately inconveniencing people is unlikely to win their support. The real opposition is not the tired commuter on their way home or the taxi driver trying make a living but the politicians without the backbone to shift taxation onto fossil fuels. This more than anything would cause modal shift.
For me , the mass is about how it makes us as riders feel. Together we are empowered as road users in an act of defiance against the dominant car culture.
Thanks - these are all informative comments, and great food for thought.
Tom - I hung around until the police arrived - I was the rider behind the car, in case the driver tried to reverse out of the situation & make off. Not sure exactly what I’d have done if he did, so I’d positioned myself such that I wasn’t actually directly behind, and on seeing reversing lights come on, could have ensured a completely ruined paint job on the taxi’s side! Once the police arrived, I headed home - I hadn’t actually seen what had happened, and in my experience with the police at RTAs, they wouldn’t be interested in any details from anyone who’d just heard what had happened.
Mike - It’s strange, but I too used to think that professional drivers would be better than Joe Average. After all, to get a taxi license, you have to have a relatively unblemished character; to drive a bus, you have to take an extra test (involving learning about skidding after a whole lot of very boring looking lectures); and HGV drivers usually spend a LOT of their own money to get that Class 1 license. However, once at work, they all have a common problem - they’re slaves to the clock. And as has been shown, people in a hurry will often cast aside other social & moral pressures.
Andy - I too want to believe in the power of writing to politicians, that cycle lanes will be seen as the “entry level” for infrastructure, and that drivers who are aggressive to vulnerable road users will be prosecuted (with extreme prejudice!) . . . and then like you, I look at the current reality and wonder if this sort of direct action is the only way forward. Viva La Revolución!
Gareth - I was thinking this on the ride home, and wondered if critical mass that targets council offices (especially just after transport committee meetings) might be more effective.
Mark - what you say there is exactly what I got from Friday night.
There is a clear need to report this particular driver the licensing committee as it will send a signal to all the other taxi drivers area. I note that the licensing authority is Berwick Upon Tweed, so he was not a local driver and maybe thought he could get away with it.
As for critical masses in general, obviously they are not going to get people cycling on mass, but as Andy says above there is some place for them.
I find the ‘professional’ drivers the least trustworthy. As you say they are slaves to the clock; the more deliveries that they make/passengers they carry the more they get paid.
I was interested to read of their stricter training. I had assumed that a limited grasp of English was sufficient qualification for a cab or bus driver.
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