Are you one of those critical mass riders who shuts down Campus Martius for a few hours a month?
'Cause if you guys could stop and let traffic through on our way home from work, that'd be really helpful. You could pass out pamphlets and get more riders that way.
I'm not one of the critical mass folks. I'm a slow roller, which seems to be the opposite of critical mass. We rider later after traffic, starting at 7:30. We break up our group of riders into small ones so cars don't have to wait a super long time. And instead of any kind of militant attitude we just roll with good vibes, talking with cars, waving at kids encouraging folks to join us.
It's hard not to smile when confronted by such a group.
Are you guys literally shutting down traffic for a few hours at a stretch? 'Cause that's a really shitty way to gain public support, and self-righteously informing people that you're doing them a favor by "getting them out of their cars" is only going to make it worse.
I have, BTW, ridden a bicycle exclusively for 18 years, and I've always enjoyed Critical Mass (our local rides top out around 50 people). It frustrates me how many of my fellow cyclists seem determined to shoot themselves in the foot, PR-wise.
I hadn't heard of Slow Roll. They might be better at handling traffic than the one Critical Mass ride I saw. They had several thousand riders going through a roundabout. It looked spontaneous as they had no detours posted, and a few cars were stuck in the loop for about an hour. They ride at the same time each (week? month?) so I just remember to not drive through that part of downtown on Fridays in the summer.
Really, though, I've looked into similar things, and can't understand how they're able to do it next to a police precinct without posting detours and without being fined or traffic controlled. But, it's Detroit. There are probably 10 cops covering downtown at any time, and they might not have the resources to police traffic on a Friday evening.
That said, I'm actually interested in this. Did you guys have to go through city hall and set up the detour routes and get permission from the affected businesses to lay down your route? The city I tried to set something up in would have allowed it, but there was a lot of paperwork and it was smaller than an organized ride.
In Atlanta, critical mass got up to 300+ riders before the city/police finally got tired of the illegal blocking of intersections. (They call it "corking") Atlanta police had 10-20 motorcycle cops follow the ride and pull over anyone who broke the law (running red lights, etc.) for a couple of weeks and the popularity quickly dropped off when people realized they had to still follow traffic laws. It still goes on every month, but it's more like 50 riders now.
There are also of course plenty of legal rides/events that get permits, police escorts(sometimes free), etc. We have something called "Atlanta Streets Alive" that shuts down several miles of large streets every few months to only pedestrian and bike traffic, allowing people to walk and play in the streets with no cars. Permits are required, off-duty police have to be hired to direct traffic at intersections etc.
I dunno if anything is officially organized, but remember the city pays its cops $14 an hour and they have to transport dead bodies in their cars. That's from my friend who is a cop.
The cops seem friendly and supportive. The city doesn't have the luxury of shutting down something that is positive.
We might shut down an intersection for 2-4 minutes while riders roll through the intersection. The corkers or people who block the intersection are instructed to be nice and apologize for delays and to encourage drivers to join us.
We roll at 7:30 which is well after traffic dies down and we do as much as possible to be respectful, like leaving a lane open so cars can pass us.
oh, for what it's worth, I apologize a bit to you. I know I'm likely coming off as a jerk, but I assure you it's unintended. You're just out for a bike ride.
'Cause if you guys could stop and let traffic through on our way home from work, that'd be really helpful. You could pass out pamphlets and get more riders that way.