Spring Critical Mass 2009!

The first Critical Mass of Spring is this Friday, the 27th of March! Bring your bike and your friends to Confederation Park (Elgin+Laurier) at 5:30 PM!

February Critical Mass

February Critical Mass is tomorrow! It's warming up out there (high of 3c tomorrow!), now's a great time to dust off your bike and get ready for spring!

January Critical Mass: This Friday!

No buses? No problem! Let's make 2009 the year of the bike!

This Friday the 30th is January Critical Mass. Join us for a fun ride, everyone is welcome! We meet at Confederation Park (Elgin+Laurier) at 5:30pm, and the ride leaves at 6. The weather should be relatively warm for January, with an expected high of -4c. :)

November Critical Mass

Today is November Critical Mass! Rumor has it there will be free hot chocolate. Bring your mitts!

PS: If you love riding, don't let winter stop you. Get some snow tires! I got these from the MEC in Ottawa. They're a little expensive, but give you amazing traction on ice!

Halloween Critical Mass

This Friday the 31st is Halloween. But not just any Halloween... It's Critical Mass Halloween! Bring your bike, your crazy costume, and your friends to Confederation Park (Elgin + Laurier) at 5:30pm!

September Critical Mass

It's tomorrow! First Critical Mass of the fall. Looks like it will be warm, but cloudy, according to the weather service. See you there!

Today is Critical Mass

Looks wet out there, but don't let that stop you :)

Same time and place as usual.

Ever wonder how easy it is to steal a bike?

Solution? Keep your bike where you can see it.

PS: Critical Mass is this Friday!

Critical Mass: This Friday!

Critical Mass is this Friday, June 27th. Meeting place is the same as always, Confederation Park (Elgin + Laurier). The park is being used by Jazzfest, but fear not, there's plenty of space out front to meet up.

Here are some pics from last month.

Poland gets mega-highway for bikes

A 2000 kilometer stretch of a biking highway is to be built, running through the eastern regions of Poland.

Marcin Myszkowski, one of the leaders of the 'Masa Krytyczna' action - a Polish equivalent of the Critical Mass Riders initiated in San Francisco back in 1992 - says this is news cyclists in Poland have long been waiting for: 'We do not have good bicycle routes in Poland. I hope this will be the first very good bike route for tourists. The result is the most important. Not just to build it, but to build it very well.'

via Polish Radio

We need more projects like this in Canada. Of course, there's the Trans Canada Trail, but I can tell you from experience, a large percentage of it is not bike friendly.

Critical Mass 1887

May Critical Mass

This Friday is May Critical Mass! Here's some pictures from last May's Critical Mass.


Ride leaves at 6pm from Confederation Park (Elgin + Laurier).

Last Friday of Every Month!

Just a reminder, today is Critical Mass!

Bring your bike and your friends to Confederation Park (Elgin & Laurier) at 5:30pm!

It's Earth Day!

Nice video by some people from Montreal. They even ride bikes ;)

Critical Mass: Spring 2008

The first Critical Mass of spring is Friday the 28th of March! Bring your bike and your friends to Confederation Park (Elgin & Laurier) at 5:30pm!

Winter is over, let's ride!

Critical Mass: It's This Friday!

Did you know? Critical Mass is year round! This Friday will be our first Mass of the winter, so put on your coat and mitts, and bring your bike for an awesome time! Ride leaves at 6pm, from Confederation Park.

Want some tips on winter biking? Check out Icebike!

Berkeley's Bicycle Boulevards

Berkeley has an interesting approach to creating a bicycle friendly city. I think this could be easily adopted in Ottawa.

Do you remember the month of September?

This might help - love the adjectives: "wacko", "anti-car" - all the while meaning CM but not knowing he was seeing a mass in action.

Brought a smile...

Critical Mass: Halloween Edition

Don't forget, this Friday is the annual Halloween Critical Mass, so wear a costume if you have one!

Hintonburg Daily Mass

The word is out - join us on Monday the 29th if you can, and bring a friend!

Critical Mass is This Friday!

Tomorrow is the last Friday of the month, and that means it's time for Critical Mass! We meet in Confederation Park (Elgin+Laurier) at 5:30pm. Be there, or be square!

Critical Mass This Friday!

Critical mass is this Friday, July 27th! Bring your friends :)

Copenhagen: This is what's possible.

The bicycle-centric city is not a pipe dream. Let's make it happen here.

Confederation Park is CLOSED

Confederation Park, our normal meeting spot, is closed until July 1st for Jazz Fest. If you show up without a pass, you can't get in. So, we need to decide on a new location.

Update: Rather than get confusing, it looks like a good idea to just meet up on the sidewalk in front of the park. :)

Car and Commandments (Seriously)

The 10 commandments of driving
You shall not kill. The road shall be for you a means of communion between people and not of mortal harm. Courtesy, uprightness and prudence will help you deal with unforeseen events. Be charitable and help your neighbour in need, especially victims of accidents. Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin. Charitably convince the young and not so young not to drive when they are not in a fitting condition to do so. Support the families of accident victims. Bring guilty motorists and their victims together, at the appropriate time, so that they can undergo the liberating experience of forgiveness. On the road, protect the more vulnerable party. Feel responsible toward others.
Source: The Vatican website and the Associated Press

Cars and Danger

McGuinty raises concerns after latest highway crash

Canadian Press

June 19, 2007 at 6:52 PM EDT

TORONTO — A car can be as dangerous as "a loaded gun," and as much as the government has done to crack down on street racing and reckless driving, the responsibility ultimately lies in the hands of those behind the wheel, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said Tuesday.

Mr. McGuinty was commenting on a Monday morning crash on the busy Highway 400 that killed a truck driver and snarled commuter traffic until late that night.

Three men face a total of 11 charges in the crash, in which police blame speed and dangerous driving.

David Virgoe, 48, of Stroud, Ont., was identified Tuesday as the driver of the tractor-trailer who died in the crash. Mr. Virgoe leaves behind three children and five grandchildren.

Family members told the media Mr. Virgoe was a very safe and experienced driver who drove that stretch of highway each day.

The crash was the third major accident in four days on the busy north-south highway, and the second fatal one.

"There is no excuse for this kind of tragedy to unfold on Ontario highways," Mr. McGuinty said.

"We'll continue to talk to our police and ask them what it is more that we might do to make our highways safer, but at the end of the day there's one individual who sits behind the wheel in a car. It's like a loaded gun," Mr. McGuinty said at an auto industry funding announcement.

The Premier also said he has no intention of revisiting the issue of photo radar. He said the best advice the government has received is that photo radar won't help.

Prabhjit Multani, 20, and Nauman Nusrat, 19, the two men accused in Mr. Virgoe's death, appeared in Barrie court Tuesday and were remanded in custody pending a bail hearing set for Friday.

Witnesses said two or three cars were speeding and weaving in and out of traffic when one caused the tractor-trailer to lose control. The big rig ripped out a guardrail and careened back across the highway, tumbling down an embankment and into a ditch.

"This is happening every day on our highways and I hope our justice system pulls through and sends a message out," said Ontario Provincial Police Const. Dave Woodforde.

Drivers are hailing Mr. Virgoe as a hero for veering away from traffic and saving lives in the process.

"That truck driver decided at some point in a split second that he was going to save the lives of at least a dozen people on that highway," said Brian Patterson of the Ontario Safety League in an interview with Global TV.

"That guy's a hero in every measure — he's got to be commended for what he did because we would have had significantly higher carnage."

Standing beside Highway 400 early Tuesday, Const. Woodforde agreed that some drivers are failing to heed warnings to slow down on the highways.

"We are running a radar here (and) they're still not getting the message because we're clocking people at 125-130 kilometres an hour," he said.

"They just don't seem to get it."

*~ World Naked Bike Ride - Saturday ~*

3rd Annual Ride
Saturday June 9th

Confederation Park

2pm - bodypainting
3pm - ride starts

We ride bikes* to protest oil dependency.

We ride naked** to symbolize cyclists' vulnerability on the road.

Join us!

There's over 100 people on our yahoo group, almost 50 keeners on Facebook.

All we're missing is you!

* ... or unicycles, skateboards, roller skates, inline skates... or any other freaky human-powered contraption.
** the ride is 'bare as you dare'. you don't have to ride naked. wear a gorilla suit, fairy wings, a lady godiva wig, your pjs or slather yourself with bodypaint! (see photos below for inspiration)

May Critical Mass Photos

May's Critical Mass was a great success! It was raining earlier in the day, but it cleared up just in time for us to begin. Someone bought popsicles for everyone, which was nice, and I brought a bunch of juice boxes to share. The ride lasted about 2 hours, with the group splitting up just as the sun set.

Here's some pictures of the mass.

Today Is Critical Mass!

Details over on the right -->

See you there...!

Who reads this Blog? And other administration issues

Last year we closed this blog because we had some issues with "trolls" - people taking over the blog, changing the password, and writing posts hostile to critical mass.

As a result, we made it a "team blog", which means people can be invited to become members of the blog, or administrators of the blog.

I originally started the blog in Nov 2005 to help publicize and provide a forum for discussion about critical mass in Ottawa. This has worked to some degree, but a lot of critical massers do not use the blog. On top of this, I have left Ottawa, so now there are a number of others who administer the blog. But it takes a lot of time, and this seems to be falling on only a few people's shoulders.

The question is, are people still reading this blog? Does it serve a function?

If it is serving a function, is its current status of updates, etc., sufficient?

Do we need more administrators or members?

Animal Mass this Friday!

This Friday, April 27, is Critical Mass

Meet at Confederation Park (Elgin and Laurier) at 6pm

The theme, should you choose to accept it, is Animals!

ps thanks to everyone who showed up for the viewing of You Never Bike Alone. We were able to raise almost 200 dollars for Otesha and the filmmaker. For those interested, copies of this documentary by Vancouver filmmaker Bob Alstead are available for purchase online at www.YouNeverBikeAlone.com