Two decades ago, the Vancouver Critical Mass was a scene and forced change for the better in the Canadian West Coast city. Cyclists were furious and took to the streets to let those in power know it was time to take cycling seriously and put in place the infrastructure to keep people safe. It worked, and Vancouver has long invested heavily in creating a bike-friendly city that is recognized as one of the best in North America. And then it wasn’t. So back to the bike barricades and a return to critical mass.
It’s not hard to see what happened. A Conservative mayor took over, and the Overton Window began not only to shift, but to close.
A few years ago, if there was a debate about creating, or even maintaining, a protected bike lane in Stanley Park or some major street somewhere, there was a good chance that the city’s coin toss would fall on cyclists’ heads. But that’s just not the case now.
“In the early 2000s, Critical Mass in Vancouver was huge. I had just moved here from Montreal where I had done a few rides. The rides here were bigger, much bigger, and people had all kinds of crazy bikes — tall bikes, lazy boy bikes, tandem drum bikes,” says one of the Vancouver Critical Mass organizers, who chose to remain anonymous for this article to stay . “The energy was contagious and I fell in love. The rides got so big and disruptive that they made the front pages of newspapers a few times, the city couldn’t ignore us anymore. This, combined with a changing political landscape, set the stage for major change.”
Nice to see so many Park Board, Council and School Board nominees supporting the Stanley Park Mobility Study and speaking out about accessibility for all. pic.twitter.com/Z2UaiCuRuX
— Lisa Corriveau (@spokesmama) October 9, 2022
Critical Mass bike rides are a form of social movement that began in San Francisco in the late 1980s. The rides were originally conceived to reclaim public space for non-motorized locomotion and to raise awareness of the benefits of cycling as a mode of locomotion. The first Critical Mass ride took place in 1992 and involved a small group of cyclists who gathered at Embarcadero Plaza in downtown San Francisco. Since then, the rides have spread to cities around the world and have become a symbol of the cycling community’s fight for recognition and respect on the streets. The rides have also been the subject of controversy and litigation, with some cities attempting to ban them while others embraced them as a way to promote sustainable transportation and community building.
Vancouver once invested heavily in the best cycling infrastructure at the False Creek seawall, the Burrard Bridge and the Georgia Viaduct, to name just a few places.
“During that time, Critical Mass lost their most active organizer (who returned to Montreal) and their raison d’être…with an ally in the mayor’s office working hard on bike infrastructure, there was less to get excited about. The war was won, at least that’s what we thought,” he said.
Last year’s municipal elections brought a big change in Vancouver, and for the first time in a long time one of North America’s more progressive cities found itself with a very conservative mayor.
“For the first time in a generation, we have a far-right mayor at the helm of the city,” he said. “A mayor whose first major action was to remove a popular All Ages and Abilities (AAA) protected bike path from Stanley Park. The removal came with an estimated bill of between $225,000 and $400,000. The mayor cynically ordered that the move should be paid for from the cycling infrastructure budget.”
Unfortunately, that seems to be just the beginning. Right now, the city is working on a new vision for the absolutely massive and important Broadway Avenue corridor. It stretches for hundreds of blocks across town. And currently, the idea of lining this important transport corridor with safe and segregated bike lanes has been knocked off the table.
Was glad we had the critical mass (despite the rain) for a trip to Vancouver City Hall and a return trip down Broadway to protest the decision to eliminate active transit lanes there. #CriticalMassVan #BikeYVR pic.twitter.com/JUSDkjINj0
— Chris Hubick (@hubick) April 1, 2023
For those who don’t know, a huge section of West Broadway is currently being excavated for the construction of subways and upgrading of plumbing and electrical infrastructure. The area has been repurposed for high-rise housing and the plan calls for more than 75,000 new housing units over the next 30 years.
“Now would be the most cost-effective and least disruptive time to change the traffic pattern and add these active transit lanes,” he said. “During the public hearing before the vote, 95% of the speakers supported the protected lanes and their benefits, such as: B. Safety, accessibility to mass transit, making Broadway a “Great Street” with reduced traffic, courtyards and a destination for pedestrians, less pollution, better for local businesses, meeting climate goals.”
But the new regime in Vancouver said no, not interested.
Not surprisingly, then, cycling advocates will do what they have to do. And the Vancouver Critical Mass is back.
“The plan is to once again expand the rides to the point where we can no longer be ignored,” he said. “We need protected separate lanes on all major roads. We need planners and politicians to understand that drawing a line or a bike on the pavement makes cyclists less safe, not safer. Study after study shows that drivers drive faster and closer to cyclists when there is an unsecured bike lane.”
Three different Critical Mass rides are currently scheduled in Vancouver, including a monthly Critical Mass on the last Friday of the month, which takes place at 6:00 p.m. at 6:30 p.m. at the Vancouver Art Gallery. There is also a weekly Broadway Mass on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd Friday of each month (Meet Vancouver City Hall Broadway, Meet 5:30pm, Drive 6:00pm). And there is also a weekly Stanley Park ride every Sunday, meet at the Park Board Office (2099 Beach Ave.) 1:00pm, ride 1:30pm
“Whoever is at the front of the crowd decides the route, leaving the authorities in the dark and preventing the crowd from being trapped,” he says. “Viva la Veloution!”
For more information, follow the following social channels: Critical Mass Vancouver Instagram, Facebook.
