 |
| NYC had a great Critical Mass bike ride last night. I heard an estimate of one thousand riders. That sounds about right to me. It rivaled in size a CM I rode in San Francisco in 2000. The above photo is in Manhattan’s Union Square Park (the gathering place) around 7:30 PM. Critical Mass happens around the world on the last Friday of the Month. Click here to see full report. |
 |
| This guy looks like he’s heading off to a joust. Those are two PVC pipes padded at the ends. That must be something to see. Hope he has a better helmet than shown. |
 |
|
This was a very mellow, jovial crowd of bikers. Most of the pedestrian/spectators, who indicated anything, seemed to enjoy the spectacle. Even most of the cars appeared either supportive or at least tolerant. I did talk to one older woman who told me that you "can’t go back five hundred years." But mostly they smiled and cheered. I did witness a couple of incidents where SUV owners tried to break through the bicycles. In one instance I saw contact made between a Jeep bumper and a starting to squish bike tire. But a quick surround by a large numbers of bikers pointedly cajoled them into relaxing their foot from their pedals, while we fairly quickly passed, and no damage was done. I think the idea is to have the streets to ourselves for once, but to not linger obnoxiously. |
 |
| Looking West on 59th Street. |
 |
| Bike salute somewhere in midtown. Our route twisted around the area so much that it’s not easy to retrace. After this we snaked over to the entrance to the upper level of the Queensboro Bridge, and had the whole outbound side to ourselves. It was too dark by then to take any photos, but the view from the top was great. |
 |
| The Hungry March Band at the After Party at the Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens. I was able to hear them a good block before we got to the garden. They were tight, and spirited. |
 |
| It was too dark to see any of the sculptures. But it was fairly easy to avoid walking into these pedestal mounted lawn ornaments (gnomes etc.). I came back to the Lower East Side via the Pulaski Bridge and then the Willamsburg Bridge.
|
