“Critical Mass is a bicycling event typically held on the last Friday of every month in over 300 cities around the world. While the ride was originally founded in 1992 in San Francisco with the idea of drawing attention to how unfriendly the city was to cyclists, the leaderless structure of Critical Mass makes it impossible to assign it any one specific goal. In fact, the purpose of Critical Mass is not formalized beyond the direct action of meeting at a set location and time and traveling as a group through city or town streets on bikes” (Wikipedia).

For the June edition of the London Critical Mass, I met up with the VeloLovesCity gang and rode through the streets of London alongside a couple hundred of other cyclists. The weather was lovely but the ride was bumpy (see video below). Some of us were verbally or physically aggressed by motorists and towards the end of the ride we were cordoned off by the police! It ended up all fine with an impromptu party in front of the Foundry but these events highlight how much more work there is to be done to raise awareness and acceptance of cyclists on the roads.