While there was a notable absence of police on the September Critical Mass ride in London, we did have one unpleasant encounter with a very aggressive group of officers from the TSG unit.
Travelling between Victoria Street and Buckingham Palace Road on Friday night, we ran into a van load of police dressed in overalls, fleeces and baseball caps. Their van was an odd silver grey colour and apparently was not equipped with a siren or flashing lights.
To compensate for their lack of adequate apparatus the officers, led by # SX 836, attempted to force their way through the mass by knocking riders to the ground, and dragging others to the side of the road and dumping them on the pavement.
At one point SX 836 encouraged drivers of other vehicles to ram the mass, telling them “Just drive at them, they’ll get out of the way!” despite the fact that we were all in the middle of a traffic jam at the time. Another officer involved whose number I managed to note down was QA 232.
Photos::
http://18hz.deid.net/2008/septembermass/vikings03im.jpg
http://18hz.deid.net/2008/septembermass/vikings01im.jpg
Higher resolution versions of my photos can be fund at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29703759@N08/sets/72157607617808713/
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One hellllll of a mass (london)
critical mass london | 01.10.2008 23:33 | Climate Chaos | London
And there’s plenty more drama to come …
I got out of work at about half past five, so i came down to the south bank early; the tide was out, so i spent a while strolling on the beach of the Thames. It’s an amazing place – a beach in the middle of a city of seven million people, and deserted except for me and two or three others. Like a rubbly, silty secret garden.
Back up on ground level, we once again set off a good few ticks after seven. Boo hiss. But at least we went through the Kingsway underpass!
But – shock horror! – with no cops. I didn’t see a single policeperson accompanying the ride – did my eyes deceive me? How could this be? Anybody know? We did have the cycling ambulanceman with us, though.
I’m very pleased to say that, as far as i could tell, the mass ran like clockwork. We kept together (mostly – we split into a fast and a slow pack after Buckingham Palace, and i bounced between the two for a bit), we corked – we even let pedestrians through! Brilliant! Pats on backs all round!
Although one thing that was evident was much more aggression from drivers, particularly black cab drivers. Recently, we’ve always had coppers around, and cabbies have behaved themselves. Tonight, though, their basic ferocity was fully in evidence. There were two main instances of this that i saw.
The first was on High Holborn, at the junction where i spoke to the ambulanceman – this was why i was stopped. The mass was coming along from the east; i think the advance bulk had passed through, and then was a thinner stream of us coming along behind. A black cab was sat in Grape Street (i think – i’m looking at a map here; one of the side streets off on the north, just before the junction), and i imagine had been waiting a while for the mass to pass. When it thinned out, he took his chance (we hadn’t corked him), and came out onto High Holborn, turning right, and staying in the rightmos lane. Fifty metres ahead of him was a red light at the junction. Less than fifty metres ahead of him was a masser, riding slowly. The cab driver drove less slowly – he drove right up to within inches of the masser, tailgated him for ten metres or so, and then quite deliberately drove straight into the back of him. The guy went down, the cab stopped, and a crowd of us clotted around the scene. Luckily, the guy wasn’t hurt.
I was to the left of this, in the second or third lane over, and a little way behind the cab; i saw everything happen right in front of me. It was quite obvious that the cab driver did it deliberately: the masser was riding at a constant speed, and the driver accelerated, hitting him. he had driven to within inches of him, which is simply not a safe way to drive.
So, we made sure the taxi wasn’t going anywhere, took photos of the scene, registration plate, driver, etc, and some of us who had seen it gave the guy our details. The cabbie wasn’t giving his details, though. Someone called the police, and after a while our friends in blue duly turned up and did their best to work everyone up into a frothing rage. Do cops get training in dealing with angry punters (other than with a truncheon)? Because these guys were to defusing confrontations as Guy Fawkes was to the bomb squad. Anyway, eventually, questions were asked, details were recorded and exchanged, and the lead copper declared that he was recording this as a no-injury collision, and they weren’t going to follow it up. Apparently deliberately driving into a cyclist doesn’t count as careless driving or anything. He came out with, essentially, the usual crap about ‘our word against his’. During this i had a long chat with the other copper, who seemed very nice when he wasn’t trying to start a fight, but completely clueless about cycling, and indeed road safety generally. Still, i’m sure if i wanted an electrician shot dead, he’d be just my man.
I also talked to the masser who was hit, his two friends, and a courierish guy who also stopped. I didn’t quite get the victim’s name. Nice lad. As i said, he wasn’t hurt, but his back wheel went under the cab’s, and was pretty bent. I had a look at it: the hub looked like it should be okay, and the tyre and tube should be fine, but he’s going to need a new rim, (it was a Bontrager, the poor thing!) spokes, and brake disc. Basically, he’s going to need a new wheel. I couldn’t see any damage to the stays, mech, etc, but he needs to take it to a bike shop to get it checked out. He’s got the cabbie’s insurance details; he didn’t really seem to understand about how insurance works, but i’m sure he knows someone who does.
I suggested we bend the wheel back into shape so he could at least roll the bike home, so we found a fence and did a bit of ghetto truing – an essential urban cycling skill, and the second time i’ve had to do it on a mass! He and a friend set off walking for King’s Cross to catch a train home. I sincerely hope he didn’t decide to try and ride – he had rather a touch of teenage invincibility, so i worry he might have.
Anyway, one of his friends had received a signal that the rest of the mass was at Buckingham palace, so he, the courierish guy and i set off. We got there a few minutes before the mass set off again – i just had time to wish Des Kay well with the Lords and ride a lap round the top of the Victoria Memorial.
After that, we started to get spread out, between the main body at the front and a long tail of slow riders. I’m a speedster myself, so i was half tempted to go a bit sheepdog on them and get them moving, but i ended up bouncing back and forth – going forward, helping cork or just waiting, and being caught up.
Taxi incident number two came as we rode down Theobald’s road. A stream of traffic was trying to come in from the right, i think from Red Lion Street (again, i’m looking at a map and guessing), and had been corked. There were only a few people there, so i looped back and joined them.
At the front of the queue was a taxi driver. He wasn’t very happy about being stopped, and insisted we move. We didn’t, of course – the mass was still passing. He got rather upset, and started shouting. He then started edging his taxi forward – he went from being a foot away from us to actually pressing his right fender into my leg and starting to push me over; there was another guy beside me, and a few people around us, and we made it clear we weren’t going anywhere until the mass had passed. It did, and i was set to go – but he was still pressing into my leg, which meant i actually couldn’t get on my bike and move off. If i had, and he’d edged forward any further, i would have gone straight under him. Bit of an impasse, cue much shouting.
Eventually, he stopped his engine, got out of his cab, and came up to me and tried to shove my bike out of the way. Because he’d stopped, i was actually able to move, and was quite happy to do so, so in a way, his move was quite successful! There was a bit more shouting, with neither side really wanting to let the other have the last word (although i was silent – i just wanted to get home and have my dinner), and a disgusting drunk old fat man walked over and started shouting and shoving a lady masser about, but eventually we disentangled ourselves and rode on.
By this point, i was getting tired and hungry, our numbers were down, and i decided to call it a night. We hit the junction with Rosebery Avenue, where i turn left. The mass defaulted to heading straight on, but a few people were shouting to go left: i mentioned that i was in favour of that because i wanted to go home; the girl beside me said she wanted to go left because she wanted some doritos, which i found quite puzzling.
It was only after i’d sped away into the night that i realised she’d said ‘burritos’, and must have been referring to the really good little burrito place at Angel. I could have kicked myself, because i could really have gone for a burrito right then.
And that, as they say, is that.
http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/cm-london
http://www.criticalmasslondon.org.uk/
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I Bike MCR presents a week long series of cycling events and activities to celebrate the bicycle from 6th-12th October 2008
I Bike MCR is a grassroots voluntary group where everyone gives their time and skills for free. We organise events that aim to promote cycling and to build a strong supportive cycling commiunity in MCR. We do this in our own spare time because we believe that giving our time to make a change will be worth it.
It will be a free festival in order to make it accessible to everyone no matter their economic situation. We will, however, ask for donations to go to helping the I Bike MCR cycle campaign, you can give money or time please look here for info:
http://www.ibikemcr.org.uk/minihelp.htm
MINI FESTIVAL TIMETABLE
Every week-day morning we will be having a group ride from Owen’s Park in Fallowfield down Oxford Road to the Universities so that students can meet each other and gain confidence by cycling in together as a group.
Meet in the carpark area of Owens Park (map)
8.15am, we’ll leave at 8.30am PROMPT to get into uni at 8.45am
We hope this will continue after the week festival is over.
Monday 6th October
7.30pm Council Chambers Manchester University
Bicycle Film Night
Tuesday 7th October
Meet 6pm Outside Manchester University refectory
A bicycle tour around our city, taking you to the nicest parks, the best bike shops, cool places to hang out, the best cycle routes, nice landmarks and nice pubs.
Wednesday 8th October
2pm – 5pm Email info@ibikemcr.org.uk to book a place
FREE Bicycle Confidence lessons. Book asap to reserve a place.
No matter whether you need some tips on how to deal with a particular junction or how to ride one handed you can benefit from a bike confidence class with a qualified cycling instructor.
7pm Basketball courts in Platt Fields Park
The Spokes Bicycle Dance Troupe,
The all woman Spokes bike dance troupe have an open practice to encourage more bike loving women to get involved and join them in dancing with their bikes to encourage more women and girls to cycle.
Thursday 9th October
6pm Whitworth Park, Denmark Road
Bicycle Polo Practice. We will teach newcomers how to play this exhilarating and fun sport.
Friday 10th October
Register at 6pm, Ride at 7pm…
Meet in the carpark behind the Sandbar, Grosvenor Street (map)
I Bike MCR Superheroes Treasurecat.
No matter what bike you’re on or how well you know the city you can take part (and have a chance to win!) in this treasure hunt on bicycles.
* Dress as a superhero for more points..go all out!
* Ride as a dynamic duo, both people must be present at each checkpoint but only one needs to do the task (if you can’t find a partner beforehand, don’t worry you’re sure to find one on the night)
* With a final sprint to see which out of your pair is the superhero and which is the sidekick
* If the phone rings answer it. You may get a secret mission to win more points, then choose if you want to go for fastest time or most points
* Prizes for a wide variety of things NOT JUST FASTEST. inc.Team back at any time with the most points, Winner of the final sprint, Best costume and loads more…So it’s open for anyone to win a prize no matter how little you know the city or how fast you can ride
Amazing prizes from:
Cantgoslo
Bagaboo
Seagull Bags
HK Fixed
Knog
Edinburgh Bicycle Co-operative
Bicycle Boutique
Saturday 11th October
Noon at Piccadilly train station
or 1.30pm at Delamere Forest Information Centre
Mountain biking in Delamere Forest
(you can hire mountain bikes there)
8pm The Sandbar Grosvenor Street (map)
Moonlight Ride: a 3 hour circular ride into the night with a pub stop.
Sunday 12th October
Noon Meet Sainsbury’s Carpark, off Wilmslow Road, Fallowfield
A ride along one of Manchester’s nicest off road cycle routes, the Fallowfield Loop, where we will stop off to help create a mural depicting the celebration of the bicycle. Everyone welcome to get involved making the Fallowfield Loop brighter and fun. Bring brushes, tatty clothes, paints and lots of enthusiasm (don’t worry if you not that artistic we’ll find some way for you to help!)
info@ibikemcr.org.uk
http://ibikemcr.org.uk/
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The 4th South London critical mass bike ride is this friday and every first friday of the month.
Come and liberate the streets of south london, taking the mass to the masses not just to shoppers,tourists and irate cabbies. Meet 6.30pm outside Peckham Library,off Peckham High Street.
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Big Turnout for Liverpool Critical Mass
This month’s critical mass was bigger than ever. The ride ended at Next To Nowhere (social centre) where the riders got free refreshments and saw a film.
Dozens of cyclists of all ages and backgrounds, from students to social workers, turned out. They included a visitor who has recently come from New Zealand and took part in critical mass rides there.
After doing a tour around the city centre they stopped at the social centre, where they were given free soup and cakes, and watched a film showing the history of how the Critical Mass rides started in San Francisco in 1993. The rides in that city grew to thousands-strong, and worked beautifully through collective organisation, without committees or leaders. They had the effect of causing more people to commute by bicycle instead of car, and to use the bicycle as their normal transport. This was disrupted when the San Francisco police decided the cyclists needed to be “organised” and made to follow officially designated routes. Ultimately, however, the cyclists decided they didn’t want or need to be organised.
Liverpool Critical Mass has not so far had any police interference, and is successfully enabling cyclists to use the roads safely, and assert their right to be recognised as road users. But as one cyclist said, “If the police wanted to organise us – how? There are no leaders and no-one’s in charge. There’s just a bunch of cyclists who happen coincidentally to turn up at the Chinese arch on the second Friday of the month, and go for a ride together.”
A bunch of cyclists may, coincidentally, be at the Chinese arch on Nelson Street at 6pm on 12th November and 15th December. They would welcome any-one who wants to turn up and ride along with them.