Promoting a bicycle usage at IIMB and Bangalore, including a study of the critical mass movement

Abstract

One can trace back the beginning of Critical Mass to the streets of Sweden in the early 1970s. Renowned film producer had taken out a demonstration with several cyclists in promotion of his film ‘Traffic’. Later on, in the 1970s and 1980s, other cycling groups in Sweden continued organizing similar cycling rallies. However, the Critical Mass, in the form we know it today, was born only in 1992 in San Francisco. San Francisco, Friday, September 25, 1992 - Critical Mass as the world knows it came into being. It was initially named as “Commute Clot” with a couple of dozen riders riding through the streets of San Francisco. The name ‘Critical Mass’ has an interesting source. About a month after the first “Commute Clot”, renowned filmmaker Ted White organized a screening of his documentary on the bike culture overseas – “The Return of the Scorcher” to some cyclists in San Francisco. During the screening, George Bliss, a New York bicycle advocate noted that in China, cyclists waited at intersections till the point a ‘Critical Mass’ of cyclists was present so as to safely cross the intersection. The numbers steadily grew over the years – by the fourth ride there were around 100 people and for a particular Critical Mass in 1997, more than 5,000 cyclists turned up. The events in San Francisco were soon able to capture the imagination of cyclists the world over and soon the trend caught on. Today, Critical Mass is a monthly event that takes places on the last Friday of each month in 300 cities around the world.