Nottingham Critical Mass Bike About in the city
Tash [alan lodge] | 01.10.2005 21:03 | Ecology
Critcal Mass is a regular event. The meeting point is the Savoy cinema on Derby Road in Lenton on the last Friday of every month now at 5.30pm.
It is becoming a more popular event with 60 or so riders this time. More than last event ...
Critcal Mass is a regular event. The meeting point is the Savoy cinema on Derby Road in Lenton on the last Friday of every month now at 5.30pm.
It is becoming a more popular event with 60 or so riders this time. More than last event ...
If you want to draw attention to transport policy, issues around climate change, health and fitness, pollution and the fact that cars keep injuring cyclists ...... Then please join in.
*********
What's it all about?
Critical Mass is often described as an 'unorganised coincidence'. It happens when a lot of cyclists happen to be in the same place at the same time and decide to cycle the same way together for a while.
What's the purpose?
"Everyday, all over the world, people are resisting the problem culture of the car by getting on their bikes and riding, instead of driving.
Critical Mass is a celebration of the alternatives to cars, pollution, accidents and the loss of public spaces and freedoms.
Not an organisation or group, but an idea or tactic, Critical Mass allows people to reclaim cities with their bikes, just by getting together and out-numbering the cars on the road"
What happens on a Critical Mass?
Each one is different and they follow no set route, with the direction being spontaneously chosen as people cycle along. Anyone is free to join or leave the ride as it pedals along.
See also
http://www.critical-mass.org You can see more piccys of an earlier Critical Mass in Nottingham at:
http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/04/310149.html http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/02/305420.html http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/02/305893.html http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/06/292966.html "We are not blocking the traffic - We are Traffic!"
[ps. some bastard has stolen my bike!]
____________________________________________
ALAN LODGE
Photographer - Media: One Eye on the Road. Nottingham. UK
Email:
tash@gn.apc.org Web:
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http://tash.dns2go.com Member of the National Union of Journalists [No: 014345]
____________________________________________
"It is not enough to curse the darkness.
It is also necessary to light a lamp!!"
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Tash [alan lodge]
e-mail:
tash@indymedia.org
Homepage:
http://tash.gn.apc.org
Comments
Hide the following 5 comments
Earlier Feature on Bikes
02.10.2005 00:42
with a load more links and background ....
Tash
CM letter, from MET police
02.10.2005 10:40
---
Metropolitan Police Service
CO11 Public Order Branch
New Scotland Yard
Broadway
London
SW11 OBG
Your reference: -
Our reference: -
Date: 29/09/2005
Critical Mass Cycle Demonstrations
Organisers of public processions are required by law to notify police at least 6 days before the event occurs of the date, time, proposed route and the name and address of an organiser. Failure to do so makes the event unlawful
Demonstrations within a designated area around Parliament must also be notified, and anyone taking part in an unauthorised demonstration commits an offence.
Police can impose conditions on processions, demonstrations and other assemblies, and participants render themselves liable to arrest if they fail to comply with those conditions.
These cycle protests are not lawful because no organiser has provided police the with the necessary notification. Your participation in this event could render you liable to prosecution. Police policy in facilitating these events is currently under review.
If you intend to organise a future similar event please refer to the Metropolitan Police website, www.met.police.uk for details. It is preferable for all parties if a lawful event can be safely facilitated, rather than the Police having to enforce legislation.
Superintendent Gomm,
New Scotland Yard
Tash
e-mail:
tash@indymedia.org
when is an assembly a protest?
02.10.2005 12:57
we have a clear right in a supposed 'free' society to come together as people and walk or pedal OUR streets carrying banners, whistles, megaphones, musical instruments, skateboards, flags, and whatever we damn well like.
we don't have to ask permission to do this, because that would imply that we are not free.
and yet we now have a situation where a couple of weeks ago, someone was arrested in parliament square because an inspector from met police 'decided' that in his view, the peaceful picnic and banner-making workshop in the square was not a peaceful picnic and banner-making workshop, but was a protest, and therefore illegal. in theory the organiser (if it is proven) can be jailed for up to a year. now, even the established and peaceful monthly celebration of the bicycle is also coming under attack.
i urge the people of nottingham, london, and anywhere else to make the next critical mass the biggest, the most celebratory, the most spontaneous, the most life-affirming gathering yet, and to keep coming back at least every month if not more often, to challenge the fascism that is encroaching upon our lives.
if there are any arrests, i would hope to see huge solidarity masses all round the world.
as these laws and restrictions get stronger and more blatant, their only effect can be to wake up more and more people to what is happening and to bring these people together so that these restrictions become unworkable. it is agonisingly important to resist this control, and to start rolling back the interference in our lives.
rikki
ehh its nottingham
02.10.2005 13:20
kl
it's a big, ugly picture
03.10.2005 18:53
these proposed infringements of people's right of use of public highways etc might not so quickly be copied here but the attack on our freedom to protest is certainly not limited to the capital. nottingham cyclists have already fallen foul of the law riding to Derby on Britain's first outlawed CM. the notice handed out by the Met is shocking, and for those who saw the Still We Ride documentary in the cinema last week, this development may resonate a little more. so let's give them solidarity and big it up even more next month.
george