Nottingham’s Critical Mass bike ride was restarted on Friday by a group of around 40 cyclists. With a sound system, flags and a sea of fluorescent vests the group reclaimed the city centre’s streets for a celebration of cycling. Critical Mass was a semi-regular fixture in the city between 2005-2009 but has been dormant in recent years. People now meet at 5.30 outside the Victoria Centre clocktower on the last Friday of the month. The next ride will take place on Fri 26th August.

On the newswire: Critical Mass returned to Nottingham (at last!) | Nottingham Critical Mass is back!

Previous features: Nottingham is not stupid | All bikes are go!

As the new Nottingham CM blog says:

‘a route is not planned but will most likely end somewhere sociable, Bring flags, trailers, music and fun. come for a relaxed ride with friends and strangers’

There has been a very l o n g break in the Nottingham CM meeting. Here’s hoping this is the beginning of more great events.

The object is to celebrate cycling and to assert cyclists’ right to the road. With no set routes and no leaders, it’s simply a bunch of people enjoying clean healthy transport.

In addition to all of the worthwhile issues that Critical Mass highlights, it’s a great way to meet people and perhaps do a bit of networking to promote other campaigns.

Critical Mass should appeal to anyone that rides a bike so it should start from the most central location for everyone’s benefit. Plus, practically every other Critical Mass around the globe starts from central, well-known locations which makes it easy to remember and easy to find.

It’s never more than a couple of hours. Bring bright clothing, lights, horns, bells, NOISE and FRIENDS.

From critical-mass.info:

‘Critical Mass is a monthly bicycle ride to celebrate cycling and to assert cyclists’ right to the road. The idea started in San Francisco in September 1992 and quickly spread to cities all over the world.

Critical Mass has a different flavor from city to city — there’s a big variety in size, respect of traffic laws (or lack thereof), interaction with motorists, and intervention by police. So if you want to know more about Critical Mass, you’ll really need to find out what your local ride is like. .

Critical Mass has no leaders, and no central organization licenses rides. In every city that has a CM ride, some locals simply picked a date, time, and location for the ride and publicized it, and thus the ride was born.

CM is an idea and an event, not an organization. You can’t write to “Critical Mass” — certainly not by writing to me.