Linford
Guest
It's not a protest, or a confrontation or anything of the sort - it's a real chilled out festival atmosphere. People were bringing sound-system bikes with them, playing out all sorts of different music. You had your really dedicated cyclists with well made and well decorated bikes with lots of illuminations, alongside your casual cyclist on a Boris Bike.
Sure, there were a couple of disagreements with predominantly taxi drivers, but most of them were pretty calm and a lot of them do appear to be understanding that, thanks to the decision of the Law Lords, Critical Mass is a precession and thus is allowed to ride through red lights where the first rider crossed the line on a green. I had one debate with a taxi driver myself, both sides remained calm, he started to understand the movement and that we were only going to be causing a very slight delay.
One thing you do really realise though, is that instead of it being for 3-4 hours each month, car drivers actually have their Critical Mass every single day of the week.
Don't at all agree with the justification behind it....they don't need you deliberately obstructing them to feel the frustration of sitting in traffic jams. If a group organised one in my town, the only part I'd play in it is telling them to stop being a bunch of rentamob bell ends.