Rhythmanalysis of Critical Mass: A Meeting Place

Andrew Bieler

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Abstract

Critical Mass is a globally amorphous celebration of bicycling in public space that started in September 1992, in San Francisco (Carlsson 2002a, 5-6). The movement has been celebrated as acting on local and global scales to ameliorate sustainable transportation, as a momentary alternative to our temporal enslavement to the automobile, as a performative critique and as an act of resistance, project building and legitimation (Blickstein and Hanson 2001; Carlsson 2002a; Furness 2007; Horton 2006). This thesis is a case study on Toronto's Critical Mass. It describes the social spaces of Toronto's ride from a Lefebvrean, rhythmanalytical perspective and situates the ride's creation of access to roadways in relation to John Urry's theory of network capital. Finally, it shows how the mass performance of rhythmic intervention benefits the network capital of the Toronto cycling community by creating access to roadways for festive celebrations of the public qualities of the bicycle. Dedication - To all those who ride in Critical Mass VI

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank professor Janine Marchessault for her mentorship as a supervisor and for encouraging me to persevere throughout the writing and research phases of this thesis. I would also like to thank professors Kevin Dowler, Honor Ford- Smith, Stefan Kipfer and Bryn Greer-Wootten for their feedback and helpful suggestions. Finally, I would like to thank my parents, immediate family, Tyler Churchward Venne, Ya-Yin Ko, Lindsey Vodarek, Ryan Clement, all those who generously gave their time for this project and, last but not least, everyone who comes to CM on the last Friday of the month. vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT IV DEDICATION- TO ALL THOSE WHO RIDE IN CRITICAL MASS V ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS VI LIST OF TABLES VIII NOTE ABOUT WORKS CITED IX INTRODUCTION 1

METHODOLOGY: 2 A RHYTHMANALYTICAL APPROACH TO MOBILITY STUDIES: 8 STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS: 11 CHAPTER 1 - LITERATURE REVIEW 15

CRITICAL MASS AND SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION: 18 SOCIAL NETWORKS: 21 CRITICAL MASS AND IDEOLOGY: 24 BRIEF SUMMARY OF CM LITERATURE: 28 CRITICAL MASS, THE BICYCLE AND MODERNITY: 29 MOBILITY STUDIES & RHYTHMANALYSIS: 35 MOBILE MEETINGS, MOMENTARY FESTIVITY AND RHYTHMANALYSIS: 39 CONCLUSION: 43 CHAPTER 2 - RHYTHMANALYSIS 45

PUBLIC RHYTHMS: 47 RHYTHMIC INTERVENTIONS: 51 ISORHYTHMIA: 53 EURHYTHMIA: 56 EURHYTHMIA TO ARRHYTHMIA ON THE GARDINER EXPRESSWAY: 61 CONCLUSION: 66 CHAPTER 3 - COMMUNITY & NETWORK CAPITAL 70

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS AND NETWORK CAPITAL: 74 COMMUNITY: 77 QUALITIES OF MOBILE MEETING: 81 NETWORK CAPITAL ELEMENT OF ACCESS TO ROADWAYS: 84 OTHER RELATIONAL ELEMENTS OF NETWORK CAPITAL: 87 ELEMENTS OF NETWORK CAPITAL OPENINGS AND CONCLUSIONS: 94 CONCLUSION 98 APPENDIX 105 TABLES 114 SURVEY: 120 RE.ETHICS APPROVAL 126 WORKS CITED 127 List of Tables

TABLE 1: WHAT IS YOUR PRIMARY MOTIVATION FOR PARTICIPATING IN CRITICAL MASS RIDES? 114 TABLE 2: RACIAL IDENTITY: HOW WOULD YOU NAME YOUR RACIAL IDENTITY? 114 TABLE 3, AGE OF CYCLISTS, BASIC STATISTICS 115 TABLE 4, AGE ACCORDING TO AGE BRACKET FREQUENCIES 115 TABLE 5, WHAT is YOUR SEX? 115 TABLE 6, PROFESSIONAL OCCUPATIONS 116 TABLE 7, How DID YOU FIRST HEAR ABOUT CRITICAL MASS? 117 TABLE 8, TIMES PARTICIPATED IN A YEAR 117 TABLE 9, LENGTH OF PARTICIPATION: FROM 1 MONTH TO OVER 15 YRS 118 TABLE 10, LENGTH OF PARTICIPATION IN FOUR CATEGORIES 118 TABLE 11, PRIMARY MODE: WHAT IS YOUR PRIMARY MODE OF TRANSPORTATION? 118 TABLE 12, PRIMARY MODE OF TRANSPORTATION BY SEX 119 TABLE 13, CHI-SQUARE TESTS OF STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE 119 IX

Note about Works Cited

The following works by Henri Lefebvre and John Urry will be cited as follows:

R Lefebvre, Henri. Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life. London: Continuum, 2004.

M Urry, John. Mobilities. Cambridge: Polity, 2007. 1

Introduction

The message, the medium and the form of CM have resonated in particular places throughout the globe to foster the growth of CM as an urban sustainability movement that is truly international. - Susan Blickstein and Susan Hanson, "Critical Mass" 352.

And so, well, (when someone asks) where are we going to go? What's the route? We don't know; we're just going to ride! And what time's it going to ride till? We don't know, until everybody goes home. What's the purpose of it? To go for a ride. You know, like. Why? Because it's fun! - Michael Louis Johnson. Personal Interview. April 26, 2008.

Toronto's Critical Mass (CM) meets at 6:00 p.m. at a parkette on the southeast corner of Bloor and Spadina Streets on the last Friday of every month, and spontaneously weaves its way through the streets without the discipline of a timetable, a leader, a hierarchy and a predetermined route. This joyous phenomenon is the local manifestation of a global social movement that celebrates bicycling and protests the "auto centric use of public spaces" (Furness 2005,403). The celebratory protest influences discourses on sustainable transportation and encourages a material shift toward cycling by linking local spaces of dependency to global spaces of engagement (Blickstein and Hanson 2001).

Through direct action, cyclists collectively perform a critique of motorized space that embraces use value over exchange value and unveils the ideology of the built environment to inspire a new relationship to the city (Furness 2007).

In Toronto, the embodied rhythms of the monthly co-present gathering of cyclists support social networks of cycling activism. Specifically, the mass performance of rhythmic interventions benefits the network capital of the Toronto cycling community by creating access to roadways for festive celebrations of the public qualities of the bicycle. 2

This thesis builds upon Susan Blickstein and Susan Hanson's 2002 case study on CM, entitled "Critical Mass: forging a politics of sustainable mobility in the information age," and Zack Furness's research on CM and contemporary cycling activism (2007, 2005).

Methodology:

From the perspective of a rhythmanalytical approach to mobility studies, my study addresses the question: how do the embodied rhythms of the monthly face-to-face gathering of cyclists support social networks of cycling activism in Toronto? It responds by describing the festive social spaces of this monthly co-present meeting through an interrogation of the rhythms that arise during the ride itself. Blickstein and Hanson's formative case study on San Francisco's CM, which I discuss in greater detail in chapter two, shows how the movement encourages people to cycle and influences discourses on sustainable transportation by bridging local spaces of dependency, like bike lanes, with global spaces of engagement. They show how this linking of scales is continuous with sustainability policy recommendations that emphasize the necessity of addressing both perceptions of issues and material practices on multiple scales (Blickstein and Hanson

2001, 347-48). Drawing on the geographer Cox's distinction between spaces of dependency and spaces of engagement, they analyze the scalar framing of issues in CM media, conduct a survey of participants and interview cycling advocates from American 3

and San Francisco based cycling organizations (352-53). Their study argues, "The main way in which Critical Mass has embraced broader geographic scales is through the opening up of spaces of debate at both local and global scales, much of which has occurred on the Internet" (348). While they successfully illustrate this bridging of scales, their attention to the role of the Internet in the building of social networks brackets the significance of other interrelated mobilities, like mobile communications and the physical movement of the ride itself. Also, they neglect a detailed description of the qualities of the monthly co-present gathering itself that have made it such a successful global activator of cycling social networks. Thus, their research opens a space for the following question: what is the significance of the embodied rhythms of the monthly face-to-face gathering in supporting social networks of contemporary cycling activism? In response, this thesis draws on a rhythmanalytical approach to mobility studies to analyze how the rhythmic qualities of the co-present CM meeting help support social networks of cycling activism.

Mobility studies analyze social networks from the perspective of the forms of meetingness achieved through the following inter-related mobilities: (1) physical travel of people for work, commuting, leisure; (2) physical movement of objects; (3) imaginative travel through images and memories on media texts; (4) virtual travel on the Internet; and

(5) communicative travel through person-to-person messages via email letters etc.

(Larsen 2006, 4). The paradigm also looks at the role of co-present meetings in activating social networks and benefiting their network capital, which is the "capacity to engender 4

and sustain social relations with those people who are not necessarily proximate" (M,

231). This thesis looks at the significance of the rhythms of the monthly co-present CM meeting in sustaining social networks of cycling activism in Toronto by deploying a

Lefebvrean rhythmanalysis of the ride itself and analyzing its support of the cycling community's network capital.

The triangulation of rhythmanalysis and network capital analysis supported a multimodal methodology that involved writing rhythmanalytical descriptions of the ride, interviewing thirteen CM participants and taking these elements into account to understand the relational elements that compose the category of network capital (M, 198).

I wrote rhythmanalytical descriptions of the ride in a field journal that I took to the event on a monthly basis from September 2007 to June 2008. While I chose to focus my rhythmanalysis on the May 2008 ride, participating in and analyzing other rides informed it. This rhythmanalysis is inspired by Lefebvre's Rhythmanalytical Project and is continuous with the mobility studies method of observing people's movements and enactments of "face-to-face relationships with places, with events and with people" (40).

I also used the mobility studies method of "participation in patterns of movement while simultaneously conducting ethnographic research." This method can involve a multiplicity of observational and recording techniques, such as participating in a form of movement and then interviewing people (40). I practiced this methodology by becoming immersed in the experience of cycling in CM and subsequently interviewing thirteen CM participants about their experience of the rhythms and pace of the ride, as well as their 5

interpretation of the meaning of the event itself. These interviews inform both the rhythmanalysis and the network capital analysis. Finally, as background to this research, I read coverage of CM within mainstream news media and conducted a mixed mode survey of CM participants.

I did some research on outside representations of CM within Canadian periodicals by searching for "cycl* and critical mass" in Canadian Newstand and found 165 items for the period between January 1,1995 and January 1, 2008. Considering the monthly occurrence of over ten regular CM rides in Canada and the 156 CM rides in Toronto during this period, this mainstream news coverage is minimal.1 Mainstream media coverage of CM has tended to reproduce the normalization of cycling's spatial marginality (Horton 2007, 145).

I conducted a mixed mode survey of CM participants that is drawn upon in both the rhythmanalysis and network capital analysis and can be found in the appendix. In the rhythmanalysis chapter, the survey findings are drawn upon to describe the playfully political motivations of current CM participants. In the network capital analysis, survey

CM bike rides occur on a monthly basis in Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, St Johns, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, Victoria, Kingston and Winnipeg. Since there were 156 CM rides in Toronto alone during this period, I would have to concur with Sarah Boothroyd's conclusion that it is highly unlikely that spectators who might have seen hooting and hollering cyclists pass by on the street, would be able to find any ink devoted to them in Canadian newspapers (2002, 24). The ride is often described as a protest event and framed within broader discussions of courier culture, perhaps indicating that the marginalization of courier subcultures extends into accounts of CM (Fincham 2007; Cheney 2006; Gray 2005). For instance, in a 2006 Globe & Mail article referencing Toronto's ride, Peter Cheney embraces a number of negative- outside, courier culture stereotypes before going on to argue that North America's "militant cycling culture" began with the birth of CM in 1992 (Cheney 2006). 6

findings are employed to discuss the network capital elements of others at a distance and time to participate.

The survey data helps situate Toronto's CM in relation to broader cycling trends in the city and provides the demographic contours of current CM participants, including their motivations for attending the event and the varying levels of participation. However, this empirical data is not central to supporting my thesis that the embodied rhythms of the monthly co-present gathering support social networks of cycling activism in Toronto.

Rather, the qualitative findings contained in my journal entries are central to supporting this thesis.

The empirical data is significant on both descriptive and analytic levels. First, the survey data illustrates the context of predominantly young, male, white students and media professionals who attend the ride for a variety of playfully political reasons and use the bicycle as an everyday mode of transportation. These demographic contours provide a starting point for the network capital analysis of the relative openness of the event to other possible participants.

I began designing my survey by designating my general population as Toronto

CM participants who are currently riding in CM. I defined my working population as participants who either attended CM in April 2008, or read and clicked on my survey on cycling activism blogs—i.e., imaginatively traveled in the ride.2 This working population

2 After obtaining permission from relevant blog administrators, the survey was posted on the following blogs: Darren Stehr, Toronto Cranks, http://www.torontocranks.com: Herb van den Dool, Tammy Thome, and Anthony Humphries, I Bike T.O. So Can You, http://www.ibiketo.ca: Martin Reis, Bike Lane Diary, 7

consisted of approximately 500 participants, including 147 participants who at least read about my online survey and the approximately 350 who attended the ride on April 25.

How representative is this sampling frame? It is biased toward current CM participants who read cycling blogs or attended the start of the ride at Bloor and Spadina rather than joining in halfway through the ride. Furthermore, it is biased toward current participants who fit into the sampling time frame, between April 21 and May 2, 2008. Also, both seasonal fluctuations of CM participants and a margin of error in my estimation of cyclists at the ride limit the degree to which this sampling frame is representative. The survey distribution was conducted at the corner of Bloor and Spadina on April 25 and online via surveymokey.com, advertised through Toronto cycling activism blogs between

April 21 and May 2, 2008.1 distributed 140 surveys at the pre-ride festivities at April's ride and 87 participants completed the survey either at the ride or by sending the survey back to me in a pre-paid envelope. I received five surveys in pre-paid envelopes. A number of participants declined the paper survey, opting to complete the survey on surveymonkey.com. A total of 147 people responded to the surveymonkey.com posting and 81 of these responses were complete and valid. I also conducted a small, very informal focus group and thirteen interviews, which involved the completion of my survey, for a total of sixteen face-to-face surveys gathered outside of the pre-ride

http://bikel anediary.blogspot.com; Martin Koob, Bike Toronto: Toronto's Latest Cycling News, http://biketoronto.ca. 8

festivities. The total number of surveys completed by participants was 184, a relatively representative sample of my working population of approximately 500 participants.

A Rhythmanalytical Approach to Mobility Studies:

Why bring together a Lefebvre inspired rhythmanalysis of CM with a John Urry inspired analysis of inequalities of network capital? The aim of this articulation is to describe the tension between the Utopian and routine qualities of the CM social movement. This arises out of the interplay between its regular occurrence as a monthly event on the Toronto cycling community calendar and its momentary aspirations toward a circadian repetition of critical mass on the streets of Toronto, i.e., a true velorution. By way of analyzing the relationship between the extra-everyday rhythms of the monthly performance of CM and the everyday life of the Toronto cycling community, an attempt is made to show how the event provides regular, routine support for the cycling community while offering momentary glimpses of a true velorution. Whereas the rhythmanalytical description of the monthly event focuses more on the Utopian dimensions of the performance, the network capital analysis examines the quality of community support that the ride provides by creating access to roadways on a monthly basis, providing a regular place to meet other cyclists and maintaining a formal sense of hospitality to new participants. On both sides of this equation, an attempt is made to 9

situate the movement in relation to the dominating rhythms and mobility-based constraints of capitalist modernity. First, an attempt is made to describe how the network capital support that CM arguably provides for the Toronto cycling community, by creating space for festivity through rhythmic intervention, is constrained by various mobility-based inequalities that likely limit participation. Second, this approach allows for an analysis of how dominating rhythms constrain the potential for momentary festivity; i.e., bringing together the poetics of the monthly ride and the prose of everyday cycling, within the CM movement.

The aim of the network capital analysis is to describe how CM provides routine support for the Toronto cycling community. The analysis turns away from the Utopian dimensions of the CM performance and addresses the everyday context of the Toronto cycling community and its relationship to the local urban cycling environment. Through an analysis of the barriers to accessing roadspace for cycling in Toronto, this discussion illustrates the significance of how CM creates space for cycling through mass performances of rhythmic intervention. Thus, the significance of the monthly performance of rhythmic intervention lies not only in teasing out the Utopian potential for momentary festivity at the monthly event but, also, in supporting basic, mundane elements of the cycling communities' network capital—a place to meet and access to roadspace. 10

The aim of the rhythmanalysis of CM is to tease out the possibilities for momentary festivity at the monthly performance and the extent to which these are constrained by the rhythm of Capital. What does rhythmanalysis involve?

Ben Highmore argues that Lefebvre's rhythmanalytical project allows one to look at both embodied agency and the "regulating rhythms of dominating cultural and social forces" (2005,146). Lefebvre's scathing critique of the rhythm of Capital attends to its abstract efficiency in persistently manipulating the lived time of daily life, while avoiding a misinterpretation of Capital as the Capitalists (Meyer 2008, 151). This critique is tied to an analysis of the dialectic between cyclical and linear temporalities (Highmore 2005,

148; Meyer 2008,148). Whereas linear time is strongly associated with the subjection of man to the techno-industrial world and the logic of Capital, cyclical time is associated with natural and cosmic rhythms, like "the regular recurrence of days, weeks, months, seasons, and years," which persevere within modern industrial society but were more closely intertwined with the life of human beings prior to their domination of the natural world (Meyer 2008,148). Lefebvre's rhythmanalytical project is engaged with analyzing the perseverance of cyclical rhythms within the temporality of modern Capitalism in music, cities, dressage and media (148). In Seen from the Window, this analysis proceeds from a definition of linear rhythms as consisting of the "daily grind" of "journeys to and fro" and cyclical rhythms as associated with longer intervals and "social organization manifesting itself (R, 30). Similarly, I am concerned with the inter-relationship between the monthly, cyclical meeting of cyclists at the Bloor Parkette, as a manifestation of 11

social organization, and the linear rhythms of surrounding commuter traffic. Also, I am concerned with the specific rhythmic states that arise out of the inter-relationship of cyclical and linear processes at the ride, eurhythmic, arrhythmic, and isorhythmic states, and the interventions performed to maintain healthy rhythmic states.

I follow Lefebvre's emphasis on the role of rhythms in the everyday struggle of citizens to appropriate public spaces that are dominated by the political power of the state, as discussed in The Rhythmanalysis of Mediterranean Cities. Lefebvre argues that it is through a certain use of social time and rhythm that citizens withdraw from the "linear, unirhythmic, measuring/measured state time" (R, 96). By focusing on the role of rhythms in the appropriation of public space, I am engaging in a rhythmanalysis of public rhythms; which Lefebvre defines as "calendars, fetes, ceremonies and celebrations..."

(18). Also, following Lefebvre, I observe these public rhythms with an eye on how CM interrupts the relative dominance of various linear and alternating circadian rhythms in its appropriation of the Bloor Parkette, where Toronto's ride starts (94-96).

Structure of the Thesis:

Chapter one situates this rhythmanalytical reading of CM in relation to existing literature on the movement's organizing efforts toward urban sustainability, use of multiple scales of political action, building of social networks and critique of 12

automobility. This literature review leads into a consideration of the complex expression of urban modernity found within the CM social movement, specifically, how it reflects the tension between quasi-public cycling mobilities and quasi-private automotive mobilities within the elective affinity between mobilities and modernity (Horton 2006,

46; Urry 2004, 26; Rammler 2008, 59). Finally, the potential of a rhythmanalytical approach to mobility studies for analyzing this complex expression of urban modernity is then considered via a literature review of the new mobilities paradigm and Lefebvre's

Rhythmanalytical Project.

The second chapter follows May's CM ride from the appropriation of the Bloor

Parkette at Bloor and Spadina to the re-appropriation of the Gardiner Expressway. The analysis moves outward from rhythmanalytical journal entries to analysis of the specific rhythmic states that they describe and the broader conditions surrounding their emergence. This chapter describes the festive social spaces of the ride by listening to the dialectic movement between the rhythmic states of eurhythmia, isorhythmia and arrhythmia, the interplay between public and private rhythms and constraints of the rhythm of capital.

The final chapter explores how the mass performances of rhythmic intervention described in chapter two support elements of the Toronto cycling community's network capital. It explores the significance of the phenomenon of strength and safety in numbers that manifests at the monthly ride, from the perspective of John Urry's approach to mobility studies and the context of the cycling community's everyday access to roadways 13

in Toronto. Finally, it situates this form of support in relation to other elements of the cycling community's network capital. Last, the conclusion will offer some final reflections on how the extra-everyday rhythms of the monthly ride support daily cycling and the community's network capital from the perspective of Henri Lefebvre's theory of momentary festivity.

Why celebrate the bicycle at CM? Participants are motivated to attend the ride for a variety of political ends but are also usually motivated by a desire to have a good time

(Blickstein and Hanson 2001, 361). In the British context, Horton contends that CM participants commonly understand that they are legitimating government policy that encourages bicycle use, opposing the everyday harassment of cyclists by affirming their rights to the road and transforming the streets to show the temporary creation of a more sustainable, humane alternative (2006, 55). These motivations are supported by the fact that the bicycle is regarded to be the most sustainable and equitable mode of transportation (Horton, Cox and Rosen 2007, 7; Pucher and Buehler 2008,4).

The vision of sustainability offered by the bicycle is adapted to a wide range of ends (Horton, Cox and Rosen 2007, 4-5). It is embraced in post-colonial nations as a way of resisting the "ultra modernity of former rulers," while promoting a more sustainable urban mobility, and is utilized in economically rich societies to increase social inclusion among disenfranchised youth (Horton, Cox and Rosen 2007,4-5; Carlsson 2008,123-

28). Horton, Cox and Rosen argue that while cycling is globally complex, "it is increasingly promoted by national governments across the rich world as a simple, 14

straightforward mode of mobility with a variety of beneficial effects" (2007, 7). Northern

European nations, specifically Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands, have made the most progress toward promoting cycling (Pucher and Buehler 2008, 3). John Pucher and

Ralph Buehler's research shows that their achievements have consisted of a variety of mutually reinforcing policies that include restrictions on the automobile, land use policies and bicycle infrastructure improvements (2008). In the local context, the City of Toronto has committed to building a continuous bicycle network of 1000 km of bikeways by 2011 but has not yet had the political will or adequate funding to implement this goal (Pucher and Buehler 2005, 18).

In summary, while there is a great deal of hope invested in the bicycle, it continues to be a thoroughly marginalized mode of transportation in much of the world

(M, 112-13,117; Horton, Cox and Rosen 2007,1-23). The history of Toronto's CM is one story of a positive form of collective response to this continued marginalization. 15

Chapter 1 - Literature Review

It's a party, a party is not a party without a bunch of people, right? - Yvonne Bambrick. Personal Interview. April 26, 2008

In gathering dozens, hundreds, or thousands of cyclists month after month for over a decade across the world, a social space has been opened up in which further networking has flourished. The bike ride is the premise, but the deeper transformation of imaginations and social connections is hard to measure. - Chris Carlsson, Nowtopia 140.

CM is a leaderless, noncommercial, noncompetitive bicycle ride that happens on the last Friday of every month in cities around the world (Pomerantz 2002,232). The amorphous fluidity of the global CM phenomenon makes it difficult to positively define—is it a party, a form of direct action, a sustainability movement, a social space, a meeting or a protest? As Blickstein and Hanson argue, CM is easier to define in a negative sense—it has no leaders, no hierarchy, no organizational structure and no set agenda (2001, 352). Zack Furness's definition of CM as a form of direct action that celebrates bicycling and protests the "auto centric use of public spaces" captures the tension between celebration and protest that has been a recurrent topic of debate within discourses on CM (Furness 2005, 403; McDonald 2006, 65; Carlsson 2008, 140).

CM started in San Francisco in September 1992 and was initially called the

"commute clot" (McDonald 2006, 65; Carlsson 2008,140; Blickstein and Hanson 2001,

351). In October 1992, cyclists changed the name to CM in response to a scene in Ted

White's documentary Return of the Scorcher, wherein New York pedicab advocate 16

George Bliss describes the critical mass of commuting cyclists that it takes to move through an intersection in China (McDonald 2006, 65; Carlsson 2008, 140; Blickstein and Hanson 2001, 351). Kevin McDonald points out that "the metaphor of 'critical mass' captures the idea of a 'tipping point' as opposed to linear, cumulative process" (2006,

67). The build up of commuting cyclists at intersections in Shanghai, as captured in Ted

White's documentary, must reach the tipping point of a critical mass before cyclists can safely move through an intersection with the requisite 'strength in numbers'.

Toronto's CM emerged in the hub of 1990's courier culture in downtown Toronto

(Bruidoclarke 2002, 39). Bicycle messenger Dave DeYong started Toronto's CM at the

Bread Spreads courier hangout on Temperance Street in 1995, across the street from where the Comet Bicycle Company had drawn cycling enthusiasts together in the 1890s

(Bruidoclarke 2002, 39; Brearton 2008). Reflecting on these early years in 2002, Guido

Bruidoclarke recalls CM as being crazier and more confrontational but also paints a picture of a more innocent time in the cycling community, "when it seemed possible that the tide of the automobile could be turned back to the suburbs" (2002, 39).

In response to a particularly troubling two weeks in July, 1996, "when two people died while riding bicycles in Toronto and two others were arrested during a CM ride," a number of cycling activists started the organization Advocacy for Respect for Cyclists

(Bruidoclarke 2002, 39^40). Two years later, the rides started ending at Reclaim the

Streets parties with gardens planted in the street and "Clean Air, Ride a Bicycle" signs in abundance (Gastick 1998,21-27). 17

The meeting place for Toronto's ride is currently at the Bloor Parkette that Susan

Schelle and Mark Gomes designed as part of the city's Spadina LRT Public Art

Program.3 The park is located in the heart of the Annex, where middle class reformers organized the "Stop the Spadina" campaign to put an end to the Spadina Expressway in the early 1970s, reflecting the gradual demise of the inner-city expressway plan that

Frederick Gardiner described as "plowing a few hallways through living rooms"

(Caulfield 1994, 23). Today, Toronto cyclists resist the remnants of Gardiner's legacy, like the Gardiner Expressway that was re-appropriated in May's ride and is commemorated in a "The Gardiner, Yours to Discover" pin. In this sense, the choice of the Bloor Parkette as the starting place for Toronto's ride may reflect a continuity in local resistance to modernist planning, explored in Joan Caulfield's Toronto's Gentrification and Critical Social Practice, that bleeds into the global CM movement. While certainly a reflection of this local history, Toronto's CM is part of a global phenomenon that has appeared in over 400 cities on five continents (Carlsson 2008,140). The size of these rides varies dramatically from city to city, with as few as one and as many as 30,000 participants (Furness 2007, 300). Furthermore, local negotiation of the dynamics between spontaneity and organization, celebration and protest varies significantly (Furness 2007,

300-302). Common to these diverse rides is "a decentralized network of organizers and the use of both traditional and cyber-facilitated methods of communication" (Blickstein and Hanson 2001, 350).

3 For information on Toronto's LRT Public Art program, see http://www.toronto.ca/culture/public_art.html 18

Critical Mass and Sustainable Transportation:

In their formative case study on the CM social movement, entitled "Critical Mass:

Forging a politics of sustainable mobility in the information age," Blickstein and Hanson show how CM influences discourses on sustainable transportation and encourages a material shift toward cycling by linking local scales of dependency to global scales of engagement (2001). They argue that the underlying4 goals of this "postmodern" movement are continuous with sustainable transportation policy recommendations that emphasize the necessity of increasing bicycle mode share, the proportion of trips made by bicycle, and shifting "local trips from motorized to non motorized modes" (347-49). This continuity is formally achieved by mobilizing on local and global scales . They say, "the strategies and tactics of CM offer a window into how activist groups create multiple scales of involvement aimed at shaping both beliefs and perceptions of problems as well as the material practices that help to construct a sustainable future." The movement's opening up of global spaces of debate is partly attributed to the Internet. "The main way in which CM has embraced broader geographic scales is through the opening up of spaces of debate at both local and global scales, much of which has occurred on the

Internet" (348). How are the mobilities of CM intertwined with this multi-scalar organizing?

The new mobilities paradigm focuses on the interdependencies of five kinds of mobilities: (1) physical travel of people for work, commuting, leisure; (2) physical 19

movement of objects; (3) imaginative travel through images and memories on media texts; (4) virtual travel on the Internet; and (5) communicative travel through person-to- person messages via email letters,etc. (Larsen 2006,4). While Blickstein and Hanson's formative case study on CM does not follow a mobility studies approach, it touches on the role of imaginative travel, within various CM media, virtual travel through CM websites and communicative travel in the CM social movement's organizing efforts toward improving the sustainability of people's physical travel for local trips (2001).

However, they do not adequately consider the qualities of physical travel found at the

CM event itself and the role of the co-present meetingness found therein in activating social networks of contemporary cycling activism.

Blickstein and Hanson use a concept of scale, as the level of political action and

"the ways in which organizers frame or represent their ideas to mobilize support," to analyze the framing of issues on various scales within the discursive spaces of the movement (2001, 349-50). Their overriding emphasis upon the role of the Internet in changing how organizers frame or represent their ideas to mobilize support on different scales draws on a hopeful image of the Internet as a potentially democratizing force.

They write, "the Internet offers a new form of interaction, one that is not subject to the friction of distance, but one that political organizers are increasingly using to manage and coordinate place-based, face-to-face communication" (349). Historically, the Internet helped facilitate the global diffusion of CM to cities around the world in the mid 1990s, when CM flyers and missives were first posted on the Internet (352). The global diffusion of CM mirrors the tendency of global social movements, especially since the 1990s, to be centered around cities that act as focal points for the bridging of spatial scales (Kohler and Wissen 2003, 943). As Bettina Kohler and Markus

Wissen review, urban movements since the 1990s have criticized and acted upon local issues while drawing political connections between these local concerns and broader contexts, by articulating "criticism on various spatial scales—not only on a local but also on a global scale" (943). In Blickstein and Hanson's work, this bridging of spatial scales is approached via a deployment of the geographer Cox's analysis of the consequences of globalization for the scale at which political movements organize (2001, 350). Drawing on this analysis, Blickstein and Hanson place emphasis on the interaction between spaces of dependence, like bike lanes, and spaces of engagement, like CM websites (2001, 350).

They document how CM websites and email discussion lists helped encourage local participation in San Francisco's CM and allowed for the global coordination of CM events, like the Critical Mass Against Global Warming or the Greenhouse Mass (358-9).

This analysis explains how the multiplicity of issues raised within CM media, from flyers to zines, respond to both local cycling conditions and global environmental problems, including issues of ecology, public space and international politics (Blickstein and

Hanson 2001, 352-58; Furness 2007, 301).

The wide range of issues addressed within the movement reflects a decentralized, open space for communicating amongst activists, which participants refer to as xerocracy. Participants are encouraged to freely disseminate advocacy ideas surrounding 21

the ride in what Furness describes as a "flexible rhetorical space" (2007, 301). The

"flexible rhetorical space" generated through xerocracy, from photocopied flyers to websites, helps facilitate the expansion of CM social networks (Furness 2007, 301;

Blickstein and Hanson 2001).

Social Networks:

The social spaces of activist networking opened up through the global CM phenomenon have engendered innumerable cycling activism projects that are difficult to quantify (Carlsson 2008, 139; Horton 2002, 60, 67; Sojourneur 2002, 74). Blickstein and

Hanson note, "the ability of CM to sustain itself over the past eight years and to transcend local bicycling issues has depended largely on the building of social networks" (2001,

358). They focus on the role of the Internet in the building of social networks. "The

Internet has served as a space of debate about the group and as a medium for spreading information about CM to distant locations" (Blickstein and Hanson 2001, 358).

Blickstein and Hanson's analysis tends to generalize outward from the democratizing power of the Internet to the building of social networks without adequately considering the role of other interrelated mobilities, like the physical movement of the ride itself or use of mobile communications devices, that may equally contribute to the building of CM social networks. Also, Blickstein and Hanson fail to consider how the specific qualities of 22

co-present meetingness and festivity at CM help support social networks of contemporary cycling activism (2001).

From a mobility studies perspective, the building of CM social networks would have to be analyzed from the starting point of the interconnections between the five interdependent mobilities, from physical to communicative travel, and would have to analyze the network activation of this social network through meetingness (Larsen 2006,

19). From this perspective, one might ask: what is the significance of the monthly co- present meeting in activating and supporting social networks of contemporary cycling activism? However, the prior question is perhaps even more pertinent: what activist networks or forms of community manifest at CM?

Zack Furness refers to contemporary cycling activism as biketivism, a "multi- faceted, contemporary form of social activism that appropriates the bicycle as a powerful weapon against the homogenizing impetus of the automobile industry and "car culture"

(2005, 401). He situates CM in relation to formal and informal strands of cycling advocacy, including (1) mainstream cycling advocacy organizations, (2) direct action rides like CM, (3) "anti-automobile/public space organizations," (4) community bicycle collectives, (5) bicycle media, and (6) individuals who commit to cycling as a form of transportation (402). Whereas Furness includes public space organizations, like

Transportation Alternatives, and mainstream cycling advocacy organizations within the constellation of advocacy that CM contributes to, cycling activist Chris Carlsson reflects upon CM as the expression of an outlaw bicycling subculture that defines itself in 23

opposition to mainstream cycling advocacy organizations (Furness 2005,402; Carlsson

2008, 140). Specifically, Carlsson makes a distinction between mainstream, middle class cycling advocates who emphasize the virtues of the bicycle and advocate for law abiding cycling, and an outlaw bicycling subculture that attempts to make spaces for itself outside of market norms and is characterized by a disregard for helmet wearing, cycling commodities and traffic laws designed for the automobile (2008,116). This subculture is expressed in chopper rides, midnight rides, do-it-yourself community bicycle repair spaces, cycling zines and bicycle messenger organizing and media. He argues, "among the different threads of the outlaw bicycling subculture, Critical Mass represents the most public demonstration of the subculture's existence, and its most overtly political expression" (140).

Furness suggests that the radical political energy of CM benefits mainstream cycling advocacy via the radical flank effect, such that moderate cycling advocacy groups have benefited from the discursive pressure applied by CM (2007, 311). In a similar vein,

Blickstein and Hanson illustrate how San Francisco's CM successfully brought greater municipal attention to cycling politics, increased membership in local cycling advocacy groups and encouraged participants to cycle more for both recreational and utilitarian purposes (2001, 360).

The success of CM in introducing people to the joys of cycling may be due to its appeal to individuals who are not convinced by the common appeals to physical fitness or community health seen in mainstream cycling advocacy campaigns (Furness 2007, 312). More significantly, Furness has suggested that CM "transforms ideological perceptions about the act of bicycling" by presenting it as "something other than an exclusive, competitive activity (professional cycling) or a rationalized, utilitarian choice (commuter cycling)" (312).

Critical Mass and Ideology:

How does CM disrupt the ideological fabric of public roads? CM is one of many social movements, from Reclaim the Streets to British anti-roads protests, that addresses community, transportation equity and ecosystem issues through direct action on public roads (Furness 2007, 303; McDonald 2006, 63-4).4 In "Critical Mass, Urban Space and

Velomobility" (2007), Zack Furness interprets CM as a form of performative intervention that encourages a reinterpretation of the ideological norms that structure both automobility and velomobility. Specifically, he draws on the Situationist concepts of detournement, derive and situations, as well as Iain Borden's notion of skateboarding as performative critique, to argue that CM is "a performative critique of motorized space and a critical response to automobility" (299). Furness reflects upon CM as an

4 Historically, CM has played a role in the emergence of the Reclaim the Streets movement in North America, a global movement embedded in cultural flows that contests the mechanical, linear temporality of roads and the car system through ritualistic, performative street parties (McDonald 2006, 64). Kevin McDonald articulates the form of direct action peculiar to Reclaim the Streets as a replacement of the protest march or demonstration by street parties and a celebration of "embodied intersubjectivity such as dance" against the functional design of roads to accommodate the efficiency of the car system (63-4). 25

experiment in collective action that foregrounds use value over exchange value while subverting the ideology of the built environment to create a new relationship to the city

(305-6).

Furness's Situationist interpretation of CM as a performative critique productively expands the political scope of the movement, beyond Blickstein and Hanson's rather narrow focus on sustainable urban transportation policy, to include questions concerning ideology, the reproduction of automobility, capitalism and performance. This refraining of the movement proceeds by synthesizing Borden's understanding of performative critique, as the way skateboarders express their critical relationship to the city through urban play, and Guy Debord's philosophy of the construction of situations (2007, 302-

309). Furness argues that both theoretical actions have the critical capacity to "invert the function of a space while at the same time producing a new relationship to that space" and, thereby, inspire reinterpretations of the ideology of the built environment (2007,

305-6).

While clearly inspired by Borden's Skateboarding, Space and the City, Furness relies primarily on Debord's concept of the situation as a living critique of the "society of the spectacle," as outlined in Report on the Construction of Situations (2007, 305). The construction of situations experimented with creating passionate, collective moments that criticize spectacular society (Debord 1957,46; Furness 2007, 305). Debord says, "we must try to construct situations, i.e., collective environments, ensembles of impressions determining the quality of a moment" (1957, 46-7). This spatiotemporal practice was intended to diminish the alienated role of the public, exemplified in modern theatre, and increase the participation of "livers," thereby allowing for an inspirational experience beyond the confines of Capital (Merrifield 2008,182; Furness 2007, 306; Debord 1957,

47). It should be understood in relation to the situationist practice of derive, which involved walking through the city to find places of affect or resistance to capitalism and, thereby, studying the psychogeography of the city, and the media directed practice of detournement.

Debord developed his philosophy of situations in relation to Lefebvre's theory of moments and, however briefly, saw a potential for dialogue and coordination between the two concepts (Merrifield 2008, 181-83). Whereas Lefebvre's theory was situated on the temporal plane and specifically defined moments as "attempts to achieve the total realization of a possibility," Debord's proposal for situations was explicitly spatiotemporal and more broadly defined in relation to a constellation of situationist concepts (Merrifield 2008,181-83).

The general character of Debord's concept of the situation allows Furness to synthesize it with Borden's notion of performative critique to show how CM creates a lived experience that inverts the functional dominance of automobility on public roads, thereby inspiring a reinterpretation of urban ideology that may inspire social change

(Furness 2007, 314). Furness concludes, "the spaces of resistance created by Critical

Mass can expose the futility of 'spectacular society' (Debord, 1983) and provide the impetus for people to work towards radical, Utopian change in the world" (314). This 27

conclusion aligns the movement's capacity for generating social change with the hermeneutic potential of performative critique as an unveiling of urban ideology. While quite descriptive of the spatial critique of automobile dominated public space that is central to the protest side of the movement, this situationist account of CM ultimately fails to account for the temporal dimensions of the movement's potential for social change. First, it fails to offer a framework for discerning which moments are historically significant, or, an account of the specific moments created through performative critique that may be indicative of the possibilities for radical social change embraced by the movement. Nonetheless, his situationist inspired interpretation of CM suggestively indicates that the Utopian potential of the movement, as a catalyst for inspiring social change, is grounded in the quality of its performative interventions on the urban level.

However, Furness never fleshes out how the spontaneously choreographed spaces of resistance enacted during CM are dependant upon a repertoire of performative actions and gestures specific to the movement, like corking or slow cycling, and how these actions help perform a collective critique of urban space that unveils the system of automobility.5

5 The act of corking involves placing ones body and bicycle in front of a car parked at an intersection to prevent automobiles from moving through an intersection occupied by cyclists (Pomerantz 2002, 233). Brief Summary of CM Literature:

While Blickstein and Hanson offer a largely compelling picture of how the movement mobilizes online and face-to-face networks to change beliefs surrounding transportation and encourage more cycling, they fail to adequately describe how the lived spaces of the monthly meeting itself help to activate and support CM social networks

(2001). They also fail to account for how the movement's amelioration of sustainable transportation warrants their categorization of CM as "postmodern" (353). From another perspective, Furness's research points to the significance of analyzing the Utopian dimensions of the movement on the level of urban performance. His understanding of

CM as a performative critique that challenges the ideological sway of the "society of the spectacle" and the dominance of automobility productively opens up the question of the relationship between CM, ideology and capitalist modernity (2007). Arguably, any attempt to reconcile sustainability imperatives and transportation should address the relationships between transportation, capitalist modernity and postmodernity (Rammler

2008, 71). Critical Mass, The Bicycle and Modernity:

Cycling activist Chris Carlsson points out that the term critical mass was first used in reference to nuclear fission but "has become a rallying cry for bicyclists, rejecting the priorities and values imposed on us by oil barons and their government servants"

(2002d, 5). As evidenced in Carlsson's observation, discussions of CM often broach the dilemmas of traffic growth, oil dependency and social or ecological goals (Carlsson

2002d, 5-8; Rammler 2008, 58). Stephan Rammler argues that the complexity of this traffic-critical discourse can only be understood from the perspective of the constitutive role of traffic within modernity (2008, 58).

In "The Wahlverwandtschaft of Modernity and Mobility," Rammler utilizes the

Weberian concept of elective affinity to show how there is a reciprocally reinforcing, rather than causal, relationship between transportation and modernity (2008, 59). He argues that transportation plays the role of spatially integrating the increasingly differentiated and spatially dispersed "body of modernity" (65). He says, "transportation represents a condition for modernization inasmuch as it serves to integrate societies experiencing differentiation in the wake of modernization; differentiation can take place only to the extent that transportation systems provide the necessary means of integration"

(65). The means of integration that has defined modernity is auto-mobility, as the capacity for self-directed movement, and the freedoms of modernity are closely aligned to the spatial and temporal conditions created by the most dominant form of auto- mobility—the private car (62). The tension between the freedom to drive and the innumerable negative externalities associated with it, from global warming to neighborhood decline, animate the complexity of sustainability discourses (57-8). So, how does CM reflect the tension-ridden alignment between auto-mobility and modernity in its attempts to ameliorate sustainable urban transportation?

Whether or not CM is a "postmodern" movement, it is certainly critical of the dominance of automotive modernity (Blickstein and Hanson 2001, 353). Furness defines

CM as a "non hierarchical, non-dogmatic, international organization of cyclists who occupy hundreds of city streets on the last Friday of every month in order to celebrate bike riding and protest against the auto-centric use of public spaces" (2005, 402).

Following from this definition, one might ask: if the denigration of the "iron cage" of automotive modernity situates the movement in a critical relationship to urban modernity

(Furness 2007, 313), does the celebration of the bicycle attest to a nostalgic yearning for an earlier, less destructive experience of modernity? Ben Highmore's conception of modernity as the experience of dramatic shifts when new desires create friction with older, local traditions, offers a useful starting point for addressing this question (2005,

12). He argues, "although related to an idea of being modern, reaching for the unattainable dream of total modernization, modernity is a more precarious affair, a friction produced when a desire for the new makes contact with local and traditional conditions" (12). 31

If modernity and the dream of complete modernization can be described as the precarious experience of the new rubbing shoulders with old, as Highmore writes, the bicycle might be described as occupying either side of modernity's friction (Highmore

2005,12). As Horton, Cox and Rosen note, the temporal location of the bicycle is ambiguous (2007, 4). On the one hand, there is tremendous hope invested in the future of cycling as a potential ameliorator of a wide range of social and environmental ills because of its sustainable, equitable and humane status. On the other hand, the bicycle is implicated in the growth of industrial, capitalist modernity and has been left behind by most affluent, highly mobile societies (Horton, Cox and Rosen 2007,1-23).

The bicycle was an earlier form of auto-mobility that may have led to the automotive form of self-directed movement that has come to define modernity (M, 113).

John Urry argues that the bicycle "engendered a desire for speed and for unrestrained movement, something that continued with the growth of motor racing and the setting of new records" (M, 113). He recalls how the bicycle paved the way for mass automobility by creating a desire for freedom from the clock time of public trains and initiating "the

'pleasure in unfettered mobility'" (112-13). Bicycle parade protests of the 1890s contributed to this development (Furness 2005; Chapot 2002). For instance, as Hank

Chapot documents in "The Great Bicycle Protest of 1896," San Francisco bicycle parade protests of the 1890s contributed to the success of the good roads movement just in time for the arrival of the automobile and the diminishment of public fascination with cycling

(2002, 175-82). As Nicholas Oddy, Glen Norcliffe and Gordon Mackintosh have illustrated, the bicycle is also intertwined with the modern urban gaze, the rise of modern consumerism and other facets of modernity (Horton, Cox and Rosen 2007,4; Mackintosh and Norcliffe 2007,153-77; Oddy 2007, 97-112).

The bicycle was appropriated as an instrument of critique by modern labor and feminist movements (Furness 2005, 401-17). Furness shows how the appropriation of the bicycle to politicize car culture and everyday life in current manifestations of cycling activism, like CM, has precedent in these earlier uses of the bicycle as an instrument of critique, pleasure and mobility (401^107). Furthermore, he argues that activists should be more aware of the relationship between the bicycle and the birth of modern automobility

(413). I would agree that CM and other forms of cycling activism should have a greater self-awareness of the bicycle's role as a carrier of modernity. However, the marginalization of cycling by the self-reproducing, "iron cage" of mass automobility that has since ensued is an equally significant context for understanding the movement's relationship to modernity (Horton, Cox and Rosen 2007, 1-23; Urry 2004,117; Horton

2007).

The marginalization of cycling is intertwined with the continued reproduction of mass automobility (Urry 2004, 26). Alongside its characteristics as a manufactured object, a consumer object, a complex system, a culture and a cause of environmental resource use, Urry identifies the characteristic of automobility as a quasi-private mobility system that subordinates other mobilities, like cycling, as constitutive of its ability to self- reproduce the breadth and extent of its global domination (26). 33

Dave Horton's "Fear of Cycling" shows how the continued marginalization of cycling and the cultural acceptability of cycling's spatial marginality are intertwined with the continued production of fear of cycling, somewhat paradoxically, through road safety education, helmet campaigns and the proliferation of new, marginalized cycling spaces

(2007, 133-52). Within this context, Horton argues that the vilification of CM within the mass media is one of the best examples of the stigmatization of cyclists who attempt to contest the norm of cycling's spatial marginalization (2007, 145). The response of marginalized cycling subcultures to this stigmatization may self-perpetuate a negative feedback cycle. In the context of bicycle messenger subcultures, Ben Fincham shows how messengers embrace maverick identities that both respond to the stigmatization of courier culture and, increasingly, urban cycling generally within media representations, while also perpetuating this marginalization by embracing an "'outsider' status" (2007,

190).

In spite of its continued marginalization, there are many reasons to advocate for more cycling and hope for an increasing role for cycling in the post steel and petroleum automobile age that we will hopefully tip toward in the near future (Urry 2004; Horton,

Cox and Rosen 2007,17). Pucher and Buehler say, "it is hard to beat cycling when it comes to environmental, social and economic sustainability" (2008, 4). The bicycle is one of the most affordable and equitable of transport modes, reduces congestion, takes up far less space than the private automobile, improves cardiovascular and mental health, does not cause noise or air pollution and "consumes far less nonrenewable resources than any motorized transport mode" (4). For all of these reasons, the bicycle has been positively enshrined within environmental discourses and is a celebrated materiality in the performance of green political identities (Horton 2006,45).

In an attempt to explain the prominence of the bicycle within environmental discourses, cycling studies scholar Dave Horton argues that the slowness of the bicycle

"contests the dominant rhythms of societies seemingly obsessed with ever greater speed"

(2006, 46). In this sense, the celebration of cycling within environmental discourses is at odds with the bicycle's historic role as a speedy carrier of modernity. One of the other qualities of the bicycle that aligns it with contemporary environmental discourses is its more public, community-oriented character (Horton 2006, 46). Horton says, since "riding a bicycle necessitates encounters with others," the specific kind of self-directed movement afforded by the bicycle "embodies a much stronger 'public' orientation than the car" (46). He says, "by cycling, one is 're-peopling' and 're-humanising' the cityscape" (46). This phenomenologically public quality of cycling is not to be confused with the recent embrace of the bicycle as a system of personalized public transportation that has the potential to lessen the environmental impacts of transportation while enhancing urban mobility, access and egress to other forms of public transit (DeMaio

2003,1-2; Noland and Ishaque 2006, 71-73). While both smart bike systems of personalized public transit and the Provos white bicycle program from which they originated are fascinating, I am primarily concerned with the phenomenological dimensions of the public qualities of the bicycle that Horton describes and, 35

correspondingly, the potential for cycling in CM to facilitate rich engagements with public space (Furness 2007, 310; 2005,401-17; Horton 2006).

The bicycle is a form of auto-mobility that is just as intertwined with modernity as the private automobile. However, it is a more publicly oriented form of self-directed movement that has the potential to re-humanize our cities while contributing toward a more sustainable future (Horton 2006,46; Blickstein and Hanson 2001, 348; Pucher and

Buehler 2008,4). It is within this context that opposition to the continued marginalization of cycling within automotive modernity should be situated.

In sum, the complex expression of urban modernity found within the CM social movement is intertwined with the alignment between auto-mobility and modernity and the tension between the more public and private forms of self directed movement afforded by the bicycle and the car respectively (Rammler 2008; Horton 2006, 46). How might a rhythmanalytical approach to mobility studies explain the manifestation of this peculiarly modern tension within the lived spaces of the ride itself?

Mobility Studies & Rhythmanalysis:

What are the paradigmatic presuppositions of a rhythmanalytical, mobility studies description of the complex expression of urban modernity found within CM? The deployment of a Lefebvrean rhythmanalytical approach to mobility studies is supported by Urry's citation of Lefebvre as one of the important early figures in the new mobilities paradigm in the social sciences (M, 6). Georg Simmel's writings on urban life and modern subjectivity are also central to the paradigm, as evidenced in Sheller and Urry's repeated emphasis that the "Simmelian modern circulation of subjects, by train and foot in the metropolis, has shifted up several gears in the postmodern era of mass travel and ubiquitous motorways" (2006b, 13).

From a Lefebvrean perspective, the speeding up of modernity needs to be seen from the perspective of the strange perseverance of cyclical rhythms, like the slow rhythms of CM, within urban life (Meyer 2008,148). However, the focus of the new mobilities paradigm on the construction of the urban through mobility systems, the intensification of the speed and volume of mobile entities and the inter-relationship between modern subjectivity and modern transportation systems may favour reflections upon the dominance of speed rather than exceptional instances of slowness or cyclical rhythms (M, 3-16). Urry argues, "it is not the pedestrian flaneur who is emblematic of modernity but, rather, the train passenger, car driver and jet plane passenger" (2002,141).

If Urry's articulation of the new mobilities paradigm explains how modernity is intertwined with the experience of air, car and train travel, as well as the self-reflexivity and increased cosmopolitanism afforded by these systems, how does Lefebvre's rhythmanalytical project proceed with analyzing modernity?

As both Kurt Meyer and Ben Highmore argue, Lefebvre's approach to rhythmanalysis does not simply bemoan the demise of cyclical temporality beneath the 37

hurried pace of modernity but, rather, allows us to draw out their dialectical interactions, including the persistence of cyclical rhythms, like the monthly recurrence of Toronto's

CM, within modernity (Meyer 2008, 148; Highmore 2005, 148). Furthermore, it avoids

Debord's Mephistophelian account of the absorption of cyclical time within the linear time of Capitalism, as "pseudo cyclical time," and the simplifications of postmodern and social constructivist accounts of the death of nature in the city (Merrifield 2008,176;

Highmore 2005,150-52). As Highmore says, "modernization hasn't yet found a way of regulating the seasons, the cycles of the sun or moon!" (2005, 148).

While a rhythmanalytical approach to mobility studies might place greater emphasis upon attending to the perseverance of cyclical rhythms within modernity than describing the volume and speed of mobile entities therein, as Urry describes throughout

Mobilities, it would arguably constitute a productive addition to this post-disciplinary

"structure of feeling." The new mobilities paradigm draws on Simmel's analysis of the will to connection, science and technology studies, the spatial turn in the social sciences, the re-centering of the affective body, social network and complexity theory to re­ evaluate the role of movement in the formation of the social world (M, 1-16). For instance, the acknowledgement of the spatial turn in the social sciences allows the paradigm to move beyond notions of place as a container, to question the descriptive power of scalar logics, like global/local, and emphasize that places are tied into networks of connections with other places (Sheller and Urry 2006b). The paradigm tends to be critical of a-spatial tendencies within the social sciences, especially those stemming from 38

Martin Heidegger's notion of dwelling, and the opposing tendencies toward a valorization of metaphors of nomadic, fluidity or liquidity (M, 1-16).

A rhythmanalytical approach may provide a fruitful answer to one of the underlying questions of the paradigm: "how do we frame questions and what methods are appropriate to social research in a context in which durable entities of many kinds are shifting, morphing, and mobile?" (Sheller and Urry 2006b, 6). From a rhythmanalytical perspective, the intensification of mobilities in disorganized capitalism would have to be approached by interrogating the rhythms that arise out of the "interaction between a place, a time and an expenditure of energy" (R, 15; M, 1-16). Thus, in line with the paradigm's emphasis upon the interconnectedness of places, this approach may provide some valuable insights on the inter-relationships between slippery, mobile entities, places and times. Furthermore, since rhythmanalysis begins by listening outwards from the polyrhythmic (healthy) body it might provide another good excuse for re-centering the

"corporeal body as an affective vehicle through which we sense place, movement, and construct emotional geographies" (Meyer 2008, 147-60; Sheller and Urry 2006b, 217-

19). This re-centering of the polyrhythmic body would allow for a rhythmananalysis of the embodied performance of mobile meetings, like the roaming CM festivities, that allow for the activation and maintenance of social networks (Larsen et al. 2006,4). Mobile Meetings. Momentary Festivity and Rhythmanalysis:

Urry argues, "Meetings are essential to network capital... [because] a network only functions if it is intermittently 'activated' through occasioned co-presence from time to time" (M, 231). This network activation feeds into the benefits accrued from network capital, which Urry defines as "the capacity to engender and sustain social relations with those people who are not necessarily proximate and which generates emotional, financial and practical benefit" (M, 197). Furthermore, network capital is not a property of individuals but is, rather, " a product of the relationality of individuals with others and with the affordances of the environment" (M, 198). The concept is also tied to an analysis of the interdependencies of the five distinct kinds of mobility that facilitate co-present meetingness (Larsen 2006,4). Barriers to network capital tools, like access to roadways or email, create mobility-based inequalities that contribute to the characteristics of social stratification within disorganized capitalism (M, 157-252).

Urry argues that meetings and meeting places continue to be essential to the functioning of family, work and social life within the increasingly distanciated and networked character of social life (M, 230-52). He also points to the increased significance of mobile meetings, and the corresponding transformation of places that arises with these new meeting regimes (250-52). Since CM literally involves cycling while conversing on the move, it could certainly be considered a mobile meeting (250- 52). I have attempted to describe the qualities of this live, mobile meeting from the perspective of Lefebvre's philosophy of momentary festivity (234).

What is the concept of momentary festivity? Stuart Elden offers an exegesis of the dialectical whole of the festival and everyday life as involving both the criticism of the everyday by the exceptional and "of the festival, dreams, art and poetry, by reality"

(Elden 2002, 118; Lefebvre cited in Elden 2002, 118). This dialectical whole is informed by an understanding of the residual realm of daily life in capitalist modernity that distinguishes between the possibilities latent within the everyday and the everydayness of daily life subordinated to the linear temporality of clock time (Goonewardena 2008, 129).

The transformative character of Lefebvre's approach to everyday life can only be understood in relation to his philosophy of moments, whereby the poetry of the extra­ ordinary is brought together with the prose of everyday life (Elden 2002,118-19). In his elucidation of moments in the second volume of The Critique of Everyday Life, Lefebvre argues that "the aim is not to let festivals die out or disappear beneath all that is prosaic in the world" but, rather, "to unite Festival with everyday life" (2002, 348).

How should Lefebvre's philosophy of momentary festivity be understood to interpret contemporary processes of urbanization and the forms of festive street life that manifest therein? A thorough investigation of contemporary festive social spaces, like

CM, would have to situate them in relation to other rediscoveries of festive street life, oppositional claims and assertions of difference that have arisen out of a range of urban social movements dating from the 1960s and, furthermore, would have to assess the 41

extent to which they have been reduced to part of the spectacle and/or have become part of the "metropolitan mainstream" (Kipfer et al. 2008a, 293). As George Hughes shows in his rhythmanalysis of the time management strategies of city marketing in Britain, the commodification of the urban increasingly involves a turn toward "festive imagery to aestheticize temporal demarcations such as the night, the end-of-year and the millennium" (1999, 14). As significations of festive street life have become central to the marketing of cities and the consolidation of bourgeois urbanism, a Lefebvrean analysis of contemporary manifestations of the festival should distinguish between commodified celebrations of street life associated with gentrification and social spaces characterized by the coming-together of the poetry and prose of the residual that Lefebvre theorizes

(Hughes 1999, 128-30; Kipfer et al. 2008a, 293; Elden 2002, 118-19). In other words, a

Lefebvrean analysis of festive street life would have to be informed by an analysis of dominating cultural forces.

Lefebvre's rhythmanalytical project allows for a critique of dominating cultural forces (Highmore 2005, 146) via the concept of the rhythm of capital. His critique of the rhythm of Capital emphasizes the rise of destructive forces on both global and personal levels, from wars to the subjection of everyday temporality to technology, but admonishes attempts to project the functioning of Capital onto particular social groups

(Meyer 2008,151). As Meyer points out, Lefebvre abstains from speaking about capitalists or money in order to focus on the rhythm of Capital as a relentless "political power that understands how to manipulate time, calendar, and daily routine" (2008, 151). Lefebvre's critique of the rhythm of capital should be understood in relation to rhythmanalytical methodology, which moves outward from the polyrhythmic body-in- the-world to analyze spatiotemporal dynamics.

Highmore argues, "Rhythm is on the side of spacing, on the side of the durational side of place and the spatial arrangements of tempo" (2005, 9). Thus, listening outward from the healthy, polyrhythmic body-in-the-world involves an attunement to the temporalities of a place and visualizing the spatial arrangements of its tempo (Meyer

2008, 150). As Lefebvre states, in the conclusion of his Rhythmanalytical Project, it is the experience and knowledge of the body that structures the analysis of rhythms via the application of the concepts of isorhythmia, eurhythmia and arrhythmia (R, 68). From this starting point, the analysis listens to harmonic states of isorhythmia, the mutually exclusive healthy rhythmic state of eurhythmia and the unhealthy breaking up of rhythms in the state of arrhythmia (R, 68).

In The Rhythmanalysis of Mediterranean Cities, Lefebvre argues that an analysis of the influence of the rhythms of extra-everyday rites, from festivals to religious rites, on everyday rhythms would show that one has to go beyond the level of the individual/group relationship to look at the relationship between the human being and her/his gestures in a certain place and, also, her/his relationship to public space and the universe (R, 94-95).

Within this analysis of private/public dimensions of the extra-everyday, Lefebvre borrows Robert Jaulin's distinction between "rhythms of the self and "rhythms of the other" (95). He argues that publicly oriented rhythms of the other, oriented toward representation, and privately oriented rhythms of the self, oriented toward self-presence, are inter-related in a similar way to linear and cyclical temporality (95-96).

In sum, a rhythmanalysis of the monthly, mobile, CM meeting would involve listening outward from the polyrhythmic body-in-the-world to the dynamics between public and private rhythms, the movement between eurhythmic, isorhythmic and arrhythmic states and the overarching influence of the rhythm of capital.

Conclusion:

CM is a leaderless, decentralized social movement that organizes toward sustainable urban transportation by linking local spaces of dependency, like safe cycling conditions, to global spaces of engagement (Blickstein and Hanson 2001). It is a manifestation of contemporary cycling activism that reaches across the globe by building social networks through both online and face-to-face communications (Blickstein and

Hanson 2001; Furness 2005). Finally, it challenges the ideological norms of automotive modernity via a non-utilitarian, performative critique that subverts our accustomed relations to velomobility, automobility and urban life (Furness 2007).

Blickstein and Hanson's case study opens the question, what is the significance of

CM social spaces of co-present meetingness in supporting the social networks of contemporary cycling activism? A rhythmanalytical approach to mobility studies would address the role of co-present meetings in activating social networks of cycling activism by way of listening to the rhythms of modernity that manifest in the lived spaces of the ride itself. It would analyze how the performance of these co-present spaces of festive meetingness, that support cycling activism networks, are constrained by the dominating rhythms of mobility within capitalist modernity. Chapter 2 - Rhythmanalysis

Where do the Utopian dimensions of CM make themselves heard from a rhythmanalytical perspective? I will address this broad query by analyzing journal entries and participant observations of the pace and rhythms of the ride. I will be looking at these journal entries from the perspective of Henri Lefebvre's rhythmanalytical concepts of public and private rhythms, eurhythmia, arrhythmia, isorhythmia and philosophy of the festival. Thus, I will be focusing on personal and urban levels of understanding Toronto's

CM. Specifically, I will raise the question: how do rhythmic interventions of appropriating the Bloor Parkette, keeping mass, rebuilding mass and corking allow for the creation of festive social spaces that support a cycling community? In response, I will show how these rhythmic interventions allow for the creation of festive social spaces that celebrate the closer connection to community afforded by the bicycle. Prior to illustrating this thesis, I will briefly review the rhythmanalytical concepts and CM lexicon referenced in this chapter.

I will be drawing on the rhythmanalytical concepts of eurhythmia, arrhythmia and isorhythmia to refer to the rhythms of the group of cyclists as a whole. The concept of eurhythmia will be used to describe the slow, densely woven movement of the group as a whole that constitutes its normally healthy rhythmic state. This rhythmanalytical concept describes the achievement of what participants refer to as "keeping mass," which involves ensuring the health and safety of the group by cycling slowly so that cyclists do not fall behind (Pomerantz 2002,233). In continuity with Lefebvre's emphasis that the state of eurhythmia always involves a polyrhythmia of associated but different rhythms, I see the eurhythmia of CM as the presence of associated but different rhythms going at a relatively slow, leisurely pace (R, 16; Pomerantz 2002, 232). The opposite of eurhythmia is the breaking up of this normally healthy state, usually due to the thinning out of the normal density of the ride, and is referred to as a state of arrhythmia (Pomerantz 2002,

232^; R, 16, 68). The alleviation of arrhythmic states of thinning out, usually through changes of pace to rebuild mass is referred to as rhythmic intervention (R, 68; Pomerantz

2002, 233). The concept of isorhythmia is defined as a harmony of equivalent rhythms produced by a higher command (R, 68). Finally, the terms public and.private rhythms will be used to refer to the dynamic between more outwardly and inwardly directed rhythms amongst individuals or groups of cyclists within the group as a whole.

These various rhythmanalytical concepts will be used to analyze the rhythmic states that manifest at CM and, also, the dynamic between the extra-everyday rhythms of

CM and the diurnal repetitions of pedestrian, cycling and automotive mobilities. While the analysis focuses on the festive social space of CM, I use the concept of momentary festivity to refer to the revolutionary bridging of the gulf between the festival and the quotidian, between CM and everyday cycling (Elden 2002, 118-19). This concept allows for a consideration of the question: does CM attempt to bring into being the total realization of the possibility of uniting the lived spaces of the monthly ride with the prose of everyday cycling? This description of the creation of festive social spaces through rhythmic intervention will tease out the immanent possibilities for momentary festivity expressed within the ride.

The following rhythmanalysis will follow the movement of the ride from the appropriation of the Bloor Parkette to the re-appropriation of public roadways in downtown Toronto. The analysis will move outward from observations within journal entries to analysis of the rhythmic state of the group as a whole and, finally, the broader context involved in the emergence of the specific rhythmic state of the group as a whole.

The experience of cycling slowly with a large group of fellow commuter cyclists in a jovial, nonchalant style, down the middle of major roadways in downtown Toronto often reinvigorates a sense of community solidarity and usually offers respite from the daily anxieties of commuter cycling. The excitement of rolling onto Bloor Street, the acoustic pleasure of receding motor growls and the chorus of ringing bells and voices that ensues animate the experience as much as the visual pleasure of gazing at strange looking unicycles, tall bikes and choppers or observing Toronto's built environment from the middle of the road.

Public Rhythms:

The festive qualities of the ride slowly emerge at the Bloor Parkette meeting place and are quite legible from the Second Cup coffee shop on the second floor of the Jewish 48

Community Center on the southwestern corner of Bloor and Spadina. The journal entry below describes an early stage in the gathering of cyclists at the Bloor Parkette at May's ride:

Traffic is stopped and a flow of backpack clad pedestrians, with yellow and green yoga mats projecting above their heads, businessmen shifting their ties and strolling cyclists walk eastward toward the parkette. A few students with long black t-shirts juggle a hackey sac to the beat of their mini ghetto blaster perched atop a black granite, domino like sculpture. The garden ledge gradually fills up with waiting cyclists—eating hot dogs, chatting on cell phones, pointing at the rear derailleur or looking off into the distance. The clump of pedestrians surrounding the hot dog stand is growing steadily as car traffic inches forward, waiting for the green... (Journal Entry #2, May 30, 2008)

How does the cyclically repetitive, public rhythm of CM intervene within the dominance of linear, alternating stoplights and the circadian rhythms of pedestrians and automobiles in the above journal entry? The cyclical appropriation of this wonderfully amenable meeting place by young commuting or utility cyclists and a few unicyclists, skateboarders and rollerbladers slowly transforms the circadian rhythms that often animate the park, with bouncing hackey sacs and groups of hungry pedestrians, into an intense polyrhythmic crowd of chatting, playing and organizing participants (Appendix).

The hackey sackers, gathering cyclists, openness of the park to a growing accumulation of cyclists and sense of imminent adventure point to the emergence of a festive atmosphere that contrasts starkly with everyday cycling in the intensity of its accumulated energies but is not separate from it (Lefebvre 2002, 207).

This stage of the gathering appears continuous with everyday cycling activities— examining derailleur bodies, checking tire pressure, chatting on cell phones, taking a break. These daily cycling routines would likely be familiar to this crowd of predominantly male students, media professionals, information technology workers and educators who use the bicycle for everyday commuting or utility cycling (Appendix). The sense of daily routine is also evident in the dominance of the linear rhythms of Friday afternoon traffic and the alternating background of revving engines that still overpowers the murmur of conversing cyclists across the street.

The strength in numbers of a critical mass of cyclists eventually intervenes within the circadian rhythms of strolling pedestrians and the alternating traffic flows, over the course of about an hour, from the early gathering crowd described above to the intensified meeting described in the journal entry below:

There are clumps of three, four, five and more cyclists huddled around one another. They seem to flow into one another. A fellow with a beige jacket appears unusually purposeful in his movements, wandering around amongst the cyclists, handing out flyers of some sort. The hybrid, mountain, road and fixed gear bikes leaning against the stone ledge seem to have come to full capacity and the people lying on the grass look content with their spots of shade and view of the milling cyclists below.. .The hackey sackers continue to play but nobody new has joined their circle and the steady beat of their ghetto blaster is barely audible beneath the murmur of chatting cyclists.. .The rank of clipboard touting cyclists wandering amongst the ambling cyclists seems to be almost equally dispersed throughout the crowd... (Journal Entry #3, May 30,2008)

Less than half an hour after the first description, the buildup of energetic cyclists has rhythmically re-animated the Bloor Parkette. While the hackey sackers continue to play, the journal entry above no longer makes reference to the hungry pedestrians around the hot dog stand, whom I can barely discern through the density of the assembling crowd from my elevated perch in Second Cup. While most cyclists are turned toward a small group of others in little clumps of two, three, or more, others seem to prefer the relaxing shade of the trees and the somewhat removed view of the crowd this shady knoll affords. 50

These cyclists seem largely ensconced in relatively inward turning, intimate rhythms of the self when compared to the more formally directed movements of the Takethetooker volunteers carrying clipboards, whose rhythms seem to be turned outward to a greater extent.

The Takethetooker volunteers and cyclists signing petitions for bike lanes on

Bloor Street reflect the nearly one quarter of cyclists who are motivated by advocacy concerns, ranging from raising awareness and showing solidarity to advocating for bike lanes and sustainable transportation (Appendix, Table #1). In contrast, the more relaxed looking cyclists sitting on the shady knoll point toward the one in six participants who are primarily motivated by a desire to have fun, or alternately, the one in twenty who attend for a sense of community, camaraderie, or by happenstance (Table #1). Of course, these various motivating energies often fuse into playfully political motivations, evident in the fact that over one quarter of participants are motivated by both a desire to have fun and an interest in a variety of advocacy issues (Table #1). Thus, the dynamics between fun and raising awareness, relaxing and signing petitions, public and private rhythms all animate the gathering of cyclists at the Bloor Parkette.

How do these playfully political, motivating energies respond to the space of the

Bloor Parkette and the cyclical repetition of the event to create a distinct rhythm within the group as a whole? In the moment described, the multiple rhythms that cyclists bring to the Bloor Parkette seem to be in a eurhythmic state. This healthy rhythm seems to be defined by the openness of the Bloor Parkette to a variety of rhythms and the metastable 51

equilibrium between public and private rhythms that animates the intervention.

Significantly, this eurhythmic equilibrium is characterized by a multiplicity of public and private rhythms, a polyrhythmia, rather than an isorhythmia of equivalent rhythms produced by a higher command.

Rhythmic Interventions:

The pace, rhythm and form of CM sometimes become a topic of discussion at the monthly ritual of speeches, performances and public announcements that precedes the start of the ride. The journal entry below describes this scene at the start of May's ride:

A cyclist walks on stage and makes a concerted speech on the importance of keeping mass, reminding cyclists about the dangers of thinning out and the necessity of properly corking intersections. He reminds everyone about the thinning out that occurred at the Bells on Bloor ride the previous Sunday and encourages cyclists to stay together, to keep up with the riders in front of them and not to race out in front of everybody... (Journal Entry #4, May 30, 2008)

What is the significance of this announcement on keeping mass? The lesson that keeping mass involves staying together by not riding too fast or too slow and by properly corking intersections reminds participants to be mindful of the group as a whole. Also, it serves to introduce new participants, who formed nearly a third of the group at the previous month's ride, to the pace and form of CM (Appendix, Table #9). From a rhythmanalytical perspective, the interventions of corking and riding slowly, but not too slowly, help to keep mass in the healthy rhythm of a densely woven, slowly moving group. The dangers of losing this eurhythmic state include losing cyclists who cannot maintain a faster pace, the intrusion of automobiles into the group and associated confrontational situations between cyclists and drivers. Clearly, the interventions referenced in this routine announcement are central to the successful re-appropriation of public roadways that ensues, once a critical mass of cyclists has congregated at the Bloor

Parkette. However, these interventions also connote some of the specific meanings of the bicycle amongst participants, especially slowness and community.

Slowness was often reflected upon as a central connotation of the bicycle amongst participant interviewees (M. Louis Johnson, Y. Bambrick, D. Lee, M. Reis, T. Thorne, A.

Humphries, H. Evans, pers. comm.). Perhaps, this mirrors the tendency of the bicycle to fit with environmentalist commitments to the slowing down of the "excessive speed of contemporary everyday life" (Horton 2006,45). CM participant Anthony Humphries explains, "you do not connect to an environment moving through it at 90 K or even 50 K an hour but you do connect with it when you're moving at 10 or 15 kilometers." Cyclists point out that the bicycle is a more public mode of transport than the quasi-private automobile because it affords a closer connection to community (Y. Bambrick, M.

Johnson, A. Humphries, S. Amlani, J. Tooley, A. Bischoff, pers. comm.). For example, whereas stopping an automobile to speak with someone on the sidewalk inconveniences drivers behind you and sometimes sets up a power dynamic between the driver and pedestrian, stopping one's bicycle to speak with someone on the sidewalk is easy (Y. 53

Bambrick, M. Johnson, A. Humphries, S. Amlani, J. Tooley, A. Bischoff, pers. comm.).

While this closer connection to community was described as a quality of everyday cycling, it is also publicly performed during CM.

The public performance of the closer connection to community that cycling affords relies not only on slow cycling but, also, upon strength in numbers. Strength in numbers was one of the main terms that interviewees used to describe the meaning of

CM in opposition to experiences of marginalization within the automobility system (A.

Humphries, Y. Bambrick, S. Amlani, M. Louis Johnson, M. Reis, J. Tooley, D. Lee, pers. comm.). Statistically, strength in numbers is strongly correlated with cycling safety

(Pucher and Buehler 2008, 14).

Isorhythmia:

Following the monthly ritual of announcements and performances, one can listen to the accumulating strength in numbers of a critical mass of cyclists:

Michael Louis Johnson starts playing his hom and the ringing of bells begins to reverberate louder and louder. I wander over to the curb to chat with a friend and join the mass. As cyclists steady onto their rides, the ringing peters out and the swarm of cyclists starts slowly inching forward. We slowly roll onto Bloor Street and gradually move eastward to the sound of romantic horn music, bells and whistles... (Journal Entry #5, May 30, 2008) Does the reverberation of bell ringing following Michael Louis Johnson's horn playing point to the emergence of an isorhythmic state, defined by a momentary equivalence of rhythms between participants? Yes, the above journal entry captures a moment of isorhythmia or momentary harmony between participants. In my experience participating in CM, the sound of Johnson's horn playing and the ensuing bell ringing orients cyclists away from their private conversations and toward the group project of taking back the public roadways.

Participants commented upon the significance of Johnson's horn playing in communicating the location of the group to cyclists who join the ride late, helping to calm the nerves of waiting drivers during the corking of intersections and adding to the upbeat energy of the event (J. Tooley, S. Amlani, K. Vega, D. Lee, pers. comm.). In certain moments, like the start of the ride, the romantic melodies of his New Orleans jazz inspired horn music seems to act as the higher command controlling the harmony of the ride. However, at other times, these melodies recede into the distance and other sounds— ghetto blasters, whistles, woops and hollers—seem to dominate the acoustic environment.

The isorhythmic moment of equivalent bell ringing produced by Johnson's trumpet is immediately followed by a gradual fade to the murmuring multiplicity of slowly moving, chatting cyclists. As the crowd inches forward onto Bloor Street, the rhythm of the group would be more accurately described as a healthy, multiplicity of rhythms rather than a harmony of equivalent rhythms. 55

By allowing the start of the ride to follow the rhythmic accumulation of a critical mass, rather than a specific clock time, the blowing horns and whistles at the beginning of the ride mark the onset of a re-appropriation of public streets that resists the linear, unirhythmic time of the state. In other words, the social time of participants is granted priority over any specific clock time. This social time can be described as a rhythmic progression from a moment of isorhythmic equivalence of bicycle bell ringing to the eurhythmic state of a multiplicity of different, non-equivalent rhythms. However, the rhythms of this festival were nonetheless constrained by the influence of state time and the persistence of the rhythm of Capital, which was especially felt in the coincident scheduling of the city sponsored Criterium Bike Race for Bike Month.

How did the coincident scheduling of the Criterium Bike Race with CM impact the harmony of the event? Did it successfully absorb May's ride into the metropolitan mainstream of Bike Month festivities? The rhythm of capital and its manipulation of lived time is clearly evident in this coincident scheduling of the city sponsored Criterium

Bike Race. It brought a heavily commodified, spatially contained cycling festival into direct competition with the fluidly mobile, noncommercial cycling festivities of CM for the attention of Friday evening cycling revelers, likely diminishing the strength in numbers of cyclists at CM. Speculatively speaking, the immobile, commercialized

Criterium Race festivities may have drawn potential CM participants to the race as spectators and thereby diminished the number of cyclists attending May's CM ride. Since the strength in numbers of a critical mass of cyclists allows the ride to successfully re- appropriate public roadways by allowing for the maintenance of group density, which is associated with its normally eurhythmic state, this symptom of the rhythm of capital should be understood as a constraint upon the success of May's ride.

Eurhythmia:

The movement of the group away from the Bloor Parkette, in the direction of

Bedford Road, is characterized by an intertwinement of disciplined, slow cycling and conversational encounter amongst participants:

As CM turns left from Bloor Street onto Bedford Road, there is a moment where the mass slows down dramatically to adjust to the width of the side street and cyclists put one foot on the ground to take momentary pauses. As we turn onto Yonge Street, I start chatting with an acquaintance about how to approach my deputation at the June 4th PWIC mtg. (Journal Entry #6, May 30, 2008)

Did the slowing down of the group to adapt to the narrower width of Bedford

Road result in losing the eurhythmic state that normally defines the lived space of CM?

Surprisingly, the group was able to maintain the density associated with keeping mass in a eurhythmic state while adapting to this narrower roadway. However, the adjustment to pace described in this journal entry points to the discipline required of participants to adapt to the slowness of CM, so that the self-managed eurhythmia of the group as a whole is maintained. Cyclists spoke of the discipline of adapting to the slowness of CM as easier than adapting to the faster paced, sequentially ordered rhythms of charity 57

bicycle rides and other cycling events (H. Evans, T. Thorne, J. Tooley, pers. comm.).

Hannah Evans reflected upon the discipline of slow cycling: "Going slowly is not my natural rhythm; I need to slow down now and again."

Alongside slow cycling, corking is a form of disciplined self-management that that is central to keeping mass. As Martin Reis explains, "Mass always works really well if it is perfectly done, with corkers and by sticking together." Specifically, the act of corking an intersection helps "keeping mass" in the dense, slowly moving congregation that is associated with its eurhythmic state (Pomerantz 2002,233). It allows the densely woven group to fluidly move through intersections without the interference of linear, alternating stoplights. Since intersections can be places where arrhythmia erupts, when automobiles break into the mass of cyclists at a considerably faster pace than the slowly moving group, the act of corking is one of the single most significant ways through which eurhythmia is maintained (H. Evans, M. Reis, pers. comm.). The journal entry below describes an instance of corking at May's CM ride:

It starts raining while we head eastward on Queen Street. I cork the intersection at Dufferin. As I stand in front of a brown station wagon, I hear the familiar query "what is this?" from the driver's side window. After shuffling over to the driver's side window, I say "It's a ride to promote awareness of cycling and get more people on their bikes." The driver says, "Oh, right, is this going to be awhile?" I reply, "It might, thanks for your patience" and manage to narrowly avoid a spill on the streetcar tracks heading back out to catch the tail end of the group heading eastbound. (Journal Entry #7, May 30, 2008)

This journal entry shows how the experience of corking is animated by encounters between cyclists and drivers, the weather conditions and the qualities of the roadspace that the ride works toward re-appropriating. Most significantly, this journal entry shows 58

how corking necessitates a momentary interpretation of the meaning of CM in an encounter with someone waiting in an automobile. In other words, corking is where cyclists' conceptions of the social space produced during CM are performed in an embodied encounter with someone occupying another mode of mobility, which is usually an automobile. While I offered a conception of CM as a way of raising awareness of cycling and encouraging more cycling, I might have offered any number of other interpretations. For instance, I might have said that the ride is an expression of the public qualities of the bicycle, an expression of strength and safety in numbers, a taking back of space from the corporate car culture to the community or a way of slowing down the frenetic pace of everyday life.

While this journal entry captures a relatively tame interaction between a cyclist and a driver, there are moments when drivers express a great deal more frustration and say, "Why are you blocking traffic?" Of course, the common answer to this question is

"We're not blocking traffic, we are traffic." Toronto CM participants spoke of the chant as an expression of cyclists' rights to access public streets and as an expression of how the ride attempts to raise "awareness of cycling as a legitimate mode of transportation"

(H. Evans, T. Thome, J. Tooley, K. Vega, A. Bischoff, A. Humphries, pers. comm.). The chant is one of many ritualized slogans that are commonly drawn upon while corking intersections, like "Two wheels good, four wheels bad" or "Join the velorution."

In addition to corking and slow cycling, the self-management of CM has been historically achieved through xerocracy. A significant element of this "flexible rhetorical space" is the practice of photocopying ideas about the ride and route design in order to debate competing routes with fellow cyclists at the start of the ride and, eventually, decide on a route (Furness 2007, 300-301; Pomerantz 2002,232-34). Instead of this practice, Toronto's ride has performed a more fluid mode of self-management. The route is determined spontaneously by a rotating group of cyclists at the front who debate possible routes in order to decide where to go. During the ride, cyclists can choose to move to the front and help determine the route of the ride or follow the lead of cyclists in front.

The self-management of CM through slow cycling, corking and a rotating group of cyclists at the front all help maintain the festive social space of CM in a state of eurhythmia. However, the attempt to maintain eurhythmia through these rhythmic interventions must respond to the dynamics of the places through which the ride moves and the other celebrations of festive street life or cycling therein. The following will look at the movement of May's CM around the Criterium Bike Race, onto the Gardiner

Expressway and, finally, onto Jameson Avenue.

May's CM encircled the Criterium Bike Race, prior to veering left in the direction of the Gardiner Expressway. While the Criterium Race was open to the public, the subordination of cycling festivities to the sponsorship, branding, retail and expo spaces therein might be described as the opposite of the noncommercial festive space created during CM. The city advertised the event as a "high speed race" with "cash prizes of

20,000 for racers" (Cyclometer Aug 2008). This commercialized cycling spectacle was 60

held in a confined area around St Lawrence Market, which CM fluidly circumnavigated in a noncommercial celebration of cycling. The second encounter of CM with the

Criterium Race is described below:

As we approach the barrier closing off the corner of Market and Front Street for the bicycle race, the group slows down and I hear a murmuring of speculating cyclists, chatting about where to go. Cyclists seem to realize that we have gotten ourselves into a funny corner and have to turn left, heading south toward the Lakeshore and Gardiner Expressway—not exactly cycling friendly streets! After some hesitation at the front of the ride, we turn left toward the Gardiner and Lakeshore Boulevard... (Journal Entry #8, May 2008)

Did the slowing down of CM at the eastern edge of the Criterium Bike Race result in a conjuncture of CM and this city sponsored cycling festivity? While the journal entry above does not indicate any movement of cyclists from CM to the spectator areas of the bike race there may well have been a loss of some participants to the event. However, the

Criterium Bike Race did not completely absorb May's CM into the mainstream" Bike

Month festivities because a large number of cyclists rode away from the race, southward in the direction of the Gardiner Expressway and Lakeshore Boulevard. The southward movement of CM was partially necessitated by the closure of Market and Front Streets for the Criterium Race, which left cyclists the option of either turning backwards, which is almost never done during CM, or turning left toward the Gardiner. So, while the disjunctive movement of CM away from the Criterium race might be read as a form of resistance to the commodified cycling festival it was also the only immediately open, possible route. 61

After encountering the Criterium Race, the group fragmented into two groups at the turn-off to the Gardiner Expressway. Did the fragmentation of CM into two groups at the turn-off to the Gardiner Expressway lead to a breaking up of rhythms in the subsequent re-appropriation of the Gardiner, due to loss of strength in numbers?

Eurhythmia to Arrhythmia on the Gardiner Expressway:

The following journal entry describes the movement of cyclists onto the Gardiner westbound on-ramp:

As we slowly make our way up the on-ramp, someone says that we should wait for the rest of the group and build mass at the top of the on-ramp. While waiting, I turn to my left and glimpse the rushing westbound traffic. I feel a little nervous, and can feel my heart beating a little faster. I feel simultaneously exalted, elated and nervous about the mechanics of keeping mass on the Gardiner... (Journal Entry #9, May 2008)

How do the rhythms of mass automobility impact the embodied practices of slow cycling and corking that keep mass in a healthy rhythm? The private, cyclical rhythms of heart beating and exposed nerves that the journal entry describes in response to the linear, sequential rush of automotive traffic gestures toward cyclists' embodied experience of the meaning of roadways, the so-called non-places of modernity, as affectively rich places (Spinney 2007, 25). Also, the affects of elation and exaltation are continuous with how a few cyclists described the heightened experience of cycling in CM (S. Amlani, Y. Bambnck, D. Lee, pers. comm.). Cyclist Shamez Amlani described this heightened experience as similar to other live events: "There's a certain headiness that comes from being with a huge crowd of people, like going to a rock concert or going to see the Dalai

Lama, when you're surrounded by hundreds of people there's all that humanity, there is an excitement, there is a euphoria." Similarly the affect of elation described in the above journal entry might be read as a response to the energy of the group as a whole, specifically the feelings aroused by the imminent possibility of taking back the Gardiner

Expressway. While the group was able to maintain a healthy rhythm for part of the ensuing re-appropriation, the following analysis will look at the emergence of an arrhythmic moment:

I wave to a bemused driver and say, "Happy Friday!" He smiles back. I was surprised to see the thinly spread mass quickly expand to take all westbound lanes and let no cars pass! To my left, I gaze behind my right shoulder and see a red minivan caught in the mass, with cyclists on all sides—this doesn't look like a good situation. A fellow rolls past my left shoulder and starts yelling, "Let these five cars pass the mass!" (Journal Entry #10, May 2008)

The thinly spread out mass that allowed a red minivan to become entrapped within the group can certainly be described as an arrhythmia, a breaking up of the normally healthy rhythm of the group. How do arrhythmic moments of the breaking up of the densely woven, slowly moving form of CM arise? Commonly, the experience of arrhythmia at CM is associated with thinning out of the normal density of the ride, usually due to reduced strength in numbers or excessive speed of cyclists at the front of the group. So, how did the interaction between the space of the Gardiner Expressway, the 63

elated energy of the group and the late evening rush of automotive traffic produce this arrhythmic moment?

The width of the Gardiner Expressway requires a large number of cyclists to form an adequate level of density for the maintenance of eurhythmia. Why did the group not have the requisite strength in numbers to fill the space of the Gardiner with a densely woven, slowly moving form? Speculatively, the earlier fragmentation of CM into two groups at the turn-off to the Gardiner Expressway and the coincident scheduling of the

Criterium Race were both imminent factors in the insufficient strength in numbers evident in the above journal entry. The possible loss of strength in numbers due to the coincident scheduling of the Criterium Race with CM points to how the persistent manipulation of the lived time of CM by the rhythm of Capital may impact the successful maintenance of eurhythmia through the internal measures associated with keeping mass.

Beyond loss of strength in numbers, the allowance for speed within the open space of the expressway likely played an equally significant role in producing this arrhythmic moment. In addition, the elated energy of the group and the constrained temporality of

Friday evening commuters hoping to move past the slowly moving group should be considered equally significant factors in the emergence of this state of arrhythmia.

On a broader note, this arrhythmic moment illustrates how the internal measures of CM, from slow cycling to corking, are constrained by the external pressures of the rhythms of mass automobility and the anxieties of constrained temporality that animate

Friday evening traffic. The rhythm of Capital is most brutally felt when these external measures impinge upon the normally eurhythmic state associated with the form of festivity at Toronto's CM and a state of arrhythmia arises.

The alleviation of unhealthy rhythmic states requires participants to self-manage the ride by rebuilding mass. The rhythmic interventions involved in rebuilding mass include slowing down, corking, coordinating a change in direction with cyclists at the front of the group, and other tactics. The following journal entry provides a situated example of the role of corking in rebuilding a thinned out mass:

As we climb westward up the Gardiner I see the mass thin out in front of me, with a huge gap appearing between the riders and us behind, and another gap between us up front and everyone behind us. I feel somewhat vulnerable and suggest to the two fellows cycling beside me that we should either speed up or tell those in front to wait or slow down and wait for those behind us to catch up. We speed up to help those in front in the corking of the westbound on-ramp from Spadina Avenue. I get off my bike and walk up to a couple of young women drinking mochaccino's in a Sedan and inform them that it is just Critical Mass. She asks, "What is it all about?" I reply, "It is to promote bicycles as a sustainable mode of transportation and to raise awareness of cyclists' rights on the road." She says, "Oh, o.k." (Journal Entry #11, May 2008)

What does this description of corking the westbound on-ramp of the Gardiner

Expressway reveal about the experience of rebuilding mass? The voluntary decision of a small group to address the thinning out of cyclists shows how the self-management of the ride involves situated decisions about corking, pace and direction. While we might have made the decision to slow down and try to address the thinning out mass through a change of pace, our decision to speed up and cork the on-ramp seemed appropriate, within the context of our perception of the space of thinning out cyclists in front of us.

While certainly an embodied experience, this journal entry further illustrates how corking 65

involves a momentary interpretation of the meaning of CM in an encounter with someone waiting in an automobile.

The mood of the group was somber as cyclists moved off the Gardiner

Expressway:

We continue up Jameson Avenue and a hush falls over the mass for a moment. As we ride, I glance over to my left to try and locate the reggae tunes coming from somewhere in that direction. Some people, perhaps early evening revelers, start chanting "one love, one world" to us from their front porches. We repeat the line back to them... (Journal Entry #11, 2008)

The hush of cyclists making their way up Jameson Avenue is indicative of the pensive mood of the group as a whole that followed the arrests of two cyclists at the

Jameson exit of the Gardiner Expressway. Within this context, the chanting of "one love, one world" from early evening revelers on their front porches to early evening revelers on bicycles momentarily brightened the mood of the cyclists in my immediate vicinity. This moment illustrates how witnesses to CM as well as participants can initiate the heightened experience of the communal qualities of bicycling that animate the festive social space of the monthly event.

What do the moments of eurhythmia, arrhythmia and rebuilding mass on the

Gardiner Expressway reveal? These moments in the production of festive social space could be interpreted as reflections of the previously articulated possibility of taking back the Gardiner Expressway (S. Amlani, M. Reis, pers. comm.). For instance, when I asked

Martin Reis where the ride would go next, he said: "It's getting more radical all the time; it's going to end up on the Gardiner sometime, although it will take a lot of riders." In continuity with this sentiment, Shamez Amlani offered a revealing conception of possibilities for transforming the Gardiner Expressway: "I would love to see something like the Gardiner free of cars, rid of cars, with a lot of green space, with stops for ice cream or water, free of cars! Underneath the Gardiner you could have farmers' markets."

While the ride's re-appropriation of the Gardiner Expressway in May did not create any farmers' markets, it certainly created a lived space that attempted to relieve the everydayness of feeling marginalized by the rhythms of the automobility system. So, this festive moment should be seen in relation to cyclists' perception of the Gardiner as a possible route long before May 2008 and as an attempt to move toward the full realization of the possibility of a car free Gardiner Expressway.

Conclusion:

The form of festivity that manifests at CM involves a celebration of the public qualities of the bicycle through a variety of rhythmic interventions that attempt to maintain the slowly moving, densely woven eurhythmic state of the group as a whole.

This festivity involves a more intense, often gregarious, expression of the community interaction that cycling allows. The project of maintaining the eurhythmic state of the group, in spite of the external pressures associated with the rhythms of mass automobility, involves adventures in keeping and rebuilding mass through the self- 67

managed interventions of corking, changing pace and spontaneous route decision making at the front of the group.

The gradual appropriation of the Bloor Parkette was articulated by a tension between the circadian rhythms of strolling pedestrians, the linear repetitions of automotive traffic at the junction and the cyclical rhythms of CM. The linear and circadian rhythms around the Parkette were eventually overwhelmed by the rhythms of playfully political CM participants. The rhythm of the CM group as a whole was seen in relation to the interaction between the Parkette, the motivating energies of congregating cyclists and the cyclically repetitive, monthly meeting time. The openness of the Parkette to a variety of rhythms and the metastable equilibrium between public and private rhythms that animated the intervention were seen as descriptive of the healthy rhythm of the group as a whole. During the group's movement from the Parkette onto Bloor Street, the rhythmanalysis showed a progression from an isorhythmic moment of equivalent bell ringing to a eurhythmic moment of multiple, non-equivalent rhythms. While the harmony of the steadily accumulating critical mass of cyclists at the Bloor Parkette can be seen as resistant to the linear time of the state, in its fidelity to the rhythms of the group as a whole, it is inevitably constrained by the influence of the rhythm of Capital.

The adventure of re-appropriating public roadways involves the act of corking intersections to keep mass in a eurhythmic state that is not broken apart by the interference of linear, alternating stoplights and the rhythms of mass automobility. In the self-managed, voluntary activity of corking, cyclists momentarily interpret the meaning of CM in an embodied encounter with someone occupying another mode of mobility, which is usually an automobile.

The breaking apart of the densely woven, slowly moving rhythm of CM, seen during the re-appropriation of the Gardiner Expressway, illustrated how the ride's maintenance of a eurhythmic state is vulnerable to the external pressures and constrained temporality of the rhythms of mass automobility. In this sense, the ride is inescapably constrained by the rhythm of Capital in its persistent manipulations of lived time and daily life, as these manifest within rush hour traffic. This constraint was also present in the coincident scheduling of the Criterium Bike Race with CM, which may have reduced the strength in numbers that the ride needs to maintain eurhythmia and, consequently, may have contributed to the emergence of arrhythmic moments on the Gardiner

Expressway.

The re-appropriation of the Gardiner should be interpreted in relation to both cyclists' previous imagining of the Gardiner as a possible route and the meandering movement of the ride around the Criterium Race that eventually narrowed route possibilities down to either the Gardiner or Lakeshore Boulevard. Most significantly, the moment of re-appropriating the Gardiner Expressway was an attempt to perform the full realization of the previously articulated possibility of a car free expressway. The sea of bicycles, conversational encounter and laughter that tenuously displaced the dominant rhythms of automobility therein should be seen as an expression of the re-humanizing qualities of the bicycle. The question remains: how can the everyday marginalization of 69

cycling on the automobile dominated expressway be brought closer to this extraordinary attempt to perform the full realization of a car free expressway, animated by the re- humanizing qualities of cycling? The emergence of a true velorution would involve a bringing together of the festive social space expressed in the re-appropriation of the

Gardiner expressway and the prose of everyday cycling in an experience of momentary festivity. 70

Chapter 3 - Community & Network Capital

The festive social space unique to CM celebrates the public qualities of the bicycle through a variety of rhythmic interventions that attempt to maintain the slowly moving, densely woven eurhythmic state of the group as a whole. This space routinely supports the Toronto cycling community with a place to meet, a formal sense of hospitality to new participants and the experience of accessing roadspace that is normally quite inaccessible.

Whereas the previous chapter explored the extra-everyday dimensions of the monthly performance and the potential for momentary festivity to bring together the poetics of this performance with the prose of everyday cycling, this chapter relates CM to the mundane conditions faced by the Toronto cycling community. Turning away from the more Utopian dimensions of CM, this chapter addresses the question: how do the mass performances of rhythmic intervention involved in appropriating the Bloor Parkette meeting place and creating access to roadways for festive social spaces support the network capital of the Toronto cycling community?

I argue that the creation of access to roadways for festive social spaces, through mass performances of rhythmic intervention, helps support a cycling community's network capital. However, this form of community support should be seen as relationally intertwined with the network capital elements of hospitality at the ride, movement capacities necessary to cycle slowly, location-free information and contact points 71

(cycling blogs and websites), communication devices used to coordinate movement, the

Bloor Parkette meeting place and time to participate in CM. This thesis reflects a John

Urry inspired analysis of network capital.

Urry defines network capital as "the capacity to engender and sustain social relations with those people who are not necessarily proximate and which generates emotional, financial and practical benefit" (M, 197). In the case of Toronto's ride, I am concerned with the network capital peculiar to the community of cyclists in attendance and the provisions of Toronto roadways for cycling, where there is an inequality of network capital between car drivers and cyclists. Of course, this inequality reflects the general socio-spatial inequality of network capital between drivers and cyclists in places where driving is the norm (207).

Within the eight elements that comprise Urry's relational theory of network capital, I have focused on numbers six and seven—meeting places and access to roadways (M, 198). In order to show how Urry's theory of network capital is applicable to an analysis of Toronto's CM, I will briefly look at the eight relational elements that comprise Urry's theory (197). Following this model, one can sketch the relational intertwining of the elements of network capital relevant to a case study of Toronto's CM:

1. The "array of appropriate documents, visas, money and qualifications " that allow cyclists to safely move from one place to another (M, 197-98). No documentation or visas are needed to bicycle in Toronto or come to CM! However, a large membership base to the newly formed Toronto Cyclists Union may prove to be a real asset to the community under consideration. 2. Others (workmates, friends and family members) at a distance; other cyclists who invite friends, family and colleagues to meet: including invitations to CM and hospitality at the ride, bloggers who invite people to attend the ride and websites that promote the event. In sum, the relative openness of Toronto's ride to other cyclists: to meet and have conversations with during the ride "so that places and networks are maintained through intermittent visits and communications" (M, 197-98).

3. "Movement Capacities ": the movement capacities necessary to negotiate the streets of Toronto. In relation to CM: being able to negotiate the streets on the way to CM (assuming the participant comes by bicycle), while riding in mass and while riding home. Also, the ability to successfully negotiate cycling blogs, websites or Facebook groups is a considerable part of this community's network capital (M, 197-98).

4. "Location free information and contact points. " In relation to CM, this includes the cycling websites, email lists, Facebook groups and blogs relating to CM and the Toronto cycling community (M, 197-98).

5. Communication devices: the availability of cell phones, computers and other devices (M, 197-98).

6. "Appropriate, Safe and Secure Meeting Places ": for CM, a safe and secure route to CM, safety at the Bloor and Spadina meeting place, during the ride and at the end of the ride to "ensure that the body is not exposed to physical and emotional violence" (M, 197- 98). Secondly, the qualities of the Bloor Parkette as a meeting place for Toronto's CM.

7. Access: for CM, this includes access to a bicycle, access to roadspace and infrastructure (such as bike lanes, bike boxes, sharrows) both during the ride and in everyday cycling, as well as access to the Internet (M, 197-98).

8. Time to participate: for CM, time to ride in the event and coordinate all of the above elements (M, 197-98).

From a rhythmanalytical perspective, I have described the role of rhythmic interventions in the creation of access to roadways during CM and the qualities of festivity that arise within the spaces/places of meetingness specific to CM. I have focused this case study on elements six and seven, while acknowledging the equal significance of the other relational elements comprising Urry's theory of network capital. I examine the 73

ride itself as a live, mobile meeting that involves first creating safe access to roadways so that festive forms of co-present togetherness can manifest therein.

The analysis will begin by bracketing access to roadways from its associated network capital elements and situating it in relation to the role of strength in numbers in the provision of safe cycling spaces. Specifically, I will compare the potential amelioration of safe cycling through CM and City of Toronto safe cycling programs on the basis of the strong association between the phenomenon of strength in numbers and safe cycling (Pucher and Buehler 2008,14). Second, I will describe the cycling community that is currently associated with the manifestation of mass performances of rhythmic intervention at Toronto's CM and the general preoccupation with access to roadways therein. Third, I will analyze how the festive social spaces of mobile meeting that emerge during CM uniquely energize Toronto's cycling community. Fourth, I will situate the phenomenon of strength in numbers in relation to the low bicycle mode share in Toronto, which is especially troubling given the necessity of increasing bicycle mode share to meet Canada's obligations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport sources (Pucher and Buehler 2008, 3). Finally, I will look at how access to roadways is relationally intertwined with other elements of network capital. The conclusion will offer some recommendations for further analysis of the network capital of Toronto's cycling community. 74

Strength in Numbers and Network Capital:

What is the significance of the phenomenon of strength in numbers in helping to create access to roadways for festive social spaces at the monthly co-present meeting?

Participants spoke about how the ride attempts to ameliorate insufficient access to roadways by practicing strength, solidarity and safety in numbers and thereby relieves some of the pressures associated with the daily marginalization of cycling on the side of the road, between car doors and speeding automobiles (Y. Bambrick, S. Amlani, M.

Louis Johnson, M. Reis, J. Tooley, D. Lee, pers. comm.).

Cyclists' interpretation of the ride as creating "strength and safety in numbers" corresponds with Pucher and Buehler's findings that "the phenomenon of 'safety in numbers' has consistently been found to hold over time and across cities and countries"

(2008, 14). In other words, the association between safety and a large number of cyclists on the streets is not only immediately experienced by CM participants but, also, corresponds to a statistically significant correlation between measures of safe cycling and overall levels of cycling. Drawing on Jacobsen's research on factors influencing cyclist and pedestrian safety, Pucher and Buehler note, "fatality rates per trip and per km are much lower for countries and cities with high bicycling shares of total travel, and fatality rates fall for any given country or city as cycling levels rise" (14). While this statistically significant correlation does not show that more cycling causes safer cycling, or vice versa, the level of correlation between these measures is compelling (14). 75

In the local context, although cyclists' access to safe roadways in Toronto saw some improvement between 1984 and 2002, the city is far behind Ottawa, for instance, in measures of safe cycling and still has a long way to go toward providing safe access to roadways (Richer and Buehler 2005,17). Pucher and Buehler note that there were "over three times as many reported cycling injuries in Toronto as in Ottawa (1,0013 vs. 295), although Toronto has less than twice as many daily bike trips (18,285 vs. 10,090)" (17).

In contrast to the experience of safety through strength in numbers at CM, the

City of Toronto promotes cycling safety through CAN-BIKE cycling instructional courses run through the parks and recreation department, bike safety publicity campaigns that promote helmet use, police talks on bicycle safety, various events during Bike Month and the Cycle Right campaign that "targets both bicyclist and motorist violations of traffic regulations affecting bike safety" (Pucher and Buehler 2005, 20). Pucher and

Buehler argue that these campaigns have improved cycling safety in Toronto, where the period between 1984 and 2002 saw a decline in cycling injuries by 9% and fatalities by two-thirds (17).

Dave Horton's research on the production of fear of cycling through helmet promotion campaigns, in the British context, indicates that there is certainly room for contesting the promotion of cycling safety through helmet use in Toronto bike safety publicity campaigns (2007). If Horton's findings are reproducible in the Canadian context, one might argue that helmet safety campaigns reduce cycling safety by discouraging people from cycling and thereby reducing the number of cyclists on the 76

streets, which is one of the main factors strongly associated with safe conditions for cycling (Pucher and Buehler 2008,14; Horton 2007).

The achievement of comparatively safer conditions for cyclists in northern Europe is not associated with helmet use campaigns (Pucher and Buehler 2008, 15). As Pucher and Buehler point out, the safest cycling of any country is found in the Netherlands, where "less than one percent of adult cyclists wear helmets, and even among children, only 3-5% wear helmets" (15). Rather than helmet promotion, the achievement of safer conditions for cycling in the Netherlands has involved serious restrictions to car use and improvements to cycling infrastructure that have resulted in an 81% decrease in the cyclist fatality rate and a 36% increase in kilometers cycled per inhabitant between 1978 and 2001 (14).

While further research might attempt to show how the City of Toronto's safe cycling campaigns are misguided in their efforts to improve safe cycling through safe helmet use campaigns and publicity materials, perhaps even further marginalizing cycling as a spatial practice, I will not attempt to delve into this question in the present case study. Rather, I feel it is a significant context for reflecting upon the mass performances of rhythmic intervention at Toronto's CM. In contrast to the city's efforts, this form of cycling promotion aligns with the strong association between strength in numbers and safe access to roadways. However, the creation of access to roadways through mass performances of rhythmic intervention depends not only on a large number of cyclists but, also, on a high level of participant involvement in the self-managed rhythmic 77

interventions that allow the ride to smoothly move through the city scape. As described from a rhythmanalytical perspective, cyclists voluntarily help maintain the eurhythmic state of the group as a whole by corking and slow cycling, thereby allowing for the reclaiming of the space necessary for cycling celebrations. Within this context, it is prudent to look at the local community currently attending CM and contributing to its success. So, what form of community does the expression of strength in numbers at CM support?

Community:

I am thinking of community as both a "local social system in which there are localized, relatively bounded sets of systemic inter-relationships of social groups and local institutions" and in the affective sense of a communion (M, 163). Furthermore, I will briefly reflect upon community in the sense of geographical propinquity by looking at the interweaving of CM with the places through which it routinely navigates. I will begin this discussion of community by simply describing some of the cycling organizations that informally manifest at CM.

CM is referenced as having "kick-started cycling activism in Toronto" and, in

1996, was one of the factors responsible for the start of Advocacy for Respect for

Cyclists (ARC) (Bruidoclarke 2002, 39^0; Chadbourne 2007, 8). This organization advocated for Toronto cyclists by "producing an annual report card on cycling conditions, holding street memorials wherever a cyclist is killed and arranging for legal defense of cyclists" (Pucher and Buehler 2005, 23). Also, this group has facilitated discussion through a listserv and contributes to the playful quality of cycling activism in the city by sometimes distributing fortune cookies to cyclists at CM that cheekily foretell possibilities for cycling in the city. Cyclists involved in the organization have also volunteered to collect money for ticketed cyclists during CM, even though this is not a - formal requirement and the group is not formally associated with CM (M. Reis, pers. comm.).

The Community Bicycle Network (CBN) cooperates with provincial agencies in the promotion of cycling and, on the federal level, with Transport Canada (Pucher and

Buehler 2008, 23). CBN ran Toronto's BikeShare Program, a successful public bike program that lent hundreds of bikes at key hubs throughout Toronto, runs "Wenches with

Wrenches" and other bicycle repair workshops, offers a community bike repair space and holds seminars on sustainable transportation (Pucher and Buehler 2008, 23; CBN). At the end of CM in March 2008, many cyclists from CM gathered at CBN to hear a speech from Bicycle Bob on the early days of cycling activism in Montreal. Another institution that manifests in the lived spaces of the monthly event without participating in its organization is the Toronto Cyclists Union (TCU) that launched in the spring of 2008.

I first heard about the TCU while riding in February's CM, where I received a flyer advertising the new group with an ultrasound image of a bicycle in a womb. The TCU is a membership based organization that attempts to provide a "strong, unified voice for Toronto cyclists" by advocating for funding and political support for cycling infrastructure and maintenance, as well as proper enforcement of laws prohibiting vehicles from parking on existing cycling infrastructure. The TCU was formed by local activist Dave Meslin in the fall of 2007 and is modeled after Meslin's research on existing North American cycling unions {Toronto Cyclists Union).

A number of other cycling groups regularly manifest in the lived spaces of the monthly ride, including Bike Pirates, Takethetooker, the Toronto Coalition for Active

Transportation and Streets are for People. Bike Pirates has often provided food and beverages for cyclists after the ride, while also promoting their do-it-yourself bike repair space. The Bike Pirates describe themselves as "an autonomous organization whose mission is to empower cyclists and make bicycles more accessible" while providing a work space that is "sensitive to the concepts of bicycle re-use, collective decision making and social justice" {Bike Pirates).

Another grassroots cycling group visible at Toronto's CM is called

Takethetooker. The Takethetooker group, named after Canadian cycling activist Tooker

Gomberg, is especially visible during the ride because many cyclists sport Takethetooker flags or help collect petitions for a bike lane on Bloor Street at the start of CM

{TaketheTooker).

The Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation (TCAT) also sometimes manifests at the event. This non-partisan organization holds forums on cycling and pedestrian policy and infrastructure, conducts research on cycling and pedestrian planning and policy and provides helpful findings and support for Toronto area cycling advocates (Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation).

On the level of direct action, CM participant and former Streets are for People

(SFP) coordinator Yvonne Bambrick notes that the group's petition car has certainly been visible at the end of rides, where participants have been given the opportunity to participate in the group's petition for the Ontario government to stop subsidizing the automobile industry. The SFP mission statements says, "We deliver the straight-up message that CARS SUCK, while creating the city we all want to live in, a comfortable place where laughter, romance, and dancing children fill the streets" (Streets are for

People). In some respects, this mission statement is quite descriptive of the energy at

Toronto's CM.

How do these various cycling advocacy organizations contribute to the sense of community at CM? While the community that manifests itself at CM seems to be quite closely intertwined with some of the main cycling advocacy groups in the city, these organizations are in no way involved in coordinating the spontaneous meeting under consideration. Nonetheless, the community space created during the ride is animated by the concerns of these various organizations, from Takethetooker petitions to TCU organizing. In fact, the sense of hospitality found within this community space may benefit the cycling advocacy initiatives of these organizations. For instance, a few participants spoke of how meeting and developing relationships with other participants 81

through conversations during the ride increased their involvement in cycling activism within one or more of the groups discussed (D. Lee, A. Humphries, K. Vega, pers. comm.). Regardless of whether such conversations increase involvement in cycling activism initiatives, their presence is a defining characteristic of the festive, community space unique to CM.

Qualities of Mobile Meeting:

How do the festive rhythms of the live mobile meeting uniquely activate social networks of cycling activism in Toronto? As a festive communion, CM bears resemblances to other live events that are also organized around a specific time and place.

Like other festivals, political rallies, meetings or concerts, CM happens at a specific moment and place: every month at the Bloor Parkette (M, 234). Like other live events,

CM engenders "intense moments of simultaneous travel and co-presence" (234). The affect of elation that I described in relation to the re-appropriation of the Gardiner

Expressway in May's CM ride might be interpreted as an expression of the intensity of

"simultaneous travel and co-presence" commonly encountered at CM. As cyclist Shamez

Amlani says, "There's a certain headiness that comes from being with a huge crowd of people." The feelings of headiness, euphoria and interconnectedness that CM sometimes engenders as a festive communion of cyclists are unlikely to be experienced while 82

reading a cycling blog, attending a TCAT meeting or TCU advocacy workshop. Also, the co-present conversations that cyclists engage in while riding are irreducible to other significant assets of this cycling community. So, the feelings of communion and the co- present conversations that are enabled by this monthly mobile meeting seem to distinguish it from other events marking the calendar of this community. Without these affective dimensions, this community might otherwise be described as a local social system of inter-relatcd local institutions—CBN, ARC, TCU, Bike Pirates—and social groups. However, the expression of community at CM is not reducible to either a local social system of inter-related local institutions or affects of communion associated with being in a large group. The expression of community at CM is intertwined with the places through which the ride moves.

The form of festivity found at CM connects the cycling community to the neighborhoods through which it moves in playful, often gregarious ways. The quality of festive exchange between CM and the neighborhoods through which it moves was sometimes voiced as a motivation for going through places that elicit plentiful response from onlookers, like the Eaton Centre, St Clair Avenue West and Queen Street.

There was some contention over whether CM should move through side streets or main thoroughfares (A. Bischoff, M. Reis, S. Yangstein, pers. comm.). There seemed to be an understanding that the ride has more of an impact on street life when it goes down larger streets, like University Avenue, Yonge Street, Spadina, etc. (S. Yangstein, A.

Bischoff, pers. comm.). As Sherry Yangstein says, "There's a lot more energy from the 83

riders when we're on larger roads and people are just sort of stopped and shocked, looking, I think that's what CM is too!" On this note, both Martin Reis and Shamez

Amlani spoke about how the ride will eventually re-appropriate the Gardiner

Expressway, which subsequently occurred at May's CM ride.

Some cyclists emphasized that the ride should make its way to areas of the city that do not normally experience the momentary changes of the cityscape associated with the CM experience (S. Yangstein, T. Thorne, D. Stehr, Y. Bambrick, pers. comm.).

Amongst cyclists who would like to see the ride engage with other communities in

Toronto, its repetition of many of the same downtown routes, especially Yonge Street and the Eaton Centre, was discussed as something to be overcome (D. Lee, Y. Bambrick,

D. Stehr, M. Reis, pers. comm.). While the ride seems to be searching out new possibilities for engaging other communities in Toronto, as is evident in the emergence of the city's Suburban CM event, it tended to move through many of the same streets in my period of field research from September, 2007 to May, 2008: Bloor Street, Spadina

Avenue, Yonge Street, College Street, Dundas Street and Queen Street. Many cyclists emphasized that the ride tends to repeatedly roam around the same corridors of Toronto

(D. Lee, D. Stehr, Y. Bambrick, pers. comm.).

The expression of community at CM is closely intertwined with a variety of public roadways within the gentrified downtown core. However, the emergence of the new Suburban CM is beginning to move toward the outer suburbs from its Yonge and

Eglinton meeting place. Wherever it roams, the festive expression of the re-humanizing qualities of the bicycle at CM is closely intertwined with the desire to connect with particular neighborhoods, whether for advocacy or for fun. From an advocacy perspective, cyclists' desire to perform strength in numbers along routes where cycling is not normally well accommodated reflects the general preoccupation with access to roadways within this cycling community.

Network Capital Element of Access to Roadways:

Does the ride's mass performance of rhythmic intervention within the downtown core address inequalities of access to roadways within Toronto? This inequality manifests in a gross disparity between the slowly rising bicycle mode share for work trips in the urban core and the stagnation of bicycle mode share in the outer areas of the city, where increasing suburbanization poses one the greatest barriers to increasing bicycle mode share in the city (Buehler and Pucher 2005, 16, 34). Specifically, bicycle mode share in the greater metro area stayed at "0.8% bike share of work trips in both 1996 and 2001," whereas bicycle mode share in Toronto increased "from 1.1% in 1996 to 1.3% in 2001"

(16). The stagnation of bicycle mode share outside of Toronto, where around half of the city's population lives, reflects the highly inhospitable quality of suburban environments for cycling as a mode of transportation (34). As Pucher and Buehler point out, "sprawling suburban developments are almost entirely car-oriented with segregated land use 85

patterns, excessively long trip distances, and an almost complete absence of facilities for cycling" (34). In continuity with Pucher and Buehler's emphasis that increasing suburbanization is probably the most significant barrier to increasing bicycle mode shares in Canadian cities, the land use patterns outside of Metro Toronto probably pose the greatest challenge to increasing cycling in this local context (34).

Within the context of the inequality of bicycle mode share between the downtown core and the suburbs, the recent incarnation of a Suburban CM in the city is a promising development. While some cyclists reflected upon the challenges of suburbanization and how the downtown ride might express more solidarity with cyclists in the suburbs by taking the ride there, the ride's current meandering around the downtown core does not address geographic inequalities of bicycle mode share in Toronto (S. Amlani, T. Thorne,

H. Evans, pers. comm.). However, one might speculate upon the influence of CM on the rising bicycle mode share in the downtown core, where there has been an increase of 24%

"in the number of bike trips in 20 key cycling corridors from 1999 to 2003" (Pucher and

Buehler 2005, 16). While it would be difficult to attribute this increasing mode share in key corridors to Toronto's CM, the ride does tend to move through routes where bicycle mode share has been increasing—Spadina, College, Yonge, Bloor, Dundas and Queen

Streets (16).

While Toronto's downtown ride may not address the inequalities between suburban cycling and downtown cycling, it certainly addresses the basic inequality of access to roadways between cyclists and automobiles by practicing strength and safety in 86

numbers during the monthly event. As previously analyzed, the performance of strength in numbers helps maintain the density associated with the ride's normally healthy state of eurhythmia. It thereby helps reclaim space for festive co-present encounters that can be described as heightened experiences of closer connections to community afforded by the bicycle. In addition to strength in numbers, these spaces require the self-managed rhythmic interventions of corking, cycling slowly and rebuilding mass. The role of strength in numbers in creating access to roadways should be seen in relation to these self-managed rhythmic interventions. In this relational manner, the performance of strength in numbers supports a dynamic cycling community's access to roadways, a crucial element of its network capital, on a monthly basis. The potential for momentary festivity at CM would depend upon bringing the realities of the cycling community's everyday access to roadways in Toronto into close proximity with the monthly creation of access to roadways and intense co-present meetingness found at CM.

The role of the monthly co-present CM meeting in supporting social networks of cycling activism in Toronto is not reducible to its temporary creation of access to roadways. As discussed, the creation of access to roadways through mass performances of rhythmic intervention makes space for a form of festivity that uniquely energizes the cycling community with experiences of elation and communion. The significance of this monthly creation of access to roadways should be seen in relation to the qualities of festivity for which it makes space. Finally, the creation of access to roadways should be seen in relation to other elements of the cycling community's network capital. 87

Other Relational Elements of Network Capital:

I will offer some suggestions for further research on how CM supports Toronto area cyclists and, especially, the cycling community currently attending the event. More specifically, I look at the following elements: others, movement capacities necessary to negotiate the streets of Toronto, location free information and contact points, appropriate meeting places and time to participate in CM (M, 198). I have not researched the role of mobile communications in the formation and movement of CM through the streets of

Toronto. While the use of cell phones and other mobile communications during the ride may facilitate a level of resistance to police surveillance and is likely a significant element of the physical movement of CM, the topic is too large to consider within the context of this case study. Likewise, since there are no legal documents, like a license, necessary to bicycle in Toronto, I have not considered this element of network capital.

John Urry defines the network capital element of others at a distance as people who "offer invitations, hospitality and meetings so that places and networks are maintained through intermittent visits and communications" (M, 197). I will use the term others at a distance to refer to participants who invite friends, family, colleagues, strangers or others to meet at CM via cycling blogs, websites, cell phone or face-to-face communication, while the ride is in motion. So, who offers what invitations and/or hospitality to whom so that strength in numbers is maintained? I will begin by looking at some of the characteristics of the population currently accepting invitations to cycle in 88

CM and then proceed to look at the form of hospitality and invitations to others at a distance at CM.

What are the identities and differences within the population currently accepting invitations to cycle in Toronto's CM? The vast majority of current CM participants named their racial identity as white (Appendix, Table #2). In terms of gender, six out of ten participants identified as male and the rest as female (Appendix, Table #5). The four out often female participants is slightly higher than the proportion of female cyclists who use the bicycle as a mode of transportation in Toronto, which stands at approximately

30% (Appendix, Table #5). The age of current participants is generally on the younger side of the spectrum: 41% of participants are between the ages of 25 and 34, whereas only 27% of Toronto area cyclists who use the bicycle as a mode of transportation are within this age bracket (Appendix, Tables #3 and #4). In terms of transportation, eight out often participants either use the bicycle or a combination of the bicycle and other modes as their primary mode of transportation (Appendix, Table #11). Finally, the vast majority of current participants are students or media professionals (Appendix, Table #6).

In sum, current participants are disproportionately young, white, male students or media professionals who use the bicycle as a mode of transportation. While the relative openness of the event to new participants might be explained in relation to each of these variables, the gender and age variables seem to reflect global cycling inequalities. As

Pucher and Buehler argue, "the social distribution of cycling tends to be very uneven, with young men doing most of the cycling, while women cycle far less..." (2008, 3). 89

Thus, those currently accepting invitations to participate in Toronto's CM mirror the uneven social distribution of cycling in much of the industrialized world, especially

Canada, the United States and Britain, where the bicycle remains associated with recreation rather than transport (Pucher and Buehler 2008, 1-3).

The fluid, leaderless form of the event makes it quite open to new participants.

Specifically, over a third of participants have only participated for the last six months, almost half have been riding in CM for under a year and just under a third have been participating for one to three years (Appendix, Tables 17 and 18). What makes Toronto's

CM so hospitable to new participants?

While invitations to others at a distance to attend CM can be found on cycling blogs, websites and flyers, many cyclists first hear about CM by directly encountering it on the street (Appendix, Table #7). In other words, invitations to others in the vicinity of the ride's movement around the city may be just as important to the sense of hospitality found at the event as invitations to others at a distance, via cycling blogs, websites and other media. For instance, I recently met a Marxist journalist who first heard about CM by seeing it roll by and was inspired to join the ride. The fact that more than one in ten respondents first heard about CM by directly encountering it on the street and one in twenty are there by happenstance says a lot about the openness of this roaming mass to new participants (Appendix, Table #7). This openness is intertwined with the celebration of the public qualities of the bicycle within the festive social spaces of the ride. The other significant trend in how participants first hear about the ride is through word of mouth, which accounts for how six out often people hear about it (Appendix,

Table #7). Cyclist Sherry Yangstein describes receiving an invitation to participate in CM from a friend who showed her pictures of the "pimped out bikes" at Vancouver's CM, which inspired her, eventually, to jump on the back of CM as it was heading down

College Street. Tellingly, it is both the absence of the linear rhythms of the automobility system and the ensuing tidal wave of pimped out bikes that allows Sherry to recognize the ride in the phenomenological present, likely based on her previous familiarity with the photographic texts where she first heard about it. She says, "I was having ice cream with my friend in Little Italy and then all of a sudden there were no cars at all on the street and then after five minutes of no cars there were tons and tons of bikes and then it clicked, and I was like, oh, I get it! This is CM!"

In sum, the ride's hospitality to new participants is intertwined with the celebration of the public qualities of cycling and the possibilities for horizontal exchange with others that this form of festivity affords. However, the hospitality of the ride to new participants is not limited to invitations to others within the vicinity of the ride's route, as location free information and contact points also play a central role.

What is the role of location free contact points in the network capital of this cycling community? Given the movement's use of Internet communication in connecting local scales of dependency to global discourses on transportation and sustainability, the use of blogs and websites is surely a significant aspect of participation in CM (Blickstein 91

and Hanson 2001, 350). There are numerous cycling blogs that post notices regarding upcoming CM rides and provide lively forums for debating barriers to cycling, Toronto cycling politics, CM and any number of other topics that also engage cyclists in the

Toronto cycling community. These blogs are especially significant in the dissemination of xerocracy materials—flyers to give to drivers or participants.6 Also, invitations to others at a distance are commonly posted on Toronto focused cycling blogs. For instance, the following Bike Lane Diary invitation advertised a September ride: "Fun,

Travel, Excitement: Critical Mass Toronto, last Friday of every month..." (Reis, Bike

Lane Diary). Also, cycling blogs provide a forum for participants to discuss the merits of the ride with both fellow advocates and cyclists who express reasons for why they do not go to CM.

In addition to local cycling blogs, the central CM cycling website connects others at a distance to CM rides on every continent by providing start times and location information for rides in cities around the world (Dyer 2002a). In sum, a variety of websites and cycling blogs connect Toronto's ride to the global spaces of engagement in cycling and environmental issues found within the CM movement (Blickstein and

Hanson 2001). Beyond these online meeting places, the availability of safe and secure meeting places for cyclists to gather before and during the ride is a relationally significant element of network capital.

6 Joel Pomerantz defines xerocracy as CM self government: "You got an idea? Write it down and pass it out at the next ride..." (2002, 234). As explored from a rhythmanalytical perspective, the maintenance of a eurhythmic state during CM allows for experiences of spontaneous meeting and exchange amongst participants and observers of the event. The festive, mobile, co-present meeting place created during the ride supports the experience of encounters with other participants and others in the immediate vicinity of the neighborhoods passed through.

These festive mobile meeting spaces contrast starkly with the everydayness of cyclists' marginalization within the iron cage of automotive modernity.

While cyclists do not necessarily have a safe and secure route to CM or route home after the ride, the Bloor and Spadina meeting place seems to be a real asset of the ride and one way that CM contributes to the network capital of this cycling community.

Specifically, the openness of the Bloor Parkette to public and private rhythms and the allowance for activist networking and engagement seems to be a valuable element of the community's network capital. However, showing up at this meeting place requires the relationally significant element of time to participate.

Cyclists have varying amounts of time available to come to CM. Over a third of participants have only ridden in one CM during the year surveyed; about one in five have ridden twice and one in ten have ridden three times (Appendix, Table #8). One might be able to explain these low levels of participation as a seasonal fluctuation. As Guido

Bruidoclarke points out, the number of people who show up to Toronto's ride changes like the seasons, from the twenty-five who come in December to the upwards of two hundred who come in the summer months (2002,42). Since cycling in Canadian cities is 93

a seasonally fluctuating phenomenon this explanation likely has merit (Buehler and

Pucher 2005, 15). In my own experience, the festive, public rhythms of this meeting are seasonal. However, there are other plausible readings of the infrequent attendance of most CM participants.

How does the rhythm of Capital constrain cyclists' ability to come to the ride?

Perhaps, the low level of participation at CM is an expression of the incessant manipulation of lived-time by the rhythm of Capital, in the sense that participants may not be able to remove themselves from the constraints of work time and the constrained time of their daily commute to show up at the ride (Meyer 2008, 150). In addition, to the necessity of finding time to participate in CM, the network capital element of movement capacities likely constrains participation in CM.

The ride requires quite sophisticated movement capacities. While I have explored some of these capacities, like slow cycling and corking, I feel there is certainly much research to be done on the extent to which such movement capacities limit participation in the event. The embodied performances involved in maintaining the eurhythmia of the group as a whole during the monthly event, from being able to ride a bicycle to being able to negotiate streetcar tracks, require a great deal of discipline and physical capability that probably limits participation in the event. Elements of Network Capital Openings and Conclusions:

In sum, this community's network capital is likely strengthened or restrained by many of the above elements. From a rhythmanalytical perspective, I showed how the ride contributes to the network capital of this cycling community by gradually appropriating the relative safety and security of the Bloor and Spadina meeting place and by creating safe access to roadways for a festive gathering during the ride, to help alleviate the everydayness of being marginalized on the side of the road. Personally, as an urban commuter cyclist, I can attest that the everydayness of this marginalization needs to be rectified. While I have focused on access to roadways and meeting spaces, these factors should be seen as relationally intertwined with other elements of this cycling community's network capital. The network capital support achieved through the ride's creation of access to roadways for festive encounters is only possible if it maintains an active openness and hospitality to a diversity of new participants, so that strength in numbers is sustained. On this note, the community likely benefits from a plethora of location free contact points available to participants, the quality of conversations during the ride, the hospitality of cyclists to new participants, and invitations offered to others during the ride, on websites or blogs. While certainly open to new participants, the high percentage of young male cyclists within the population of cyclists currently attending

CM reflects the uneven social distribution of cycling in much of the industrialized world

(Pucher and Buehler 2008, 2-3; Horton, Cox and Rosen 2007, 6). 95

There are certainly other assets to this community's network capital that would be worthwhile researching—Toronto Cyclists Union advocacy workshops for instance—that contribute equally, if not more, to cyclists' access to public infrastructure and roadways.

The biggest barrier to the network capital of this cycling community is access to roadspace in everyday cycling, on the way to CM, on the way back from CM or in daily cycling. Not enough has changed since Pucher and Buehler pointed out that "Toronto's official Bike Plan sets an ambitious goal of 1,000 km of bikeways by 2011, but it has a long way to go, and funding is limited" (2005,18). As Toronto Cycling Committee member Tammy Thorne explains, the city's relatively modest and probably inadequate goal of painting 50 kilometers of bike lanes in 2008 would dramatically improve its currently dismal record of failing to implement the modest goals of the Toronto Bike

Plan. She explains, "last year we were only able to do 7.7 kilometers and there was a lot of bluster and hullabaloo around the fact that they were supposed to paint 27 and they didn't even come close"; so "getting the 50 K of bike lanes" is a top priority. While convergence rides have sprung up earlier in the history of Toronto's ride that probably strengthened access to roadspace on the way to CM, these don't seem to be regularly practiced today (D. Stehr, pers. comm.). Certainly, many cyclists ride home together after

CM, thereby strengthening their access to roadspace. However, the main point is that the network capital achieved by this cycling community is strengthened by the creation of safe access to roadspace during the monthly ride: through mass performances of rhythmic intervention that attempt to maintain eurhythmia despite the external pressures of mass automobility. This monthly creation of access to roadways makes space for a festive celebration of the public qualities of the bicycle that contrasts quite starkly with the everydayness of the violence of automotive modernity. The potential expression of momentary festivity through CM would depend upon bringing the poetics of these mass performances of rhythmic intervention down to the level of everyday cycling, where access to safe roadspace is in urgent need of transformation and there is less space for relaxing conversation and co-present encounter on our public roadways.

I would like to emphasize that there is a lot of work to be done to determine the extent to which these various aspects of network capital are present in other cycling communities in Toronto, where willing but unable participants may abound! How open is

Toronto's CM to new participants? The following five elements of network capital probably limit access to the community of cyclists who show up at Mass:

1. Movement capacities necessary to negotiate the streets of Toronto;

2. Access to cycling websites, email lists, Facebook groups and blogs relating to CM and the Toronto cycling community;

3. Economic means to purchase a bicycle;

4. Economic means to purchase or access communication devices, like computers;

5. The ability to negotiate the Internet to find cycling websites and blogs;

6. Ability to "make time " to attend CM, often involving a commitment to juggling one's work, leisure and commuting schedule (M, 197-8).

The extent to which inequalities of network capital limit attendance at CM would be a worthwhile area for further research on Toronto's ride. As Horton, Cox and Rosen 97

emphasize, there is a great deal of research that needs to be done to determine how cycling inequalities relate to gender, class, ethnicity and age (2007, 6). I would contest that the category of network capital should be added to this list. One potential question for further research on Toronto's ride would be: what is the relative significance of inequalities of network capital in limiting the openness of Toronto's ride? Conclusion

CM is a fun, leaderless, noncommercial social movement that organizes toward sustainable urban transportation by linking local spaces of dependency, like safe cycling conditions, to global spaces of engagement (Blickstein and Hanson 2001; Pomerantz

2002,232). It is a manifestation of contemporary cycling activism that reaches across the globe by building social networks through both online and face-to-face communication

(Blickstein and Hanson 2001; Furness 2005). As a form of direct action on public roads, it is a performative critique that undermines the functional dominance of automobility in urban space, largely by embracing use value over exchange value, and potentially inspires an appetite for radical social change (Furness 2007). As described from a rhythmanalytical perspective, the inspirational qualities of the monthly event cannot be disassociated from the performance of the public qualities of the bicycle through slow cycling, corking and building mass.

So, how do the embodied rhythms of the monthly face-to-face gathering of cyclists support social networks of cycling activism in Toronto? These mass performances of rhythmic intervention benefit the network capital of the Toronto cycling community by creating access to roadways for festive celebrations of the public qualities of the bicycle. The self-managed rhythmic interventions of corking and keeping mass attempt to maintain the slowly moving, densely woven eurhythmic state of the group as a whole despite the fragmentation wrought by the rhythm of Capital. 99

In the voluntary activity of corking, cyclists momentarily interpret the meaning of

CM in an embodied encounter with someone occupying the dominant form of modern auto-mobility, the car. The expression of urban modernity within the CM social movement is condensed in this encounter between cyclist and driver, between the public form of self-directed movement afforded by the bicycle and the private automobile.

The normally eurhythmic state of the festive social spaces found at CM is not only constrained by the rhythm of Capital but, also, by inequalities of network capital that likely limit participation and/or strength in numbers manifest at the monthly ride. Since strength in numbers helps maintain the density associated with the ride's normally eurhythmic state, network capital limitations to participation constrain the expression of festivity therein. In sum, the rhythms of capitalist modernity constrain the expression of festivity at CM not only via inequalities of network capital that may limit participation but, also, via the immediacy of the manipulations of the lived time of the ride by the rhythm of capital. The rhythm of capital is most urgently felt when the external measures of mass automobility impinge upon the internal measures of rhythmic intervention that attempt to maintain the eurhythmia of the group as a whole, or, when commodified cycling festivities interrupt the strength in numbers and flow of the event.

The sea of bicycles, laughter and conversation that tenuously displaced the dominant rhythms of automobility on the Gardiner Expressway should be seen as expressing the re-humanizing qualities of the bicycle. The question remains, how can the expression of these humanizing qualities be brought closer the everyday life of cycling in 100

Toronto? Toronto cyclist Anthony Humphries offered a reverie on the future of cycling in

Toronto that may offer insight into this question:

I would like to imagine a future in Toronto where Critical Mass occurs daily as part of the daily commute. We have that already with motorists. They do a Critical Mass twice a day, or, in fact, almost all day, every day and I would love cycling to be a similar thing. Where we don't have the need to displace other traffic because we already have. On the other hand, our need and desire for social gathering and social interaction won't go away. So, Critical Mass will continue to be there but no longer as a displacement but rather as a social gathering. As a place to meet. That's my future vision. (Personal Interview. April 22,2008)

Where does Humphries' moment of perception of the seemingly implausible possibility of CM occurring as part of the daily commute, disappearing as a displacement of traffic, but remaining as "a place to meet," receive its inspiration from? (A.

Humphries, pers. comm.). I would contest that it reflects the universal goal that many participants may desire and is implicit within the urban imaginary of CM—the replacement of car traffic with bicycle commuters and a circadian, or even hourly, repetition of CM in the streets of Toronto. This universal aim is, of course, present in the name of the movement itself, which refers to the strength in numbers idea intuitively practiced by everyday commuter cyclists in China at the beginning of the 1990s, as represented in Ted White's Return of the Scorcher. In other words, the global scale of this will to universality, or will to connection, can be seen in the lurking genealogy of

CM as a description of everyday, large-scale velomobility in China. This might be one way of interpreting cycling advocates' continued fascination with the large-scale velomobility that China experienced in the twentieth century (Horton, Cox and Rosen 101

2007,7). Urban planner and cycling advocate Hannah Evans says, "Whenever I see people riding in China, it looks like one big CM, right! I'd love to go to Beijing and ride one time. How would you get out of the group and get to your location?"

The inspirational image of velomobilized China for cycling advocates in the western world gestures toward the global complexity of cycling, which is increasingly embraced in the west and marginalized in formerly velomobilized societies. Horton, Cox and Rosen describe the global complexities of cycling: "it is in some places one answer to the problems of too much automobility, whilst in other places it is a mode of mobility to be banished in the pursuit of 'progress' and greater automobility; in others still remains a mode of mobility beyond economic reach" (2007, 5). On this global level, the emphasis upon the legitimizing characteristics of the movement within Blickstein and Hanson's research and Horton's notion that cyclists see themselves as legitimizing public policy may be particularly relevant (Horton 2006, 55). Within the context of the increasing promotion of cycling as a sustainable mode of transportation that has benefits in ameliorating various public health issues and addressing environmental concerns, especially global warming in many rich societies of the west, this festive celebration of cycling appears to be in tune with the Zeitgeist. However, as explored, the form of advocacy performed during CM promotes a vision of sustainable urban transportation in a manner that is quite distinct from the efforts of both mainstream and city sponsored cycling advocacy. Nevertheless, it may benefit the efforts of mainstream cycling advocacy organizations by creating a unique space for activist networking and via the 102

radical flank effect, whereby organizations like Transportation Alternatives and the

Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation likely benefit from the discursive pressure applied by the movement (Furness 2007, 311). More significantly, the Utopian energy of the movement clearly exceeds the limited goals, like more bicycle lanes, that define the agenda of most mainstream cycling advocacy organizations. As Furness notes, "cyclists disrupt the automobile's domination of urban space to point out the possibilities of life outside the 'iron cage of modernity'" (2007, 313). The central possibility pointed toward is the ideal of a velomobilized city, embodied in Anthony Humphries' vision of a circadian repetition of critical mass on the streets of Toronto. On this note, one might ask, does Humphries' reverie on the future of cycling in Toronto reveal an underlying process of mondialisation, or striving toward fragmented totality?

Humphries' desire to see CM performed daily and completely displace automobile traffic reflects the aspiration toward a fragmented totality. In a general sense, it reflects the will to totality, or desire for universality, that all human activities seem to strive toward once they have "taken a definite shape in social practice" (Lefebvre 2002,

182). On the other hand, the achievement of this bringing together of everyday urban cycling and CM is conceived as dissolving the necessity for displacing vehicular traffic and, by implication, all of the practices — corking, keeping mass, rebuilding mass — that cyclists draw upon during the ride, converse about after the ride and reflect upon within activist writings and artwork. Thus, the vision of the future of cycling in Toronto that

Humphries offers us is the realization of a fragmented totality, where the reciprocal 103

movement of critique and transformation between everyday cycling and CM successfully closes the gulf currently separating the two but where all of the practices that help secure the festive social space created by the movement (corking, etc.), are no longer needed. As

Lefebvre emphasizes, the will to realize a fragmented totality is a necessary, rather than optional, characteristic of the critique and transformation of everyday life (2002, 188). In

Lefebvre's words, the impulse of the will to totality, "which aims to recapture a fragmented totality—is already total, or rather, totalizing" (188). In the festive social spaces of Toronto's CM, the sense of a will to totality can sometimes be perceived in re- appropriations of particularly automobile dominant places, like the Gardiner Expressway and University Avenue, where, as Shamez Amlani describes, "it feels like a bike superhighway." The feeling of a "bike superhighway" is quite descriptive of some of the lived spaces that are experienced when cyclists attempt to center themselves through strength in numbers on automobile dominated roadways.

However, the most compelling disclosure of Humphries' reverie is what would remain once the implausible possibility of everyday "bike superhighways" is realized, or achieves a state of fragmentary totalization—a meeting place. Humphries' emphasis that cyclists would still need a meeting place if CM were no longer needed as a

"displacement" reflects his own elucidation of the ride as "a touchstone, a meeting point, the thin slice of the wedge; the point for many people, including myself, to get to know other people in the cycling community and specifically other people who are active advocates." Humphries was not the only cyclist to express the sentiment that CM is a 104

meeting place that facilitates relationship building between cyclists, especially cycling activists. I have found the celebration of community at this noncommercial meeting place to be a wonderfully engaging and continually refreshing experience. I have developed sincere relationships with cyclists and cycling advocates by co-performing sometimes wayward, sometimes self-reflexive and, often, pragmatic conversations while riding in

CM. I have settled into the conclusion that Toronto's CM helps support and strengthen

Toronto cycling communities in attendance by appropriating a safe meeting place and creating access to roadways, where the festivities of the event can unfold. The re- humanizing of Toronto's public roadways that unfolds throughout the event is always full of surprises, momentarily showing the manifold possibilities of encountering like-minded

(or otherwise) cyclists, joggers, pedestrians, roller bladders and evening revelers in public space. As Martin Reis says, "it's basically modeled on the old show and tell, where people go out and say, this is what's possible, like the sky is the limit, you can get as creative and artistic at it as you want!" (M. Reis, pers. comm.). 105

Appendix

I conducted a survey on current CM participants. The survey instrument can be found in the appendix of tables. The following analysis will focus on presenting the demographics of current CM participants in relation to motivations for attending CM and mode of transportation.

In order to evaluate the diversity of motivations amongst current CM participants,

I asked the question: What is your primary motivation for participating in CM? First,

Toronto participants are not necessarily motivated by political or advocacy concerns.

While Blickstein and Hanson's research acknowledged the significance of fun as a supporting source of motivation to cyclists' political concerns, it did not address the possibility that participants are simply looking to have a good time or connect with other cyclists (2001, 361). My findings, as seen in Table 1, show that a large number of participants are not motivated by advocacy at all. I approached the question of motivation by asking an open-ended question in my survey research and coding the responses in an inductive manner, with the results as shown in Table 1. While nearly a quarter of cyclists are motivated by something to do with advocacy, with references to awareness, solidarity, bike lanes and sustainable transportation in particular abundance, many cyclists are motivated by other concerns. For instance, one in six participants just want to have fun, around one in twenty want to connect to Toronto's cycling community and a similar number are there for camaraderie, or by happenstance. The desire to combine fun with various other (advocacy, protest or community) concerns accounted for over a quarter of Toronto cyclists' motivations for attending the ride. This supports Blickstein and Hanson's finding that political motivations are often coupled with having a "good time" (2001, 361). The one in four cyclists who expressed a diversity of motivations, from advocating for cyclists' rights to community, and emphasized fun seem to be expressing fairly common understandings of the event. For instance, the opening lyrics of Martin Reis's artistic exploration of the ride in Rick Goes to Mass—"How are you ever going to have fun if you never participate!"—capture this positively motivating energy.

The fact that one in twenty are there by happenstance says a lot about the openness of this roaming mass to new participants. Some participants spoke more explicitly about advocating for cyclists' rights and others wrote about meeting up with friends and family. While a minority, of around 2%, expressed more confrontational desires that are commonly associated with the testosterone brigade, like pissing off car drivers, there is some indication that this contingent is educated by more experienced members of the community (T. Thorne, A. Humphries, pers. comm.). There were also some interesting responses that I coded as "other," including "freedom of speech!" the

"slow movement" or simply "exercise."

From a rhythmanalytical perspective, joining the "slow movement" is a fascinating motivation, perhaps implying that these cyclists are explicitly motivated to ride in CM by a desire to slow down the frantic pace of everyday modern, urban life. 107

While the slow pace of the ride is a defining characteristic of the ride and is often commented upon by participants it is not commonly cited as a motivation for attending.

The desire for camaraderie—connecting with friends and family—is obviously a big motivation for many people. For instance, Doug Lee says, "I look forward to meeting new friends, and sometimes I show up just because I want to connect with friends I haven't seen in a while, or make new friends." So, there are all kinds of reasons why participants come to the ride and, as Blickstein and Hanson point out, this diversity of motivations is a testament to the virtues of the open, leaderless, decentralized form of the movement (2001, 352). Lastly, as activist Chris Carlsson says, "what people think they're doing is less interesting than what it means that a specific fraction of the population has found a form of political and social expression in the CM phenomenon" (2002a, 75).

So, what "fraction of the population" finds expression at Toronto's ride? First, as indicated in Table 2, most participants named their racial identity as white. In the interest of situating the racial diversity of current CM participants in relationship to Census

Canada's community profile for Toronto, I designed a survey question based on currently used Statistics Canada racial variables.71 designed a multiple-choice question with an open paragraph for other responses, asking: How would you name your racial identity?

Whereas just less than 60% of Toronto's population is not a visible minority, approximately 77% of CM participants named their racial identity as white (Statistics

7 See Statistics Canada variable list: http://www.statcan.ca/english/concepts/definitions/ethnicity. 108

Canada 2006c). Why is this Toronto cycling community characterized by whiteness?

While I have not deduced any underlying racial barriers to entry into the community, the predominant whiteness of current participants might be analyzed in relation to North

American cycling activism discourses.

In the interest of situating the age of current CM participants in relationship to the age of commuter cyclists in Toronto, as explored in Statistics Canada's mode of transportation tables, I asked participants: What is your date of birth? The modal age of participants is 27, which is also my age (Statistics Canada 2006b; Tables 3 and 4). This modal age is reflected in the nearly one quarter of participants between 25 and 29 years of age (Table 4). It is worth noting that 41% of participants were between the ages of 25 and 34 years old, whereas only 27% of Toronto area cyclists who use the bicycle as a mode of transportation are within this age bracket (Statistics Canada 2006b). This comparison is warranted by the fact that approximately eight often participants either use the bicycle or the bicycle and transit as their primary modes of transportation, as shown in Table 11. So as one might expect, participants are usually on the younger side of the spectrum, although a few older cyclists also attend the event. Furthermore, as shown in

Tables 9 and 10, almost half of current CM participants have been riding for under one year, a third have been involved for between one and three years and only one in five has been riding for longer than four years.

Statistics Canada Report: http://wwwl2.statcan.ca/english/census06/reference/reportsandguides/visible- minorities.cfm 109

Since I am especially interested in the relationship between CM and everyday urban commuter cycling, I asked participants: What is your primary means of transportation? As seen in Table 11, while not all cyclists used the bicycle as their primary mode of transportation, around half did. In comparison, about one in twenty primarily use transit, around one in six used the automobile in combination with other modes and about a third use a combination of bicycle and public transit to get around the city. So, approximately 80% use the bicycle for commuting. Arguably, within the context of the approximate 1.3% cycling mode share for work trips in Metro Toronto, this crowd uses the bike to get around more than most! (Pucher and Buehler 2005, 16). How do we explain differences in mode of transportation?

As seen in Table 12, mode of transportation can be described in relation to sex. I did a chi square test of statistical significance for the relationship between mode of transportation and sex and was able to establish a statistically significant relationship at the 95% level of confidence (Table 13). I found moderate correlations, defined as a frequency of five above expected count, between male participants and use of the automobile and other modes. I also found a moderate correlation between female participants and use of a combination of public transit and bicycle commuting.

Furthermore, there was a marginal correlation (less than a frequency of five more than expected) between male participants and use of the bicycle as a primary mode and a corresponding negative correlation amongst female participants. While marginal, this correlation between sex and primary mode should be seen within the larger context of the 110

global phenomenon of gender inequality in societies with lower cycling levels—like

Canada—where women are less likely to cycle than men (Horton, Cox and Rosen 2007,

6).

In terms of sex, Table 5 indicates that six out often cyclists were male and the rest were female. The percentage of female cyclists who attend CM (40%) is moderately higher than the percentage of female cyclists using the bicycle for transportation in

Toronto (33%) (Statistics Canada 2008). Whereas only one third of commuter cyclists in

Toronto are female, four out often CM participants are female (Statistics Canada 2006b).

The relatively low percentage of female cyclists in Toronto should be seen within the broader context the global phenomenon of sex based cycling inequalities in societies with overall low levels of cycling (35%) (Horton, Cox and Rosen 2007, 6; TCAJ_2008). As

Pucher and Buehler argue, "the social distribution of cycling tends to be very uneven, with young men doing most of the cycling, while women cycle far less..." (2005, 3).

However, this tendency is not present in Dutch, German and Danish cities, where

"women cycle as often as men" (Pucher and Buehler 2008, 3). While the sex-based inequality of cycling in Toronto seems to reflect a global phenomenon in societies with low cycling modal share, the moderately higher number of female cyclists who attend

CM calls for another explanation. What motivates a fairly high number of female cyclists to attend CM?_While CM can be an inspiration for further activism, it also gives many women a break from their more serious involvements in cycling activism. For instance,

Toronto Cycling Committee member Tammy Thorne comes to CM to have fun and relax. Ill

She explains, "CM for me is a fun thing and over the last couple of years I've become very serious about my bicycle advocacy, so I'm realizing that I need to do more fun things."

What do CM participants do with the rest of their month? The results of my survey, as per Table 6, indicate that courier cyclists do not attend the ride in the numbers that one might expect, given the ride's emergence from 1990s courier culture. Courier cyclists accounted for only 2% of my sample. The most common occupations of participants were students and media professionals. Based on my sample, approximately one in three participants was a student and one in five a media professional of some sort.

The other common occupations identified were information technology workers (5%), educators (5%), environmental NGO workers, policy makers or advisors (4.5%) and a variety of other, mostly middle class, professionals. This composition largely supports

San Francisco cycling advocate Chris Carlsson's argument that "CM participants are largely members of what has been termed the 'Cognittariat,' the human 'know-how'— technical, cultural, linguistic, ethical—that supports the operation of the high tech economy" (2002a). Why do so many middle class professionals gather together in midtown Toronto on the last Friday of every month?

The midtown district near the University of Toronto has had a significant middle class population since the 1950s that historically resisted the postwar suburban diaspora

(Caulfield 1994, 68). On this note, one might interpret the gathering of predominantly middle class professionals at Bloor and Spadina for CM in the historical context of the 112

area's connection to the history of middle class reformism in Toronto, especially surrounding resistance to the building of the Spadina Expressway (68). In John

Caulfield's research on Toronto's gentrification in City Form and Everyday Life, she describes how the critical mass of resistance to Toronto's modernist postwar development initiatives was reached in the early 1970s and was achieved through the working of two distinct strands of reformism—urban conservatives and urban radicals, or left-populist reformism (1994, 61-62). The resistance to automobile dominated expressways amongst middle class professionals in the current incarnation of Toronto's

CM is at least thematically continuous with the important role of middle class groups in the reform movements that successfully resisted highway expansion, the demolition of inner-city neighborhoods and high-rise constructions in the early 1970s (66).

Since I am 27 years old, white, male, a middle class student and am primarily motivated to ride by a desire to have fun (along with 45% of the sample), I am quite representative of some of the dominant characteristics of participants. I feel my description of the festive social spaces created during CM are better understood when one understands the significance of fun as a motivating factor and the basic demographic composition of the cycling crowd that has been recently attending the ride. Furthermore, it is important to understand that this is a relatively young community of cyclists and that eight out often participants use the bicycle as their primary mode of transportation. Last, it is within the context of everyday urban commuting or utility riding, rather than 113

weekend recreational riding, that the reciprocal dynamic of critique and transformation between the festive ride and everyday cycling should be situated. Tables

Table 1: What is your primary motivation for participating in Critical Mass rides?

% Motivation I'un 28 16.0 Tun and Other Reasons 50 28.6 Celebrating Community 11 6.3 ( amaraderie 9 5.1 Rights 11 1 6.3 Vdvocacy 40 223 Happenstance 9 5.1 ( onfrontational Reasons 4 2.3 Other Reasons 5 2.9 Total Answered 175 100.0 | Total Sample 184

Table 2: Racial Identity: How would you name your racial identity?

' % Racial Identity Aboriginal * 2.3 Mixed Race 10 5.7 White 135 77.1 Chinese 9 5.1 South Asian I .6 Brown I .6 Latin American 1 .6 Southeast Asian 1 .6 Arab 2 1.1 Korean I .6 Japanese I .6 Other 5 2.9 Iranian I .6 Middle eastern I .6 Ashkena/i I .6 Total 175 100.0 Total Missing 9 I Tolal 184 Table 3, Age of Cyclists, Basic Statistics

Valid Responses 179 Median 28.0000 Mode 27.00 Std. Deviation 11.01708 Minimum 14.00 Maximum 72.00

Table 4, Age According to Age Bracket Frequencies

f % Age Under 20 14 7.8 20-24 42 23.3 25-29 44 24.4 30-34 30 16.7 35-39 20 11.1 40 and above 30 16.7 Total 180 100.0 Missing System 4 Total 184

Table 5, What is your Sex?

f % Sev ... . 70 39.3 Female 108 60.7 Male 178 100.0 Total 6 Total Missing + Other 184 Table 6, Professional Occupations

f lilliil Occupational Student 59 33.3 Category Arts, Design, Media and Entertainment 30 16.9 Occupations Bicycle Couriers 3 1.7 Architecture, Urban Planning and /i 4.0 Engineering Environmental NGO workers, Environmental Policy Makers and 8 4.5 Advisors

Computer, IT and Mathematical 9 5.1 Occupations Business and Financial Operations 6 3.4 Occupations Community and Social Services 5 2.8

Transportation and Material Moving 3 1.7 Professional Trades people 7 4.0 Legal Occupations 3 1.7

Food Preparation and Food Services 7 4.0 Building, Grounds Clearing and 2 1.1 Maintenance Education, Training, and Library i 9 5.1 Occupations Life, Physical and Social Science 4 2.3 Occupations Personal Care and Service Occupations 3 1.7 Bicycle Advocates and Activists 2 1.1 Management Occupations 3 1.7 Health Care Practitioners, Technicians 2 1.1 and Support workers

Retired 3 1.7 Sales and Other Retail Positions 2 1.1 Total Answered 177 100.0 ; Total Sample 184 Table 7, How did you first hear about Critical Mass?

f % Media Word of Mouth 105 57.1 Saw on the Street 22 12.0 Cycling Event 4 2.2 Online Forum 11 6.0 Website 14 7.6 Newspaper 6 3.3

Other: email, poster, xerocracy etc. 14 7.6

BIOK 8 4.3 Total 184 100.0

Table 8, Times Participated in a Year

f % # Of Times Zero times 12 6.6 1 lime 67 36.6 2 times 27 14.8 3 times 17 9.3 4 times 21 11.5 5 times 6 3.3 6 times 10 5.5 7 times 6 3.3 8 times 6 3.3 9 times 4 2.2 10 times 5 2.7 12 times 2 1.1 Total 183 100.0 Total 185 118

Table 9, Length of Participation: from 1 month to over 15 yrs

f % Length 1-6 months or participation 67 36.4 7-11 months 16 8.7 1-3 years 59 32J 4-7 years _ 24_ __ 13.0^ 8-12 years j 13 7.1_ 13-15 years j 3 i.6 over 15 vears i 2 1.1 i _ - - — - — — Total j 184 100.0

Table 10, Length of Participation in Four Categories

f % i .._£•...... 1-11 months participating in 82 44.8 Length of Participation _.. ' 1 -3 years 59 32.2

4-12 years 37 20.2

13 or more years 5 2.7 Total 183 100.0 Missing Missing 1 Total 184

Table 11, Primary Mode: What is your primary mode of transportation?

f % Mode Bicycle 96 52.5 Bicycle and Transit 52 28.4 Other 35 19.1 Total 183 100.0 Total Missing 1 Total 184 119

Table 12, Primary Mode of Transportation by Sex

Sex of participant Total Female Male Primary ... , ,, 33 57 90 ,, , " Bicvcle Count Mode 35.6 54.4 90.0 Expected Count 47.1% 53.3% 50.8% % Within Sex of participant 18.6% 32.2% 50.8% % Of Total 7 4 11 Transit Count 4.4 6.6 11.0 Expected Count % Within Sex of 10.0% 3.7% 6.2% participant 4.0% 23% 6.2% % Of Total 4 20 24 Automobile Count 9.5 14.5 24.0 Expected Count % Within Sex of 5.7% 18.7% 13.6% participant 2.3% 11.3% 13.6% % Of Total Bicycle and ,. 26 26 52 .r ., Count 20.6 31.4 52.0 Transit Expected Count 37.1% 24.3% 29.4% % Within Sex of 14.7% 14.7% 29.4% participant 70 107 1 177 % Of Total 70.0 107.0 177.0 Total Count . Expected Count 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% % Within Sex of 39.5% 60.5% 100.0% participant % Of Total

Table 13, Chi-Square Tests of Statistical Significance

a 1 cells (12.5%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 4.35 Asymp. Sig. Value df (2-sided) Pearson Chi-Square 10.614(a) 3 .014 Continuity Correction Likelihood Ratio 11.159 3 Ml lJnear-bv-Lincar Association .842 1 .359 LN «Lvillid CLai£5 177 120

Survey: 1. Consent This page is to ensure survey participants grant consent to participate in Critical Mass: A Poly-rhythmic Re- appropriation? Study Critical Mass: A Polyrhythmic Re-appropriation? Principle Investigator: Andrew Bieler, M.A. Candidate in Communication and Culture, York University. The research is being conducted under the guidance of Professor Janine Marchessault. Purpose: The following survey is being conducted as part of a research project on critical mass, entitled Critical Mass: A Polyrhythmic Re-appropriation? The purpose of the research is to determine the relationship between critical mass and other forms of cycling activism and advocacy in Canada. Participation: The survey should only take three to six minutes of your time. There are no physical or mental risks involved in your participation. While the study will not directly benefit you, the research will contribute to our knowledge of cycling activism and communities involved in the politics of cycling. Your participation is a contribution to the pursuit of this knowledge and is greatly appreciated. If you decide to stop participating or refuse to answer any questions, it will not affect your relationship with the researcher or York University or any other group associated with this project. While SSL encryption is utilized to ensure the confidentiality of information provided in this survey, participants should be aware that transmission of data over the Internet is not guaranteed to be completely secure and should properly consider this risk. The responses you give to this questionnaire will remain strictly confidential and anonymous. The methods used to ensure complete anonymity and confidentiality include the encryption of data, provided through survey monkey, and the absence of any questions asking for your name. The data you submit to this survey will be securely stored on a closed account at surveymonkey.com. After the survey is closed, the data will be securely stored on the primary researchers hard drive for a period of two years. If you decide to withdraw from the study, all associated data collected from the study will be immediately destroyed. If you decide to participate in this study you will retain the right not to answer questions. Also, you will retain the right to withdraw from the study at any time. Should you decide to withdraw, the data generated as a consequence of your participation will be destroyed. Please feel free to contact me about this research at [email protected]. If you wish to speak to me by telephone, I can be reached at 416 994 0697. You can also contact Ms. Alison Collins-Mrakas, Manager, Research Ethics, 309 York Lanes, York University (telephone 416-736-5914 or e-mail [email protected]). If you wish to participate, please answer yes to the consent question below: * 1. Having read and understood the terms of this study, do you grant consent to participate in the following survey? 0¥t* o*

2. Motility and Motivation

* i. What if pur primary means of transportation? (check mora than one box for a combination)

Fj Rqsii [_j Public Trantlt OtlMf

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6th«sr (jiBaSs *p*c%| ] * 2. What kind of bicycling -do you most commonly pursue? (please check one box only)

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j_J R«r«attof»ii Cycling j_J Touring cycling |_j FittMM cycling O N**.* «*« Q ***** Q V**— C^taB * 1.. Do you own a car? O Ym

4. What is your main motivation for participating in critical mass rides? _ ...... „ _ ..,___. ~ „_ „_._„..„..__»._-»--_..~^

* S. How long have you participated In critical mass?

Q l-S MtstMlts Q 4-J fears Q Owtr IS fears

* 6.. How many times have you cycled in critical mass during the past twelve months? o o o O * O * O " 0» O O" O* O • o o

3. Participation and Staying Informed * 1, How dlii you first hear about critical mass?

Q fester Qi Btag Q Pr)*m

Qfther C3 C*c'l"S i*i* r_j s.#4io

(~) T€f«vi*iwn Cffwrag® Q> atnttiwt Q a«» n »i* <*•

Q website fj Online Perom

Q Xeratr»c^iSy*r fj Weekly Newspaper

Otw (plea** specify) —1 '»»>...., A ,.„ » ,'.,~. WW . .'. ~ it :i m„ (i ^^

* 2. How do you stay informed about critical mass stories, news and. 'events between the morttly rides? (Please check only those media that you regularly use too stay informed)

I J Word of mouth Jtawbtak WeeXly Newspaper

J_j cydMig wMn [_] SKHt (MBwwWim silt lotlw aim [_] N»tion# aie»wp*p«f

• CrtVctl Pttsi wttaitt • Mag* I j l«alt [""1 lines

Other (pjease specify}

* 3. Do you ever participate in any cycling oriented blogs? {notes participation simply reading or actively posting on a biog) 4. If you answered Yes to question #3 (above), please list all the blags that you read in the text box provided below or check the blogs you read from the- provided list;

j~| omma Critical Hiss [H| TiketftttooKir |_J Bflw Un« Dliiy

|_j mm Toronto [_] SIMIW cr iticni mm (_J cmy BiMr cm*

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l~j Gtft*r r_J: (tynftmic CBWal Mis* Vsn. :[_J P1t»s» lisc »« Cyclum ilofi you #»aL:

§. Do yoy administer any cycling blogs?

6. Bo you ever post writing, comments, photographs, videos or links on cycling blogs? 0Y*»

7. How often do you post writing, comments, links, photographs or videos on cycling blogs?

'.K.'I > (.• '.Vv 3- • *!•" ?.•;! ! :".f:i » :.:j :::.* or: i* »f "v "*» J. .i-ly ! V :'H "h^l f I'.fe '.••-'? H»:JO liw iV •"•'il 1*1 ."f « V "•••' ! '"! •'"• j >"' fri-M":"'; f- "'•. f J At^kj •-•,-lir;:-;*-,n:-.fr;c::: OOOO (."r-'-ii-rs 0 0 0 . r-Vi c^ 0 0 0 -h.--:q-jr-' w 0 0 0 V : •! 3: 0 0 0 4. Basics

• i, What is your date of birth? MM BD YYTY Batt u'Hilfc. )/ |*'' *|

* 2. What Is your current profession or livelihood?

¥A 3. How would you name your racial Identity? j J African Csisasiiaii | | Whi&s {Caucasian) n I ] Mixed race [_] African LJ MiU*, Morth | | Aboriginal {inuit, [~1 Black (•„(!,, Afflarij Hittiw, Amc-rican fails*...1 iamaieiu, Somali...) • Uttln AHMrtcen SwthcuSt Asian D P] south Asters {e.g. list Indian, j 1 Araa Pakistani, Srt LaiiS«!H..J

j j Oeicr ?piease Indicete aelow}

* 4. What is your sex?

Q Male

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Memo

To: Andrew Bieler, Department of Communications and Culture abieler@,vorku.ca From: Alison M. Collins-Mrakas, Manager, Research Ethics

Date: Friday 18th April 2008

Re: Ethics Approval Critical Mass: A Polyrhythmic Re-Appropriation

I am writing to inform you that the Human Participants Review Sub-Committee has reviewed and approved the above project.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at: 416-736-5914 or via email at: [email protected].

Yours sincerely,

Alison M. Collins-Mrakas M.Sc, LLM Manager, Office of Research Ethics Works Cited

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Sheller, Mimi, and John Urry. 2006a. Mobile Technologies of the City. New York: Routledge.

. 2006b. The new mobilities paradigm. Environment and Planning A 38(2): 207-26.

Sojourner, Anna. 2002. How Critical Mass Changed the World. In Carlsson 2002,74-5.

Spinney, Justin. 2007. Cycling the City: Non-Place and the Sensory Construction of Meaning in a Mobile Practice. In Horton, Rosen, and Cox 2007, 25-45.

Statistics Canada. 2006a. [Topic Based Tabulation. 2006 Census of Population.] Mode of Transportation (9) and Sex (3) for the Employed Labour Force 15 Years and Over Having a Uusal Place of Work or Fixed Workplace Address of Canada, Provinces, TERRITORIES, census metropolitan areas and Census Agglomerations, 2006 Census—20% Sample Data table). Statistics Canada. 2008.

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Newspaper & Magazine Articles

Cheney, Peter. 2006. Two against four: the war of the wheels. Globe & Mail, Feb. 4. A17.

Croft, Adrian. 1997. Road Rage San Franciscans Wage War of the Wheels. Toronto Star, Aug. 2. D9.

Elton, Sarah. 1999. Cyclists charged during mass ride; One arrested, several ticketed at monthly event. Toronto Star, Aug. 28. Gastick, Shiela. 1998. The Day Bloor Fell to the People: then the cops. Now Magazine, May 21-27.

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31.All.

. 2005. New York Bike Militant wheels into town. Globe & Mail, Aug. 18.

. 2007. Cyclists: Use your head and wear a helmet. Globe & Mail, Apr. 23. A12. Howell, Albert. 2006. Revelations of a curb hopper. Globe & Mail, Apr 11. A18.

Luksic, Nicola 2000. Cyclists hit downtown streets tonight ready to spin into Critical Mass. National Post, Jan 28. A19.

McNeillie, George. 2004. Bicycle Bad Guys. Globe & Mail, June 1. A20.

Porter, Catherine. 2002. Young, educated—and militant. Toronto Star, June 30. A01.

Roberts, Siobhan. 2003. A Bullet for every driver. Globe & Mail, Oct. 18. Ml.

Sandals, Leah. 2007. The Bike Lane. Canadian Art, Fall 2007. 83^1.

Toronto Star. Editorial: Sharing the Road. Aug. 29. A24.

Toronto Cycling Blogs and Cycling Websites

Bike Pirates, http://bikepirates.com/events.html

Biking Toronto, http://www.bikingtoronto.com/bikefriday

Community Bicycle Network, http://www.communitybicyclenetwork.org

Dool, Herb van den, Tammy Thorne, and Anthony Humphries. I Bike TO. So Can You. http://www.ibiketo.ca

Koob, Martin. Bike Toronto: Toronto's Latest Cycling News, http://biketoronto.ca Reis, Martin. Bike Lane Diary, http://bikelanediary.blogspot.com

. Urban Repair Squad, http://www.urbanrepairs.blogspot.com

Stehr, Darren. Toronto Cranks, http://www.torontocranks.com

Takethetooker. http ://www.takethetooker.ca

Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation. http://www.torontocat.

Toronto Cyclists Union, http://bikeunion.to

Interviews

Amlani, Shamez. Personal Interview. April 26, 2008.

Bambrick, Yvonne. Personal Interview. April 26, 2008.

Bischoff, Angela. Personal Interview. April 29, 2008.

Evans, H. Personal Interview. April 20, 2008.

Humphries, Anthony. Personal Interview. April 22,2008.

Lee, Doug. Personal Interview. April 27,2008.

Louis Johnson, Michael. Personal Interview. April 26, 2008.

Reis, Martin. Personal Interview. April 27, 2008.

Sherry Yangstein. Personal Interview. May 2, 2008.

Stehr, Darren. Personal Interview. April 27, 2008.

Thorne, Tammy. Personal Interview. April 21,2008.

Tooley, Jane. Personal Interview. April 23, 2008.

Vega, Ketan. Personal Interview. May 1, 2008. Filmography

Critical Mass: A Documentary about Bike Messengers. http://www.dontshootthemessengers.com/themass/themass. Date Unavailable.

Martin de la Rue. Martin Reis. 2007.

Pedal Power: A Documentary on Critical Mass Toronto. Dir. Celeste Koon. Ryerson University Film Program. 2007.

Return of the Scorcher. Dir. Ted White. Green Light Productions. 1992. Rick goes to Mass. Dir. Martin Reis. Video. Perf. Rick Conroy. 2006.

Still we Ride. Dir. Elizabeth Press, Andrew Lynn, and Christopher Ryan. In Tandem Productions. 2005.

We are Traffic! Dir. Ted White. Green Light Productions. 1999.

You Never Bike Alone. Dir. Bob Alstead . I CYCLE.CA Productions Limited. Perf. Richard Campbell, Fred Bass, and Russel Adams. 2007.