May's Bike Month Critical Mass reportedly drew more participants than usual, and NYPD responded by handing out a passel of trumped-up summonses. No surprise there, but as this video (from glassbeadian via Gothamist) shows, officers on scooters went so far as to follow riders down the Hudson River Greenway.

Barbara Ross of Time's Up thinks police may have been acting in retaliation to recent movement on the long-standing Five Borough Bike Club lawsuit to overturn the parade permit requirement for bike rides of 50 or more cyclists. Check the Gothamist post for another vid that features scooter cops picking out which cyclists to harass.

This week's events make Halloween seem like a long time ago, but it was only last Friday when Clarence Eckerson, on a west coast jaunt for Streetfilms, shot this video of Critical Mass in San Francisco. Some think it was the city's biggest mass ride ever. Clarence offers a possible explanation:

With monthly rides under attack in some cities, it is interesting to see the tactic that San Francisco takes. The police department is practically hands off, and the ride is very peaceful and non-confrontational. Even drivers and spectators don't seem to mind the action.

"So," Clarence wonders, "why can't it be the same in NYC?"

What’s the future of New York? What are your hopes, and what needs to happen?

Matt Besser: I want them to get rid of that law that inhibits Critical Mass. It’s a great human event -- especially in a city filled with buildings and concrete.
Amy Poehler: I wish we had those shared-bike programs.
Ian Roberts: Yeah. I’d get all those bikes. And I’d take them to my apartment.
Amy Poehler: I want to be able to teleport to other neighborhoods. I’ve been waiting for that to happen for a while.

And, when asked what the L.A. transplants miss about New York:

Matt Walsh: Walking around everywhere, the food...
Ian Roberts: In L.A., you go straight from your air-conditioned house to your air-conditioned car to your air-conditioned office. Walking around in New York, it's refreshing to know that you're part of humanity.

Next press stop for these guys? How about Streetsblog LA.

The official account of the incident, which was witnessed by dozens of people, would almost certainly have gone unchallenged if not for a video that surfaced on YouTube, drawing over a million views and making news across the country. Said Long's attorney, David B. Rankin:

"We're just very lucky this videotape surfaced, and we're very thankful the DA's office did the right thing in dropping these charges."

"This was a case where the officer's sworn testimony was contradicted by the videotape," Rankin said. "It raises serious questions about other cases that don't have the luxury of a videotape."

Times Up! noted the disparity between police treatment of mass rides in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and called for an end to the city's schizoid behavior toward cycling in general:

"Time's Up! is thrilled by this victory in court and we remain positive that this decision will convince the Mayor and the NYPD to treat the Manhattan Critical Mass ride in non-violent and sensible matter similar to how they currently treat the monthly Critical Mass Ride in Brooklyn," said Judy Ross, Time's Up! spokesperson. "Time's Up! also demands that Mayor Bloomberg immediately instruct the NYPD that bicyclists are part of every day traffic and that the increase of bicycling is a positive trend that the city recognizes and is accommodating."

Rankin said Long has not decided whether he will sue the city. Meanwhile, the Daily News says the PD is "still investigating" the incident. Pogan was placed on desk duty.

You can just see the planning meeting for what organizers are calling the "greenest" national political convention ever. Special perks for hybrids? Check. Biofuel powered buses? Check. Solar powered green area? Check. Bike racks? Nope. Sorry, the Secret Service says they're too dangerous.

The Colorado Independent reports that there will be no bikes allowed within the DNC perimeter of the Pepsi Center, nor at Invesco Field, where Barack Obama will deliver his acceptance speech. Convention organizers cite the Secret Service and the Denver Police Department as making all security-related mandates.

Meanwhile, national advocacy group Bikes Belong has arranged for 1,000 bicycles to be available during the convention week for free to anyone with I.D. and a credit card.

One can't help but wonder if the crackdown on Critical Mass at the 2004 Republican National Convention had anything to do with the Secret Service's view that bicycles represent a security threat. Before the last RNC, officials tried and failed to get Critical Mass banned during the convention. When the ride took place and attracted 5,000 riders, 250 of them ended up in jail.

Photo: blkmarket/Flickr

Time is running out. The Five Borough Bike Club and several others are plaintiffs in a lawsuit which challenges New York City's attempts to suppress Critical Mass rides. The Court has given us an August 8 deadline to gather information concerning summonses, arrests and other NYPD action against bicyclists. For those of you who don't know, the suit challenges the constitutionality of recently implemented rules that require a group of 50 or more to obtain an NYPD permit before proceeding together (the "Parade Permit Rules"). The suit also challenges various other tactics that NYPD uses to target and suppress Critical Mass rides. Details on how to provide information you believe may be helpful are provided at the end of this post.

So far, we have already gathered evidence of unlawful conduct by the NYPD, including evidence which shows that:

• NYPD "profiles" suspected Critical Mass participants for selective enforcement of the law as they ride their bikes individually in the vicinity of Union Square prior to the start of the ride, as shown in this video.
• NYPD tickets cyclists during these "profiling" operations and points to them as proof of Critical Mass's lawlessness, even when the summonses were issued on evenings when no Critical Mass ride took place and/or for violations which are not relevant to bicyclists, such as "no seatbelt" [download a summary of these tactics].
• NYPD has systematically arrested and summonsed Critical Mass participants without any valid basis. The charges frequently have been dismissed.
• NYPD officers have repeatedly used excessive and dangerous force against Critical Mass participants.

As one NYPD officer candidly told a Critical Mass bicyclist while ticketing him for an equipment violation, the policy of selective and unlawful enforcement was triggered by the August 2004 Critical Mass bicyclists' protests against the Republican National Convention. We contend that such protest activities provide no lawful reasons to establish the 50-person limit on public processions, or to suppress or selectively enforce the law against Critical Mass month after month [download].

The Court requires us to collect all relevant documents, photographs and videotape by August 8, 2008. If you believe you have evidence that is relevant to the suit, we ask that you send it to us.

This is not an offer to provide individuals with lawyers or legal representation. We request that you voluntarily provide information for use as evidence in the lawsuit. If you can help, please send us a brief email describing the information you have, and including a daytime phone number where you can be reached and/or an email address, to: [lawsuitinfo] [at] [5BBC] [dot] [org]. Please contact us about the lawsuit only through this email address.

Thanks so much for your help and support.

Best regards,
5BBC

Words fail when watching this clip of an NYPD officer forcibly knocking a Critical Mass rider to the pavement last Friday. The assault was caught on video by a bystander in Times Square. Compounding the injustice, reports Gothamist, is what happened next:

A representative for TIMES UP! tells us that the cyclist in this video was arrested, held for 26 hours, and charged with attempted assault and resisting arrest.

Mark Taylor, an attorney with the firm representing the cyclist, says he is hopeful the charges will be dropped in light of the video evidence. Asked whether the NYPD plans to go ahead with the charges, a department spokesman said the matter is being investigated. Since the video surfaced, the officer has been put on desk duty.

The Reverend Al Sharpton, the family of Sean Bell, and an all-star cast of civil liberties advocates joined cyclists in Union Square last Friday for one of the more anticipated Critical Mass rides in recent memory. The gathering, which filled up the south end of the park, came three weeks after the Reverend led hundreds of supporters in an attempt to shut down major bridges and tunnels, protesting the acquittal of the officers who shot and killed Bell.

After a roster of speakers addressed topics ranging from parade rules to police violence to gay marriage, Sharpton tied up the disparate strands with a call for mutual support in the face of NYPD misconduct:

When we can come together as Critical Mass, if we can ride together, if we can protest together, we can make this city livable for everybody together. This is the picture they don't want to see -- people of all ages and all backgrounds and all races that will stand together. Because as long as they can play one community against each other, they get through the middle. It's when we gather as historically has happened at Union Square that the powers that be have to turn and buckle... When you demand the right to ride, that is all Sean Bell was doing that night, is trying to ride. And we are going to work together to have a critical mass in this city, where we can ride in justice.

The question is: What is wrong with the morals of a city that thinks there's something wrong with men going home from their bachelor's party? They're suspect. But it's the same mentality that tells us we can't gather in a square or a park, and read and talk and discuss.

After Sharpton's remarks, Sean Bell's father, William Bell, said what must have been on many people's minds: "I really came to see Reverend Al ride that bike." Sharpton didn't disappoint, eschewing a pedicab that had been reserved for him in favor of his own ride. With the way clogged by photographers, Sharpton got off to a halting start before hitting his stride and riding a circuit from 14th Street, down Fifth Avenue to 12th Street, and back up University Place to the square.

Before the event got underway, I had a minute to speak with civil rights attorney Norman Siegel, who has been involved in the Sean Bell case and in the defense of cyclists' rights. I asked Siegel what he saw as the link between the two.

"There's a huge difference between Critical Mass and Sean Bell," he said, "but there is a need for oversight of the NYPD. When the police abuse the civil rights of Sean Bell, and when they abuse the rights of cyclists, there's common ground." He outlined three steps that could serve as unifying goals: having a permanent special prosecutor for police conduct (currently, NYPD lawyers prosecute cops); putting some more teeth in the Civilian Complaint Review Board; and improving the training of police officers.

On this last point, he said: "This job is so stressful, after 10 or 12 years, you could have someone ready to explode... the cop loses it in some situations. In the Sean Bell situation, they could have handled it differently. And it's the same here. With bicyclists, they're hostile, they grab 'em. There has to be better training."

As for the ride itself, the police showed no inclination to start changing their standard approach to Critical Mass. "There were a lot of tickets given for not having lights and not being in bike lanes," said Mark Taylor, an attorney with FreeWheels, the group that organized the rally. "Those aren't real tickets."

Nicole Bell, Sean Bell's widow, addresses the crowd.

The crowd filled up most of the south end of Union Square.

Reverend Al gets ready to ride.

Video: Jen Chung / Gothamist

Photos: Ben Fried

As the City Council takes up legislation to lift NYPD rules against public assembly, cyclists and advocates will hold a rally and press conference before tonight's Critical Mass ride.

From BikeBlog:

Critical Mass participants will be joined by a diverse group of videographers, artists, activists and politicians outraged over NYPD regulatory constraints on the civil liberties of New Yorkers. Prominent speakers from the community will participate in the "Still We Speak" rally to denounce the NYPD's First Amendment abuses, including the parade permit rules which limit the number of people who can legally assemble in a public place.

In addition to the council bill, the police department also faces a suit brought by the Five Borough Bike Club. For you legal types, here is a plaintiff's motion citing arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement by the NYPD, as illustrated in the video, along with notes and summonses from the July 2007 Critical Mass. In footage to be shown at tonight's event, officers are seen roughing up and detaining citizens for taking pictures and video of police action in Times Square during the March 2007 ride.

Tonight's events start at Union Square North at 7:00 p.m.

Video: rusticumjudicium/YouTube

City Council Member Rosie Mendez has introduced a bill to overturn the NYPD's parade permit rules, which require groups of over 50 to obtain a permit before assembling. Enacted a year ago, the rules were seen as a way for the city to subvert Critical Mass rides and have been the subject of civil rights action and at least one lawsuit.

Mendez, along with Alan Gerson and Gale Brewer, were to introduce the "First Amendment Assembly Act" yesterday. According to a media release, the bill [PDF] "decriminalizes parading without a permit and allows groups that need exceptions to various laws, such as traffic laws, to obtain such for their events."

Streetsblog has posted consistently on how the NYPD seems more intent on harassing cyclists than protecting them. And just last week Commissioner Ray Kelly got an earful from citizens who are fed up with unsafe conditions for cyclists and pedestrians.

The full press release from Mendez follows the jump.

COUNCIL MEMBER MENDEZ INTRODUCES BILL TO PROTECT THE FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHT TO ASSEMBLE

Wednesday March 26th 2008

At today's Stated City Council meeting, Council Member Rosie Mendez (District 2, Manhattan), along with Council Members Alan Gerson and Gale Brewer, will introduce a bill to balance the NYPD's duty to ensure public safety with citizens' right to free assembly. If enacted into law, the bill will override the parade permit rules adopted by the NYPD a year ago which were created without City Council oversight and require any group of 50 or more to obtain a permit. Currently, anyone in such a group without a permit is subject to arrest.

A copy of the legislation being introduced can be downloaded from the Assemble For Rights NYC website:
http://www.assembleforrightsnyc.org/files/a4r/legal/parade_bill_final_draft.doc

"Groups wishing to assemble and stay within the limits of the law should not be required to obtain a permit; the First Amendment is our permit" stated Council Member Mendez. "Larger assemblies that want the police to
assist in managing traffic along their route and ensure security should be able to apply for a permit through a fair and transparent process. This bill sets forth clear guidelines for each instance."

The First Amendment Assembly Act, based on legislation drafted by the civil rights advocacy group Assemble For Rights NYC, decriminalizes parading without a permit and allows groups that need exceptions to various laws, such as traffic laws, to obtain such for their events.

A parade permit will not be required when:
* A group believes their proposed assembly will not prevent other lawful uses of the same city public space and the expected attendance of the assembly will be less than 100, or
* The assembly is an immediate and spontaneous response to an event.

The Act also sets forth guidelines for the NYPD to facilitate peaceful assemblies even when a group should have obtained a permit but did not. Furthermore, the Act also encourages calmer resolutions to assemblies which become too difficult for the NYPD to facilitate: these guidelines include providing clearly communicated dispersal orders and reasonable opportunities to disperse before making any arrests.

The Act is similar to rules which were created to govern assemblies in Washington D.C. in the wake of mass arrests that eventually cost D.C. millions in civil penalties. D.C.'s laws have successfully reduced tensions between police and citizens there, and significantly reduced that city's legal liability to wrongful arrest civil suits, while ensuring public safety.

Assemble For Rights NYC (http://assembleforrightsnyc.org), is a coalition of over two dozen organizations dedicated to keeping free speech alive and well in New York City.

Photo: Doug Letterman/Flickr

Streetsblog reader George Henik directs our attention to the excellent new BBC documentary "Road Rage," a British version of Contested Streets -- minus the advocacy -- that examines the intensifying conflict between motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians in the UK. The Beeb describes the situation as a war of succession: 

For 40 years, Britain's motorists have been the kings of the road, claiming their title through tax discs and fuel duty. But now the balance of power is shifting. There are new pretenders to the throne. Pedestrians and cyclists want equal rights on the road, and this has sparked a war. Our roads are now a battleground.

There are 27 million cars on Britain's roads, an increase of over 5 million in 10 years. But there are also 23 million bicycles fighting with them for road space.

The whole hour is well worth watching, but here are some highlights:

• 4:21 - Great clips from a pro-biking TV spot sponsored by Transport for London and the Mayor's Office.
• 8:42 - Hilarious segment comparing a bus load of chatty kids to an SUV-driving, road rage-suppressing father taking his son to school.
  
• 16:10 - A bit about cyclists who jump red lights and the bobbies who ticket them.
  
• 31:15 - A look at one of London's least pedestrian-friendly intersections, Henley's Corner, and how one elderly man negotiates it.
  
• 51:50 - Competitive cyclist Emma Davies-Jones talks about why she moved from Britain to the more bike-friendly Belgium.
• 52:56 - Critical Mass in London.
  

And yes, somewhere in there are clips of the World Naked Bike Ride.

Speaking of Contested Streets, Stefan Schaefer's doc about NYC gridlock has been picked up by the Sundance Channel. It will air sometime after April 1st, details to come.

Enter Sam Schwartz to break the political gridlock. New York City traffic guru, consultant and former DOT Traffic Commissioner calls himself a "strong proponent" of Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing efforts. Schwartz is quietly shopping around a variation on City Hall's traffic plan that he believes could generate "broad-based support" and serve as the basis for a "good potential compromise" between congestion pricing advocates and their outer borough and suburban opponents.

Schwartz's plan, which you can download here, is based on the premise that New York City's overall road pricing scheme is irrational, dysfunctional and makes very little sense from a traffic management perspective:

Adding to the dysfunction, Schwartz notes, is the fact that four separate agencies manage the city's traffic and control the region's transportation funds: The Port Authority, MTA Bridge & Tunnel, and the City and State Departments of Transportation.

And don't forget the federal government! Senator Alfonse D'Amato helped to create one of New York City's most egregiously senseless road pricing policies when, in 1986, he pushed to eliminate the inbound tolls on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge as a gift to Staten Island Republicans. The "New Jersey Trucker's Special," as Schwartz calls it, "encourages truckers to barrel down the rickety BQE and downtown Brooklyn's neighborhood streets, bounce across the creaky Manhattan Bridge, thunder over choked Canal Street, and leave the city via the Holland Tunnel," which is also free going westbound. Using this circuitous route, New Jersey and Staten Island truckers and commuters can save as much as $58 per trip in tolls.

Schwartz's plan proposes wiping the slate clean and redesigning New York City's entire road pricing system. The new system would seek to impose fees on drivers only "where there is serious congestion and where there are good transit options." He would remove or reduce tolls on every inter-borough crossing except the ones that lead directly into Manhattan's Central Business District and he would set Manhattan's 60th Street as the pricing zone's northern boundary.

"Give something back to the boroughs by eliminating some of the tolls," Schwartz says. "Reduce the Verrazano toll. Lower or eliminate the Throgs Neck, Whitestone and Henry Hudson tolls. Let the people in Rockaway go grocery shopping without having to pay $4.50. Only apply pricing where you have heavy congestion and good transit."

Schwartz's plan includes a number of other suggestions: Set traffic reduction targets and if they are exceeded the congestion fee will be reduced, thru-trucks would "get socked" with a $100 charge, bus fares would be reduced in neighborhoods with no subway access (like the ones that Council member Lew Fidler represents), the the Staten Island Expressway would be widened and the Goethals Bridge double-decked.

While Schwartz is pretty non-specific when it comes to costs, revenues and traffic impacts, he argues that a bridge-oriented pricing system would be significantly cheaper to set up and run than the system being proposed by the Mayor. As for the political feasibility of the plan, you can't help but notice the word "FREE!" stamped across many of the districts that are currently most opposed to Mayor Bloomberg's pricing plan, on the map above.

With the Traffic Mitigation Commission working away and $354.5 million in federal transportation funds dangling in front of New York City, this may be the best opportunity in decades to bring together New York City's balkanized transportation agencies and hash out a new, regional transportation policy. Clearly, that's not likely to happen if outer borough and suburban politicians aren't on board. Which is why it sure would be interesting to see Gridlock Sam's compromise plan in the hands of an ambitious outer borough politician with mayoral ambitions. 

Here is Schwartz's entire presentation:

| View | Upload your own

REPORTER: Jan Gehl is an urban designer, also from Copenhagen, who advises the city's Department of Transportation. Like his friend and mentor, the late Jane Jacobs, Gehl speaks of the 'humanization' of the city's streets, which he thinks have become 'infested' by cars. But Gehl thinks Manhattan, given its density and flatness, is perfectly positioned for a wide-scale conversion.

GEHL: It would be a piece of cake to have a really high class bicycle system which could take care of half of the commuting in Manhattan.

REPORTER: Gehl thinks that the political pressures arising from gas prices and the green movement will force the city to adopt bicycling fast. He says real change may be visible here within 5 years, and that the city could be profoundly altered in about 10 years. As more people take to riding bikes, it becomes safer, which in turn encourages more people to ride. Gehl sees major economic benefits as well, as people tend to linger more - in public plazas, or stores or sidewalk cafes - when air and noise pollution go down.

GEHL: In Europe increasingly we are trying to make the cities so that they are wonderful places, where you like to go out and sit and have meals and watch your fellow citizens, talk with them in spaces which are not completely filled with noise. Something about being a public citizens who enjoys his city.

... 

As we ride along 8th avenue, we're forced into the car lane because of all the double-parking law-breakers.

At one point, a man in a huge SUV pulls up next to us and honks his horn. The driver rolls down his window, and he shouts, 'There's only one bike lane, bro!'

Noah ignores him, then watches as the guy runs a red light. And he's at peace.

BUDNICK: the next thing, he's stuck in gridlock, and you're 10 blocks ahead of him five minutes later. Brings a smile.

Feel the Love: Brooklyn Critical Mass
A StreetFilm by Clarence Eckerson
Running Time: 3 minutes 51 seconds

How about this: A Critical Mass bike ride, without arrests or unrest. In Brooklyn this has been the scene for three years running. Check out the NYPD getting along with the 150-or-so cyclists who ventured out last Friday to celebrate their right to be the traffic.

I was recently in Bogotá for their weekly Ciclovia event and experienced first hand what may be one of the simplest and most powerful ideas for bringing a livable streets movement into reality.

Ciclovia spans over 70 miles of the city every Sunday and holiday, enabling people to explore communities previously perceived as unwelcoming to anyone but cars.

"It is like a gigantic
paved park that is open 7 hours a week, and people of all ages and backgrounds
take over the otherwise car dominated space and have fun." This is how Gil (Guillermo) Peñalosa describes the event that he led to world renowned success.

Ciclovia is no small accomplishment. With great leadership in the city from Gil and others the event has grown to
where now, every Sunday and holiday an average of 1.5 million (up to 2 million) people use more than 70 Miles of
city streets for everything but driving cars.

All modes (except cars) and all ages, sizes, classes share the road.
The event seems as simple and direct a way as possible at
addressing the great class and race divides in Colombia.

When Gil Peñalosa was first Parks
commissioner, in the administration before his brother's (Enrique), there were eight miles and about 140,000 riders every Sunday; in two years he had increased the distance to 70 miles and 1.5 million people! Gil also led the creation of a managerial
structure, with managers, volunteers, uniforms, marketing, signage, and other activities such
as aerobics, bike day, food vendors, and bike repair stands.

Gil likes to say that "You will see people in
$5,000 bikes and others in $50 bikes, and all having the same fun! Rich and poor,
young and old, men and woman, tall or short... ALL!" The event is also credited with generating everyday
bicycle riders for the extensive network of protected bicycle lanes in the city
(implemented by Enrique's administration) by quickly getting people
comfortable riding bikes in a city that previously had very few bicyclists.

A lawbreaker is reprimanded, politely, by the ride facilitators. Cyclovia
is the ultimate critical mass ride with 350 city employees helping to make
people feel safe and comfortable.

An average of 1.5 million attending in a city of seven million is a very popular
event. Surveys show that it is not the
same 1.5 m every week, but that at least four million are users at some time of
the year. The surveys showed that the average time that people spent on the
Ciclovia was 4 hours and 15 minutes, where their normal excise routine lasted only 48 minutes.

Gil is sure to point out though that "they go to walk or bike, skate or
do aerobics... AND to watch people, a preferred activity by human beings." Certainly, what struck me more than anything else was just how the opportunity to be outside and around other people seemed to make the thousands of people I saw so happy and friendly.

Clearly, it is an idea that can be relatively easily applied in many different
forms in a wide range of urban contexts. As
Gil says, "the infrastructure is there, there are no major needs of
capital investments, no sports complex to build. It is an operational cost and
it takes political will, public sector staff that are doers (looking for solutions to problems and not problems to solutions), and community engagement."

In a city that has been built for children, the children, and most every other public space user,
seem to reflect the respect given to them.

How would we start planning such an idea in NYC? How could it be
phased in, in a politically feasible manner that could test the concept while
drawing people from around the city and getting enough use to make it
work? Could we close Broadway on Sundays? How about Brooklyn's 5th
Avenue, or Bedford Avenue (closing some streets to cars
in Hassidic neighborhoods on a Saturday might be appropriate)? Where else?

The city's Critical Mass crackdown has apparently reduced the number of participants -- or maybe it was the weather. Either way, the spirit and ingenuity of the riders remains intact.

According to BikeBlog, rather than succumb to the scooter cop horde like "lambs to the slaughter," cyclists gathered for Friday's mass decamped from Union Square, walked their bikes to the 4 train, and regrouped on Broadway for an unmolested ride.

Ironically, the group was too small to be in violation of the new permit law, yet officers still pursued the cyclists underground with "erratic fervor" to question them as to whether they had swiped their MetroCards. One rider was reportedly issued a summons for taking his bike through an exit door.

Other than that, we were scot-free.

As we headed up Church St. towards Canal, it seemed that a lot more people knew who we were. There was a lot of friendly supportive honking from motor vehicles and crowd waving. We stayed mostly downtown and our numbers grew a little as others joined in and meet up from Union Square...I still think we were always just under 50...so we were technically legal.

It was a successful critical mass...no tickets, no arrests and no cops.

Video: Time's Up! and Team Spider via BikeBlog

Up to 200 cyclists gathered Friday evening for the first Critical Mass since the city law took effect limiting unpermitted bike rides and other public events to fewer than 50 people. With all the professional and citizen journalists on-hand to witness the "showdown" between cyclists and the NYPD, one wonders if the restriction might be extended to the media.

Though arrests were few, by all accounts the ride was significantly disrupted. WNYC reported the number of cyclists as "about 200," and said "many riders only got a block" before running into an NYPD barricade on Park Avenue.

Newsday says three cyclists were arrested and 47 were issued summonses or violations. The NYPD told the paper that two of those arrested were charged with disordlerly conduct and obstructing governmental administration, while charges were pending against the third. Bikeblog (via Gothamist) said summonses were handed out "to people who did not have a bell or a light or some other law on the books that is enforced about as frequent as someone driving on a cell phone."

Despite incorrectly referring to Critical Mass as an "organization," CW11 filed a favorable story, which included an interview with this woman before her arrest. Said reporter Arthur Chi'en: "We did not get the impression she was a rabble-rouser."

Will at onNYTurf says "Freewheels, which provides legal assistance to arrested cyclists, speculated that arrests were likely low as mass arrests might jeopardise the City's defense in the 5 Borough Bike Club case ... Mass arrests could make the NYPD look unreasonable." Will notes that City Councilwoman Rosie Mendez, who rode along in a pedicab, "was not touched by the NYPD" -- a "good move on their part."

The Village Voice pointed out that "[F]or all of Police Commissioner Ray Kelly's bluster about there being a new law in town, none of the Critical Mass riders were actually ticketed for parading without a permit. "Rather," the Voice continued, "the cops hit people up for a host of minor traffic violations like failing to keep to the right, not having a headlight, or not riding in the bike lane -- even though there is no bike lane on Park Avenue."

Photo: Seth W. via Flickr

Chris Carlsson, one of the original founders of the Critical Mass bicycling movement, writes, "a funny thing happened during the last decade of the 20th century. Paralleling events that transpired a century earlier, a social movement emerged based on the bicycle."

Heck, I couldn't have said it better myself. Carlsson's article appeared in an academic journal called Affinities: A Journal of Radical Theory, Culture & Action (PDF). It's good stuff but not the lightest reading.

This curious, multifaceted phenomenon constitutes an important arena of autonomous politics. The bicycle has become a cultural signifier that begins to unite people across economic and racial strata. It signals a sensibility that stands against oil wars and the environmental devastation wrought by the oil and chemical industries, the urban decay imposed by cars and highways, the endless monocultural sprawl spreading outward into exurban zones. This new bicycling subculture stands for localism, a more human pace, more face-to-face interaction, hands-on technological self-sufficiency, reuse and recycling, and a healthy urban environment that is friendly to self-propulsion, pleasant smells and sights, and human conviviality.

• State Comptroller Alan Hevesi was forced from office earlier this year for doing the exact same thing.
• Kelly is an absolute stickler, and willing to spare no expense, to encourage lawful behavior when it comes to large groups of cyclists on city streets.
• Kelly's agency is responsible for 46% of parking permit abuse by government employees, by far the largest share from any single agency.
  

Between 2002, when Kelly returned as commissioner, and late 2006, when the accusations against Hevesi surfaced, plain-clothes detectives from Kelly's nine-man security detail had driven his wife Veronica in unmarked police cars on hundreds of personal trips about the city, these detectives say.

One detective said the detail drove Mrs. Kelly as many as three or four times a week.

Another detective said that "while three or four times a week may be too much, it did happen frequently, involving plenty of vehicles and plenty of personnel. No question about it."

These included, the detectives say, picking Mrs. Kelly up on the Upper East Side when her car broke down; driving her to fundraising events or to the shelter where she volunteered; and taking her to and from airports for domestic and foreign flights.

Occasionally, when Mrs. Kelly ran late, she directed the detail to use lights and sirens, a practice Commissioner Kelly had banned for himself, unless it involved a police emergency, the detectives say.

"I know my husband doesn't like to do this but I need to get there right away," a detective quoted her as saying when she was running late to a fundraiser.

"The commissioner's wife tells you to put the lights on, you put the lights on," the detective said.

Two blocks from the site of the event, he added, she ordered the lights and sirens turned off.

New Critical Mass chant: "Whose street!? Veronica Kelly's streets!!"

Photo: New York Social Diary