About 100 Phoenix cyclists rode around the downtown area Friday to raise motor-vehicle drivers’ awareness on sharing the road.
As part of a worldwide event that happens the last Friday of every month known as Critical Mass, the bicyclists met at Steele Indian School Park at North Third Street and East Indian School Road illuminating the streets of Phoenix with their safety lights until reaching the Civic Space Park where they lifted their bikes in unison.
Blaise Faber, 24, of Phoenix, participated in the event riding a penny-farthing bike, which are known for having front wheels much larger than their back wheels, and said this isn’t the first Critical Mass in Phoenix but was the biggest due to promotion on Facebook.
With “social networks like Facebook and other things like that, it’s just so easy to get the word out,” he said. “I knew this went on every last Friday of the month, but I actually got a Facebook invite from a friend of mine who got it from a friend of his.”
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Faber, who restores, buys and sells bikes as a hobby, said bicycling hasn’t grown in Phoenix in part because of the lack of social awareness. Promoting cycling to more people, as was done for Critical Mass through Facebook, is what the Phoenix bicycling community needs.
Josh Enns, 24, of Phoenix, said Critical Mass is a chance for people to get together, ride and talk about bikes but also to raise awareness for motor-vehicle drivers.
“It’s all about letting the cars know that we’re here, and they’ve got to share the road,” he said. “Don’t yell and don’t throw things at us. Don’t honk you’re horn.”
Enns, who has been going to Critical Masses for about a year, said before this event, about seven people would participate each month.
“Critical Mass is a nationwide thing,” he said. “All across the world now, people are doing this … we’re just trying to make it a little bit bigger and funner and just get more people out here.”
Amy Stewart, 28, of Phoenix, who helped organize the event, said hopefully after January’s large turnout, more people will come to Phoenix’s Critical Masses and more motor-vehicle drivers will know to share the road.
“Some people will appreciate it and honk,” she said. “Other people might find us to be in their way, but the idea is that cyclists should be on the road riding.”
Contact the reporter at salvador.rodriguez@asu.edu
