Loads of bikes
Heading down Digbeth
Riders on Broad Street
They’re calling it the biggest Critical Mass ride that Birmingham has ever seen. Month on month it just keeps growing!
At the beginning of 2011 the regular, monthly Birmingham Critical Mass ride was attracting only tens of riders. Thirty participants would have been considered a success for “The Detroit of England’s” regular, mass-participation bicycle ride only months ago. But, things have changed…
Numbers have been bolstered by a local resurgence in the popularity of bicycles as a cheap, convenient and low pollution option for travel. More people are adopting cycling as a regular form of transport in Birmingham and the elegance of these machines is again being admired, particularly in circles where the bicycle is seen as more than a mode of transport, but a play-thing (note the uptake in bicycle polo playing in Birmingham), an object of style and a statement about how life could be.
The uptake in cycling accompanies the need of many people to tackle their current personal economic difficulties and the historically-high fuel prices seen at forecourt pumps across the city and beyond.
Many people are eschewing motoring for the easy life of cycling and the freedom and flexibility that this brings.
And, many people just like a bit of a party at the end of the week.
The 3rd September 2011 Critical Mass ride saw approximately 135 riders enjoying the roads of Birmingham city centre as they showed off their machines, smiles and toned calves for a couple of hours before visiting a local green for refreshments. This month, in amongst the crowd could be seen a “tall” bike, a bicycle-pulled sound system, a recumbent bike and a tandem.
Critical Mass “happens” on the first Friday of every month in Birmingham. Most people arrive around 6pm and the ride usually sets off by 6.30pm. The meeting point is “Pigeon Park”, or “St. Philips’ Cathedral” to the more ecclesiastically-minded.
At the beginning of 2011 the regular, monthly Birmingham Critical Mass ride was attracting only tens of riders. Thirty participants would have been considered a success for “The Detroit of England’s” regular, mass-participation bicycle ride only months ago. But, things have changed…
Numbers have been bolstered by a local resurgence in the popularity of bicycles as a cheap, convenient and low pollution option for travel. More people are adopting cycling as a regular form of transport in Birmingham and the elegance of these machines is again being admired, particularly in circles where the bicycle is seen as more than a mode of transport, but a play-thing (note the uptake in bicycle polo playing in Birmingham), an object of style and a statement about how life could be.
The uptake in cycling accompanies the need of many people to tackle their current personal economic difficulties and the historically-high fuel prices seen at forecourt pumps across the city and beyond.
Many people are eschewing motoring for the easy life of cycling and the freedom and flexibility that this brings.
And, many people just like a bit of a party at the end of the week.
The 3rd September 2011 Critical Mass ride saw approximately 135 riders enjoying the roads of Birmingham city centre as they showed off their machines, smiles and toned calves for a couple of hours before visiting a local green for refreshments. This month, in amongst the crowd could be seen a “tall” bike, a bicycle-pulled sound system, a recumbent bike and a tandem.
Critical Mass “happens” on the first Friday of every month in Birmingham. Most people arrive around 6pm and the ride usually sets off by 6.30pm. The meeting point is “Pigeon Park”, or “St. Philips’ Cathedral” to the more ecclesiastically-minded.