Downloaded By: [Furness, Zack] At: 07:53 31 January 2008 Critical Mass, Urban Space and Ve ´lomobility ZACK FURNESS Seattle, WA, USA ABSTRACT Critical Mass is an international, monthly event where bicyclists briefly take over city streets to celebrate bicycling, demonstrate their collective strength and send a clear message to the public: ‘We are not blocking traffic, we are traffic!’ In this essay, I explore how Critical Mass functions as both a performative critique of motorized space and a critical response to automobility. Rather than offering an empirical account of Critical Mass, I discuss the politics of Critical Mass through the lens of the Situationist International, or situationists – a group of avant-garde artists and architects that developed a unique program of spatial politics in the 1950s. Using the situationists as a reference point, I also explain how Critical Mass impacts the progress of formal bicycle advocacy and I contextualize ve ´lomobility within a paradigm of utopian urbanism. KEY WORDS: mobility, ve ´lomobility, automobility, bicycles, critical mass, situationist, space Introduction Materializing freedom means beginning by appropriating a few patches of the surface of a domesticated planet. (Kota ´ nyi & Vaneigem, 1961, p.67) In 1992, bicycle commuters in San Francisco began to converge at rush hour on the last Friday of every month in order take over the street, demonstrate their collective strength, and send a clear message to the public: ‘We are not blocking traffic, we are traffic!’ Conceived as part celebration and part protest, the ‘organized coincidence’ (Carlsson, 1997) known as Critical Mass has simultaneously caused incredible amounts of controversy and helped transform public perceptions about bicycling. Like anti-roads protesters (McKay, 1996, pp.127–158; Aufheben, 1998; McCreery, 2001) and Reclaim the Streets organizers (Jordan, 1998; Ferrell, 2001, Duncombe, 2002), Critical Mass bicyclists use spontaneity, playfulness, and decentralized Correspondence Address: Zack Furness, Ph.D., 4531 8 Avenue NE, Apt. B, Seattle, WA 98105, USA. Email: zackfurness@gmail.com Mobilities Vol. 2, No. 2, 299–319, July 2007 1745-0101 Print/1745-011X Online/07/020299–21 # 2007 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/17450100701381607