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Wow a lot of good information on here...let's put it to work! I so much wanted to enjoy this mass...I brought a first-timer and just wanted to enjoy it with her. I tried so hard to have fun in the few sections I was feeling it, waving and being social with people on the sidelines, like the Pilsen and Taylor street area, but it felt slightly wrong. Heading back downtown, we had to cork a very awful intersection while there was a block long gap. Now upon reading this we should've gone back and just started a second mass with all those people that were behind that block...I think it was because of one of the fights people are talking about. Even though we got a lot of people through that intersection, we never caught back up with the mass. One that was with the last rag-tag group was a mom with a toddler...she looked STRESSED OUT...I think they saw the fight. I wanted to cry. I didn't know the right thing to do.
OK...it's NOT going to be like that next month. Enough on here.
Just for the record, what I meant by "anarchic" is that I liked the fact that it didn't feel like the entire route was planned out, and I liked that sense of surprise in a ride. That aspect of last week's the ride was a nice change of pace.
A lot of other things (already mentioned by other riders) were really discouraging. For example, riding around cars stuck in traffic was not a good idea, both in terms of breaking up the mass and unneccesarily encouraging a lot of ire amongst the police and motorists. Not allowing momentum to build at the beginning by doing some loops around the Daley center was a bad idea. Riding on Lake Shore Drive was a terrible idea (where I was riding, it seemed like I was one of only a handful of riders who chose to go on the sidewalk).
When I first started riding in CCM a few years ago, I remember seeing fliers that spelled out some of the "guidelines" for a critical mass ride (if there can be such a thing). It would be great to see that again, given how many new riders participate during the summer months. It may sound trifling, but I only heard a few people shout out "Happy Friday!" during the ride - little things like this can set the mood for the ride.
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