It’s a shame that one small group of idiots ruin it for so many other people.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Critical Mass is basically an organized group bike ride to encourage people to get out of their cars and ride their bike instead.  They do so by clogging up the city’s most densely populated areas with bike traffic at rush hour on a Friday, running red lights and blocking cars from going across roads to allow bikes to pass.

I’m not sure about you but I think this is basically the most moronic thing I’ve ever heard of…for many reasons.

Firstly, breaking laws is not going to get you anywhere.  I hear of “Critical Morons” running red lights, not wearing their helmets and such all the time from people Twittering while stuck in traffic.  If you want to get your message across, especially for one of these silly moral high ground things, do so within the law.

Secondly, the whole idea is ludicrous.  There’s no awareness being raised here.  The only thing raised is everyone’s blood pressure from being held up on their commute home.  I even saw tweets from bikers not taking part in Critical Mass saying they were held up by the commotion.  Are you sure this is the best way to get people to agree with you?  By pissing them off?

Thirdly, and most importantly, people aren’t driving because its fun in this case.  They’re people trying to get home from their job.

The same may not be true everywhere in the world but the public transportation system in Vancouver is terrible.  I tried taking the bus to campus one year and it was so much more stressful, not to mention slow in comparison to driving.  The bus would regularly pass my stop without picking anyone up because it’s full.  When the bus only comes every half an hour, that’s a huge hassle.  It has also gotten quite expensive to take the bus.  If I were to bus from my home in Richmond to Downtown Vancouver, it would cost me around $30 a week, which is more than the cost of fuel.  I spent a summer in Japan where I would routinely spend more than $10 a day on the subway but that was a heck of a lot more convenient than driving.  In Vancouver, to take the bus, we’d have to spend more for a less convenient method of transportation.

Critical Morons might suggest that you bike to work instead since you can easily cut through traffic and costs are next to nothing.  However, there’s a reason bikes are a piece of exercise equipment and I’m not sure how many people can show up at work just drenched in sweat, especially during the summer.  How on earth can you be professional while you’re just dripping?  Biking simply isn’t feasible unless your office is equipped with showers or you work somewhere where you never come into contact with other human beings.

Add that to the potentially long distance that people need to travel.  With housing costs the way they are in Vancouver, it is not easy to live downtown.  Most people with families prefer to live in the suburbs.  If you really want to reduce your emissions, save money and still have the convenience and comfort of a car,consider carpooling with your co-workers.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m all for getting people out of cars and I love biking but Critical Mass does absolutely nothing but anger the general public.  It might make sense for people in cities with better public transit to reduce their carbon footprint by taking alternative transportation but until Vancouver has comparable services, sticking to automobiles will still be the commute method of choice.