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This month's Critical Mass encouraged its participants to dress up in costumes for Hallowe'en. [Photo: Christopher Doody.]

Almost a hundred cyclists gathered at Victoria Park on Friday, before claiming the road for themselves, as they rode an eight kilometre loop around Halifax’s downtown core.

This gathering, called Critical Mass, happens on the last Friday of every month. The gathering is a form of protest, against the cities’ limitations for cyclists, and brings some tension along with it.

There is no official organization, leader or structure to the event. Most people hear of the event by word of mouth and from other cyclists.

While there is no official agenda for this monthly protest, the cyclists simply want to let the city know that they exist and they can’t be ignored.

“We just like to raise awareness, to show people that there is a lot of cyclists in this city, and you should probably pay attention to us now and then,” said Peter Rogers, who has taken it upon himself to inform others of Critical Mass.

And it is a hard thing to do. As the cyclists begin their ride, they take over an entire lane of the road, riding in a long file. If a hole appears, someone yells “mass up!,” and everyone stops and re-groups, to prevent cars from sneaking in between the pack.

Halifax is far behind other cities

Peter Rogers helps spread the word of Critical Mass, and the dangers of cycling in Halifax. [Photo: Christopher Doody.]

Participants, such as Gail Jay, say they don’t feel safe on cycling around Halifax.

“I am very cautious. I don’t ride on the main streets. I’ll take a side street that parallels Robie, Windsor, Quinpool, anything to be safer,” she said.

Many of the participants noted that other Canadian cities – such as Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver – have much better, and safer, bike lanes than Halifax.

Rogers says this one reason why the city needs to follow through on its promises to put more bike paths in the city.

“There is supposed to be a multi-use trail [on Barrington Street,] coming from the bridge straight into the downtown core. They haven’t done it. They were supposed to do these things. It makes me a little frustrated at times,” Rogers said, as he held up the study commissioned by the city on the location of a possible bike path along Barrington Street. [For more information on the current state of bike lanes in Halifax, see the video by Anneke Foster done for The ‘Fax.]

Mourning a lost cyclist

This is the "ghost bike," locked to a lamppost at the corner of Cornwallis and Barrington Street, that is to be painted white in honour of Michael Brooker. [Photo: Christopher Doody.]

While the event is normally well attended, Friday’s was the largest turnout in a long time. Rogers says this might be because of the recent cycling death of Michael Brooker.

On Oct. 11, Brooker was riding on the sidewalk along Barrington Street, when he swerved into the road to avoid hitting a pedestrian, where he was hit and killed by a transport truck.

While noone at Critical Mass knew Brooker, Rogers says it shows how important cycling is to a city.

“It is a social issue. He was a street kid, but he could afford a bicycle.”

“I don’t want to use his death in any kind of cynical way,’ Rogers said. “But someone’s got to pay attention. Is it better to just ignore that someone died? I don’t think so.”

Friday’s Critical Mass included a memorial to Brooker. Halfway along the route, at the corner of Barrington and Cornwallis streets, the entire mass of cyclists stopped traffic to hold a memorial for Brooker at the location where he was killed.

Douglas Denny, an avid cyclist who took part in the Critical Mass, said when the cyclists tried to stop traffic on Barrington Street for the memorial, it became “pretty confrontational” between the cyclists and the police.

Denny explained there were several police cruisers at the scene, trying to break up the memorial so traffic could continue.

On Saturday, a “ghost bike” was locked to a telephone pole at the corner of Barrington and Cornwallis, and people are invited to stop by and help paint it white, to honour Brooker.

Rogers said it’s important to keep doing what they are doing, but that there “needs to be some political will to things done.”

“[We need to] just keep on doing what we are doing. This is the beginning of something,” he said.