"Courteous Mass" Bicycle Ride Tonight, 6:30 pm

The Last Friday Ride through Montclair on bikes tonight won't have the in-your-face, protest reputation that the so-called "Critical Mass" rides have often had in New York City.

In fact, this Montclair version, called a "Courteous Mass" bicycle ride, promotes safe cycling and calls for good moods.  Riders will meet at 6:30 p.m. tonight at the Upper Montclair train station parking lot and are expecting to have a pleasant, healthy outing. 

Like the Critical Mass rides, however, "no one will admit to organizing the ride," Laura Torchio, president and trustee for Bike and Walk Montclair said with a chuckle.  She believes that, though they borrowed the idea from the Critical Mass rides, organizers want to distance themselves from the protest feel of those events.

According to the Critical Mass website, the original idea behind Critical Mass rides was to call together large groups of riders in cities throughout the country (and world) and celebrate the joy of biking.  But they were also meant to assert the rights of bikers on city streets.  The Critical Mass concept has taken off, and since then some riders have taken a harsher attitude, tying up car traffic and catching the attention of the local police with rebellious attitudes.

That doesn't happen in Montclair.

"Bikes follow the same rules of the road as vehicles," Torchio said. "Riders must obey traffic signals and keep a safe distance from motorists."

The Last Friday Ride in Montclair is expected to be "casual, slow paced and fun," according to the invite email.  Previous rides have had a family feel to them and Torchio expects the same will happen tonight.  In fact, in one of the rides, she and her 9-year-old daughter met another seasoned ride in his eighties.

Typically, the riders meet at the train station, loop through Montclair, passing the police station and Church Street while meandering for about an hour.  There was even a stop for ice cream along the way on one of rides she attended.

Torchio cautioned that, at the minimum, all bikes should have a front light and a rear reflector in accordance with New Jersey law for night-time cycling.   

Critical Mass, this is not.  Some rides have more than a dozen people, and some maybe four people. "The hope is the 'mass' will happen at some point," she said. "This group really wants to promote good behavior and good, courteous biking."