The latest sign of life for cycling in Washington County is a group protest ride planned at the end of May that organizers are calling a “Critical Mass party ride.” Details are still being finalized, but according to the group organizing the ride, the plan is to assemble as many riders as possible and roll en masse from Beaverton to Hillsboro. The route will intentionally use major arterials typically dominated by car users.
A group ride of this nature, planned specifically as a large-scale protest of cycling conditions and an attempt to bring about political change, will be a first for the westside.
Critical Mass, which began in 1992 in San Francisco, holds a significant place in American cycling history. The event galvanized cycling activists and helped push for safer cycling conditions in cities worldwide. Portland’s Critical Mass happened weekly from 1993 to 2007. It fizzled out (even after an attempt to revive it in 2014) as many of its organizers opted to pull different levers of cycling activism that didn’t require an overly policed, high-profile protest in peak-hour traffic.
“A piece of paint on a 55 mph road is not enough for a family to feel comfortable enough to want to go on a ride.”
– Rob Lewis, Ride Westside
Critical Mass almost never happens in suburban areas like Beaverton and Hillsboro in Washington County, but it’s not for lack of demand. Bike advocacy groups are typically more conservative in suburbs and activists who would be interested in protest rides are spread over a wide distance and lack a central, dense commercial area or meeting place they can all identify with. However, as cities like Tigard, Beaverton and Hillsboro have grown in recent years, so has the esprit de corps among a new guard of advocates who feel they’ve been left with no other choice to get their messages across.
“Yes, we’re in a suburb of Portland,” said Ride Westside volunteer Rob Lewis in an interview Monday. “But we still have a boatload of cyclists out here — there’s people out here with families that would love to cycle with their kids — but they don’t feel safe.” Lewis said the upcoming ride was born from conversations at the Westside Bike Happy Hour gathering, a event he organizes that has met twice a month since last July at a food cart pod across the street from Beaverton City Hall.
I could hear the frustration in Lewis’ voice in our conversation yesterday. He cited an increase in crashes involving bike riders and walkers in recent years and a feeling of bureaucratic barriers to better bicycling within Washington County government.
“In the west suburbs we don’t have a Springwater [Corridor] trail. We have segments of a Springwater scattered across the whole county, with no connections and separated by five lanes of pavement where the only infrastructure is a piece of paint,” he said. “There’s a ton of big, mean roadways here in the west suburbs that, sure, they have a bike lane; but a piece of paint on a 55 mph road is not enough for a family to feel comfortable enough to want to go on a ride.”
Lewis says his frustrations are shared by fellow members of Ride Westside and he’s heard widespread support for a mass ride from people who show up to Bike Happy Hour.
“I see a Critical Mass and party ride as a fun way to bring the cycling community on the westside together and push for some positive change,” Lewis said. “We’re not here to antagonize the community. We’re here to celebrate cycling and hopefully bring about some effective change in our bureaucratic direction.”
Lewis, in his mid-30s, cut his teeth in cycling activism by participating in large rides in Portland when he moved here from the midwest in 2016. He’s never done a Critical Mass ride, but he understands its history and intent. And while he says he doesn’t want to antagonize anyone, Lewis is also not shying away from the consequences of putting a large group of people on bikes on roads with just a narrow — or nonexistent — bike lane. Lewis clearly wants attention for cycling, but hopes starting the ride on a Saturday morning and hosting a party at the end will balance out any of the unwanted kind.
Since the ride will be on major roadways without a parade or protest permit, the plan is to have volunteers on the ride who will use their bodies and bikes to “cork” vehicular traffic at intersections and make sure the entire mass of riders can get through signals without breaking up into smaller groups.
In the end, Lewis sees the ride as an evolutionary step for the bike scene on the westside. “Clearly, there are cyclists out here. So let’s bring that community together and let’s develop our community out here.”
— The Westside Critical Mass Party Ride is set for Saturday, May 31st at 9:00 am. Follow Ride Westside and see the ride listing on the Shift Calendar for updates.
