The Olympic opening ceremony may have been ‘gonged’ in by Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins and even featured a flock of winged cyclists, but just a few miles away the Metropolitan Police were busy ‘kettling’ and ultimately arresting riders at the monthly Critical Mass, London’s biggest community cycling event. A regular fixture, Critical Mass begins on the last Friday of each month at the National Film Centre on the South Bank and sees riders head in whichever direction the bike at the front goes; ‘Not a demonstration,’ organisers claim, ‘simply a group of people who decide to ride around town in the same direction.’
The Met tried unsuccessfully to ban the event back in 2008 and have since rather left riders to their own devices in their celebration of road safety and environmental sustainability; not so last Friday with police making 182 arrests under section 12 of the Public Order Act 1986. Interesting to see how this pans out as the Olympics continues to unfold as a cycling success story? Certainly this feels in sharp contrast to the ‘message’ Danny Boyle was communicating with his spectacular (and surprisingly political) opening ceremony. Cyclo, as always, will keep you posted…
