Here's Jonathan's account of the August ride.

(For pictures, check out Jonathan's blog.)
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Massive fun and no cops needed

Tonight’s Critical Mass ride was a blast. I took Eleni in the trailer and we had a great time. Warm breeze, a great route (over the Ross Island Bridge!), some well-chosen music (thank you boom-box bike guy) and a fun group of people all contributed to the good vibe.

I hate to mention the cops, but I think it’s ridiculous that they even show up anymore. I actually feel embarrassed for them because they had nothing to do…and you know what happens when cops get bored…they find something to do.

Bottom line is that having the cops at Critical Mass is a big waste of taxpayer money and a waste of law enforcement resources that could be put to more necessary tasks. Cops are also a deterrant to more families and other cyclists who would join the ride if it weren’t for their intimidating presence. Eleni was the only kid on the ride (she’s 2 and 1/2)…and I know there are a ton of families that would show up if there were no cops.

So Mayor Potter, Commissioner Sam, is there any way you can call off the dogs for next month’s ride? It’s sort of ironic that we’re hoping to be the first Platinum level bicycle friendly city, yet we can’t even go on bike ride without the boys in blue watching over us.

By the way, feel free to peruse my hot, fresh photos. Don’t miss the Xylo-bike, the mini-bikes, the boom-box bike, the assorted personalities and other fun craziness. See you out there next month!
(-Jonathan Maus, BikePortland.org)

For photos of this ride, check out this site (takes a while to load).
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My impressions...

Beforehand: Jacque and I passed out fliers and talked to people about
the "zone"-style idea. Joe A. came over and told us that this had been
tried before in Portland, called a "Star Mass" or "Chaos Mass." I left
my bike with a couple of women who were new to CM, and were a little
disappointed, "We wanted the parade."

At 6:05, we started shouting "scatter!" "go!" People looked around
tentatively, and some people started to ride. A kid with a mohawk
waved his arms around and yelled for everyone who wanted a traditional
parade CM to gather around him. Hearing someone shout "All real
anarchists, follow me!" was possibly the highlight of the ride (in
retrospect--at the time I just felt butterflies). People started to
congregate around him. The women who we had been talking to said
"sorry..." and went with them.

The ride: Three of us rode off before the anarchists et al. left the
elephant, around some bends and then around the first zone on the map.
We were the only bicyclists in sight for several blocks, and we sighed
and said "next time we'll be better prepared." But then we rounded a
corner and there were three other riders who hadn't followed the main
group! There was a lot of cheering and bell-ringing and we took off
all together through the traffic up Broadway with renewed energy.

Then ahead of us, we saw the main group, being penned in pretty close
to the bike lane by a line of yellow-shirted bike police. "Let's catch
up with them," said Jacque--"we're not part of that, nobody can tell
us what lane to ride in. Let's show them how much fun we're having."
We looped around and a few blocks later came face to face with the big
group, which was already starting to splinter away from the police.
Our two friends from earlier saw us and said "We're beginning to see
what you mean."

Larger and smaller groups were breaking away from the herd until there
was no longer a herd at all--just roving groups of bicyclists, from
solo cyclists to yowling hordes of thirty or more, swooping and
zooming around the streets, breaking apart and coming together again.
I was with a larger group for a while: we turned every time we hit a
red light to avoid stopping, and then decided all at once to take a
lane of Burnside downhill at top speed. Then I was dashing madly up
hill again by myself, then ended up with my original three plus a guy
in a reflective vest, joined another large group briefly, broke away
in a new combination. I saw an occasional pair of police officers but
they had stopped having anyone to follow as far as I could tell.

About 45 minutes into the ride there were three or four of us and I
stopped to hang out with someone who was getting a ticket for running
a red light, and lost everyone for good after that. Lt Jarmer was
there and listening to his radio--they're coming back over the
Hawthorne Bridge now, he said, let's all go catch them. But the guy
with the ticket didn't feel like going for a ride with the cops and I
wanted to see if there were more people riding around at random
downtown. If there were I didn't find them, and had to head back to
work anyway.

I reckon from the photos that people congealed to ride across bridges.
Also that makes two citations that I know about of bicyclists--anyone
know of any others? As promised there were 18 bike cops and 2
motorcycles. I saw several motorists being pulled over and thought
they were unrelated, but Jarmer told me there were a number of
citations given for driving recklessly around cyclists.

Aftermath: How did it go? With the bridges? And was there a gathering
at the fountain? I'm hungry for news! I had a stupendously good time,
all spirits seemed high and there was a good deal more animation and
autonomy than at recent rides. Maybe chalk it up to the sunshine,
maybe to the propaganda... It was really great to see everyone zooming
around and shouting and having fun.

What do you all think? And what should we think about for next time? I
like having the ride stay downtown for so long, it makes it easier to
break away and return to the larger group. I also would love to try
the Chaos Mass another time. The costumery was fantastic.... Portland
is amazing!

-------Posted by Elly to pdxcriticalmass@lists.riseup.net--------