Critical Mass: Jail Time for Biking

by Mark Mardon

"We find ourselves at a critical point in the evolution of American cities, and the main enemy of green cities is, in fact, the private car. And the car is everywhere triumphant. Indeed cities everywhere on Earth, not just in America, are being overrun by cars. The greatest cities that humans have contrived in the whole history of our species are in danger. And here, cars are multiplying faster than people. They're out-breathing us, too. They're using up our land area. They're using up our economic strength."

- Ecotopia, by Ernest Callenbach (Banyon Tree Books, 1975)

I was one of the 115 bicyclists arrested in the July 25 Critical Mass bicycle-vs.-car demonstration in San Francisco, which drew somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 riders. I got a traffic citation for allegedly running a red light, then I was arrested, right after the ticket - Wham-bam! - in a two-block span downtown. Double whammy!

I pulled no outrageous stunts, yelled at no automobile drivers, spat at no one, but I got nabbed twice anyway. I was caught in the financial district, between Sansome and Montgomery streets, in a police dragnet that riot squads used to corral and arrest us for unlawful assembly and failure to disperse - though how we could have dispersed, given that they blocked us in, is beyond me.

The group I went to jail with was made up of decent people - ordinary working citizens; not thugs, malcontents or professional agitators - who merely wanted to make a statement about the lack of consideration given to bicyclists in the city. The sole reason we were entrapped, handcuffed, put in paddy wagons, separated from our bikes and hauled off to the holding tank was that Mayor Willie Brown and the police needed to flex their muscles and demonstrate their willingness to crack down. We were their token victims.

I did not seek to be arrested in order to make a statement. Indeed, I was about to head home when the cops came roaring up and forced me to dismount.

I'm not usually an activist and have never been arrested before. In fact, I own and sometimes drive a car in the city (always being respectful of bicyclists). But Mayor Brown's rude, ignorant comments (he blasted the bicyclists' "arrogance" and declared "war" on their monthly "Critical Mass" ride) and attitude (he arrived at the July 25 rally in a limousine, then proceeded to dismiss his critics as irrelevant nonvoters), the provocative actions of the police (who abandoned their traditional role as peaceful Critical Mass escorts to intimidate and assault both bike riders and bystanders), and the angry attitude of motorists left me feeling very, very angry.

I've always shied away from demonstrations because I didn't want to get arrested and because I hate making a scene. But now, having gone to jail with so many committed people, I want to make sure justice prevails.

Critical Mass Media

I'm not at all surprised at the highly negative spin the major television and print media put on this event. It was inevitable. The major media, especially TV news, are bound and gagged by the auto industry - their major source of ad revenues.

According to the most recent report from Advertising Age, General Motors, Chrysler and Ford ranked third, seventh and 10th, respectively, as the nation's leading advertisers in 1995. In that year alone, GM spent more than $2 billion on television, newspaper, magazine and radio ads. Chrysler was the leading spot TV advertiser in 1995, while GM ranked third.

When was the last time you read or viewed a significant critique of America's car culture? It doesn't happen in the mainstream press. Media corporations can't afford to be critical of cars (except for particular models that tend to explode, tip over or have some other glaring safety defect) or car culture. I have firsthand insight why this is so:

When I was an editor at Sierra (the Sierra Club's national magazine), I prepared a seven-page feature that critiqued automobiles from many angles, enumerating their damaging impacts on the environment - both natural and social - and suggesting alternatives such as car-free inner cities (see "Cars Cars Cars Cars Cars," Sierra, May/June 1989). The response from Detroit auto manufacturers - Chrysler and GM advertised heavily in the magazine at that time - was swift and punishing.

As soon as the issue appeared in people's mailboxes, Sierra's advertising representative in Detroit was called on the carpet by the automakers. They reamed both him and the managing publisher, telling them that the magazine had gone too far and would suffer as a result.

The auto manufacturers immediately pulled their ads and vowed never to advertise in Sierra's pages again (which, of course, many members of the Sierra Club would consider a good thing). The boycott cost the magazine some $600,000 in revenues. It forced the editor-in-chief and managing publisher to toe the line thereafter lest they offend automakers, and a short time later, the editors ran an upbeat feature on car camping.

Throughout the fracas, Japanese automakers continued to advertise in Sierra. Apparently they didn't take our criticism so personally. But US automakers boycotted the magazine for years. Eventually they came back, but only after Sierra had "behaved" for a long time.

(To its credit, Sierra recently ran a special issue on "Livable Cities" [May/June 1997], which promoted the creation of "pedestrian pockets" prohibiting automobile traffic within cities - precisely what San Francisco needs to do with its entire downtown area.)

This is the kind of power the automobile industry holds over the media. The editor who dares publish or broadcast a story critical of America's car culture stands to be called on the carpet by the automakers who hold the media hostage.

Mark Mardon, a freelance writer based in San Francisco, still rides his bike to work.