Friday, June 25, 2010

Walk More

Today is the last Friday of the month, which means Critical Mass will be moving through city streets later this evening (so don't feign surprise).  Critical Mass has proven to be a popular way for self-identifying bicyclists to gain visibility and increase awareness of cyclists on SF streets.

So what about a pedestrian Critical Mass?  From the comments on a MissionMission blog post it seems somewhat popular at first glance.  I'd be lying if I said I didn't fantasize about having such a hard-to-ignore show of pedestrian support after narrowly avoiding a car or bike on the sidewalk or in a crosswalk.  And who knows, if someone gets one going it could be a good thing for pedestrians.

But for now I'm skeptical that's the best focus for our effort.  Let's not wait for someone to jerry-rig a boom box on a granny cart and tell us all to meet at Justin Herman Plaza.  Let's all just walk more.  Let's fill up the sidewalks, and then let's work to get the sidewalks widened.  Personally, I think it's better if drivers expect to see more of us everywhere than if we create an event that's an easy target of rage.  But if someone wants to get something started, let me know how it goes :-)

2 comments:

Bob Davis said...

The next to last sentence: "if cars expect to see more of us..." Cars can't see a thing. Shouldn't it be "if drivers expect to see more of us...."?

Pedestrianist said...

Thanks, corrected!