Nothing Sharper

Critical Mass had a minor breakthrough in July.

The biggie was this letter, one of an identical set that Councilmember Steve Cohn sent out to Critical Mass riders like me that had been harping on him for the police response.

Office of the City Council
Vice Mayor Steve Cohn
Councilmember District Three
City of Sacramento
July 21, 2008

Dear Mr. Sharpe:

Thank you for your letter expressing your concerns with police response during Critical Mass ride events.

I have been informed by Police Captain Dana Matthes that due to issues that have transpired in past Critical Mass events, the police response have been prepared for a strong response [sic]. However, because there have been no significant problems lately, the City’s goal now is to reduce the number of officers assigned to Critical Mass ride events. For example, during June’s Critical Mass ride, response was scaled back to two officers. Similarly, two bike officers will monitor July’s event. Provided that safety concerns or issues do not arise, police monitoring will no longer be necessary. Captain Matthes can be contacted at 808-4511 if you would like more information.

Again, thank you for contacting me. If I can be of assistance to you in the future, feel free to contact my office at 808-7003 or at scohn@cityofsacramento.org.

Sincerely,

STEVE COHN

Yay.

Indeed, there were only two bike officers at July’s Mass (photos in the gallery, link to the right), plus an additional police car that followed us for about a third of a mile down P Street. One of the two bike officers seemed new to the Critical Mass beat – he didn’t believe us when we said that the route down 13th Street through Capitol Park was a bike route and didn’t seem to understand that the vehicle code gives a lot of latitude to bicyclists passing other bicyclists or avoiding roadway obstructions. The poor guy probably went hoarse trying to yell us into a single-file formation.

I still need to call Captain Matthes to see how she defines “safety issues", learn what we need to do to keep Critical Mass safe (I’m in no hurry to get run over), and make sure there’ll be no police at the next ride, since there weren’t any issues this time out, but it looks like the ride is in the clear.

Turnout for the ride was rather substantial, too. I counted 42 riders just before two large packs rolled in, including a bunch of fixie riders that got busted three blocks into the ride and had to go home. Perhaps once summer vacation is over and the cops have left us alone, the student contingent will push us back over the one hundred rider mark, and we won’t lose as many riders to the Concerts in the Park.