miss

I last went to a critical mass ride in around 1995 or 1996; I heard of it from and went along with a second-year flatmate but can't remember if it was in the autumn or spring. It started from the Mound and initially went west along Princes Street. I think I stuck with the whole ride, but have avoided them since. Unless a child changes their mind back and fancies going along to one I shall continue to avoid them. Maybe some people like the loud music from the trailer near the front (which I tried to avoid by waiting and joining the back) or the even louder music coming from the backpack of someone who swung in just in front of me. I didn't enjoy the way the participants blocked the pedestrian and cycle paths before they set off, nor how one of the organisers/speakers asked people to keep the paths clear whilst one of the organisers'/speakers' bikes was sitting on its stand in the middle of the MMW/NMW junction. I particularly didn't like how pedestrians were prevented from crossing the path, so turned round half-way up Middle Meadow Walk before I had to see any people blocking junctions, which was what wound me up the most twenty-eightish years ago by the way the messenger-acting folk went about it. I went via a different and roundabout route to the doomed Braid Road modal filters, scurrying away when they arrived, then went a roundabout route back, unfortunately catching them again as they prevented pedestrians and cyclists from crossing Clerk St at Rankeillor St.