cyclingthroughparis

A sign caught my eye when I parked my bike this morning. It was a flyer, stuck on the back of a mailbox. Being on the route of the Techno Parade, one or two hundred thousand people could have seen it Saturday afternoon.

The flyer talks about critical mass and some kind of event at the Arc de Triomphe on 22 September at 6:30 pm. A rally for the triumph of urban cyclists over cars and motorcycles. There’s a web site, which I check out.

The site has one page and is dedicated to the 22 September event. This used to be the “car-free day”, when motorists were asked to take public transit (or walk or cycle or skate). The goal is to cycle en masse around the Arc de Triomphe. The unstated goal is to concentrate a large number of cyclists in one place, and thereby to raise awareness about urban cyclists.

Will this cause a traffic jam? Yes, it might. The organizers have anticipated this. If automobile traffic is completely blocked, the site officially counsels cyclists to leave the traffic circle.

The flyer is clever because of its hints to something covert. It’s an invitation to reach critical mass. The goal is triumph. The web site is in revolutionary red. By hinting at coincidence and an undeclared demonstration, the organizers want to appeal to a spirit of protest. But they have also prepared a defense to purposefully blocking traffic, and offer to demonstrators better prospects than being arrested: cycling way.

I like the graphic look of the site. As on the flyer, stick-figure cyclists, human and innocent and fun. Information is presented at the middle of turning circles, which brings to mind both cycling (turning wheels, turning chains) and the Arc de Triomphe traffic circle (where vehicles turn around the monument).