I'm a dedicated bike-commuter, but not much of a joiner. Some friends have urged me to come out for Critical Mass and I'd seriously considered it.

Last weekend I went to the Comic-Con in San Diego. As my friends and I were leaving on Friday night, the SD Mass was targeting the intersection right outside the Convention Center. They completely bottlenecked all pedestrian, auto and light-rail traffic for quite some time. Even the awesome bike-taxis that proliferate in San Diego were helpless to get through. If you aren't familiar with San Diego's downtown nightlife, trust me, this is like having South Temple and 300 West closed down for a half-hour with 15 simultaneous Jazz games happening.

My friends and I moved close to the bikers to give them high-fives, cheer them on and then wait for a strategic opening so we could walk to somewhere nice for dinner. But as we stood there, we sensed an ugly mood to the entire scene. This made my bike-friendly group entirely unsympathetic to the Critical Mass of San Diego. After all, the convention-goers were visitors and should have been treated to better. Creating traffic jams runs counter to the earth-friendly ethos most bikers would say they support. Also, the bikers looked like they were having "fun"; the kind of amped-up, aggressive, gang-mentality behavior we see in a riot or military action, not the peace of mind that I associate with the bike community.

I have to agree with the original poster's opinion on tactics. Also, counter-intuitively, this has made me more determined to try the SLC Mass because a) it sounds like ours is more thoughtful and b) if more thoughtful people join we could keep it that way.