Editing Critical Mass (cycling) (section)

== History ==
[[Image:Criticalmass-sf-broadway-tunnel.jpg|thumb|right|[[Broadway Tunnel (San Francisco)]] September 29, 2006]]

Critical Mass-like bicycle tours with hundreds of participants took place in Stockholm, Sweden in the early 1970s.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wordpress.alternativstad.nu/cyklister-i-storstockholm/|access-date=January 1, 2025|title=Cyklister i Storstockholm|language=sv|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250101192212/https://wordpress.alternativstad.nu/cyklister-i-storstockholm/|archive-date=January 1, 2025|df=mdy-all}}</ref> But the first ride within the present wave took place on Friday, September 25, 1992, at 6&nbsp;pm in San Francisco. At that time, the event was known as ''Commute Clot'' and was composed of a couple of dozen cyclists who had received flyers on [[Market Street, San Francisco, California|Market Street]].<ref name=10years>{{cite news
 |last        = Garofoli
 |first       = Joe
 |title       = Critical Mass turns 10
 |work        = San Francisco Chronicle
 |date        = September 28, 2002
 |url         = http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/09/26/BA133774.DTL
 |access-date  = July 2, 2007
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20080120165148/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2002%2F09%2F26%2FBA133774.DTL
 |archive-date = January 20, 2008
 |df          = mdy-all
}}</ref>

Shortly after this, some participants in that ride went to a local bicycle shop for a screening of Ted White's documentary ''Return of the Scorcher'', about bicycle culture in the Netherlands and China in comparison with that of the United States. In that film, American [[human-powered vehicle]] and [[pedicab]] designer [[George Bliss (pedicab designer)|George Bliss]] noted that, in China, both motorists and bicyclists had an "understood" method of negotiating intersections without signals. Traffic would queue up at these intersections until the backlog reached a "critical mass", at which point that mass would move through the intersection. This term from the footage of the movie, was applied to the name of the ride,<ref>{{Cite book |first            = Joel
 |last             = Pomerantz
 |editor-last      = Carlsson
 |editor-first     = Chris
 |contribution     = A Critical Mass Cultural Glossary
 |contribution-url = http://www.joelpomerantz.com/genlresources/cmglossary.html
 |title            = Critical Mass: Bicycling's Defiant Celebration
 |year             = 2002
 |place            = Edinburgh, Scotland
 |publisher        = AK Press
 |url              = https://archive.org/details/criticalmassbicy0000unse
 |isbn             = 1-902593-59-6
 |df               = mdy-all
 |url-access       = registration
}}</ref> and the name caught on, replacing "Commute Clot" by the time of the second event.<ref name=10years/>