They come with Spandex and attitude. And they come with an agenda no less ambitious than to change urban transportation. They are adherents to the merry prankster of grassroots planning movements — Critical Mass. Massers have a simple modus operandi: (1) organize mass bicycle rides once a month, (2) ride through the city, sharing travel lanes with cars, (3) demonstrate that bicyclists have road rights, too. Like other anarchist-oriented movements, Critical Mass boasts no central organizational structure. Instead, Massers publicize, organize, and communicate through Web sites and coffeehouse fliers. As planning street theatre, it's great stuff. The bigger question is, will Massers change transportation policy? As a movement, Critical Mass is growing. What began with 45 riders in San Francisco's Financial District in 1992 has mushroomed into a global grassroots pressure group challenging the car's domination of public rights-of-way. According to the "unofficial" web-site, 155 monthly rides occur in cities around the world — 61 of them in North America. California has its fair share, including documented groups in Arcata, Santa Rosa, Sacramento, Walnut Creek, Berkeley, Marin County, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Santa Cruz, Fresno, San Luis Obispo, Ventura, and Los Angeles. The San Francisco monthly ride boasts 5,000 participants, though other rides are markedly smaller. So far, results are inconclusive on the policy-change question. Whereas Critical Mass rides may demonstrate how the wheels of progress ought to spin smoothly, their effectiveness with policymakers has yet to be demonstrated. With unofficial Internet-published goals including "creating a car-free space in the center of our cities," and "enjoying the great outdoors," Massers provide municipalists no clear entity with which to tango. Because Critical Mass is frustratingly difficult for policy makers to deal with, police departments and the news media take up the task. This leads to the public relations black-eye suffered during San Francisco's July 1997 ride. During that event, more than 5,000 cyclists fanned out well beyond the bounds of the route brokered by the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and the city. Police arrested 250 cyclists, mainly for traffic violations and illegal assembly. Authorities eventually dropped all charges, but such run-ins with local police may be inevitable for an urban movement that materializes with little notice and confronts the transportation status quo. At least one of Critical Mass's founders, Chris Carlsson, eschews any further negotiated settlements with municipalists. Says Carlsson, "Critical Mass is one of the most political events of this depressing decade … it has no further purpose than its continued existence, which in itself is an affirmation of communities that are otherwise invisible and easily ignored." More policy-oriented Critical Mass sympathizers have recognized the need to be more visible, and have taken a more conventional tack. Leah Shahum, of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, calls her group "the yin to the Critical Mass yang." In 1998, the SFBC swallowed a disappointing setback when it failed to convince the Parking and Traffic Commission to adopt a full package of street enhancements needed to complete a proposed bicycle network in the City. But Shahum asserts progress is being made. "Two years ago, politicians did not even have bicyclists on their radar. Now they do," she says. Physical progress is also becoming evident. The SFBC recently prodded the City to implement a green arrow program for San Francisco streets. Painted symbols, illustrating a bicycle inside a bright green arrow, remind drivers to share the city's narrow roadways with cyclists. The program will eventually cover nearly 60 miles of the street system. Statewide cyclists efforts have begun to make some policy progress as well. In October 1997, the California Bike Coalition succeeded in its efforts to get AB 1020 passed. The bill increased 13-fold the amount of money Caltrans allocates to bicycle facilities statewide, from $360,000 to $5 million annually through 2004. Despite the paucity of demonstrable policy accomplishments, Massers have struck a nerve. In forcing the revamping the urban transportation discussion, they have even stolen the fire from transportation agencies' numerous alternative mobility efforts. Indeed, some of these government-sponsored efforts seem to be watered-down copies of the original. Is it any coincidence that California's Bike-to-Work Week, which recently completed its fifth edition, is two years younger than Critical Mass? The annual event is endorsed by Caltrans and sponsored by a host of the state's regional COGs. It seems only fair to ask, is the annual bike commute event merely Critical Mass in public agency clothing? Stephen Svete, AICP, is a principal in the Ventura-based consulting firm of Rincon Consultants Inc.