Raleigh’s got an established Critical Mass. Chapel Hill had something like CM while I was in graduate school. So why can’t Durham? I’ve never lived in a city so afraid to hold a Critical Mass. Every time CM comes up for discussion on local listservs, the killjoys chime in and convince everyone that riding down the road in a group is going to invite the crazies to run over us.
A few years ago, a friend and I tried to get it going in Durham, but we couldn’t keep a regular crowd. On the day of the last one we held, only the two of us showed up (it was raining) along with an Indy Weekly photographer. The picture actually ran in the paper, so I’m pretty sure that’s got to be the best rider-turnout-to-press-coverage ratio out there.
