“The cops didn’t really even notice us till April of 1993,” Carlsson recalls. “The cops were at wit’s end by then.” The police www.cycling-off.com would get in front of the ride; then, the ride would go in a different direction, playing cat and mouse. 

Carlsson wasn’t concerned about interacting with the police or the press. “The point was this reinhabitation of the city that we invented in real time that really couldn’t have been done any other way than just stumbling on it and doing it,” he says.

Within that first year, Critical Mass spread to several other cities worldwide. Now it takes place in more than 400 cities globally.

Clearing the way for more liveable cities