Massa Crítica is an informal movement of cyclists that has been organized in the city of Lisbon since 2003. After being semi-dormant, it's back on the streets of the capital because it's "time to take back the space of the bicycle".
Changes in urban spaces always cause some resistanceBut this resistance can be mitigated if there is a large group of people in favor of these changes - in other words, if there is a critical mass of popular support. In Lisbon, as in other cities, the bicycle has been gaining ground over the years, always encountering some opposition, of course, but also a mass of support, demonstrated through various activist actions.
A Critical Mass is a of these activities. It consists of bike tour of the cityand occupies its streets and avenues in compliance with the Highway Code. It does not have (nor has it ever had) a formal or hierarchical organization. horizontal movement, without leadershipIt will be fed by whoever has the energy to do so at any given moment. Critical Mass thus belongs to whoever makes it, whoever organizes it.
There are Critical Masses in several cities around the world; the first is attributed to the city of San Francisco, USA, in 1992. In Lisbon, Critical Mass (or MC) has been organized since 2003 and it used to be a regular event, taking place consecutively on the last Friday of each month, with a meeting point at 6pm in Marquês de Pombal, the square that has become a symbol of the event. But in 2020, the pandemic pushed us home, forced us to reduce our social contacts and inevitably put a pause to these monthly walks. And when the so-called normality returned, there were attempts to bring Massa Crítica back, but Lisbon was different: other equally informal movements, such as the LisBORA or the Kidical Masshad taken over MC's space, albeit with other purposes and dynamics - and perhaps with less focus on affirming the bicycle in the urban space.
Now, in 2023, a group of people who use bicycles in Lisbon want to restore the "original" Critical Mass and mark its 20th anniversary in the Portuguese capital. He wants to organize this monthly meeting again, which has already served as a demand for a more bicycle-friendly city, but also as a meeting point for friends and acquaintances who shared a love of cycling. "We are losing space and voice on the street. We have only come together when we are about to lose bike lanes or our voice in public decisions. Together and on the street, it's time to move forward, rather than stop losing" - you can read in the invitation posted on social media. The return of the Lisbon Critical Mass is scheduled for the next Friday, November 24thThe meeting point will be the usual: Marquês, 6pm. Because it's "time to take back the bicycle space".
Lisbon has changed a lot since the first Critical Mass in 2003, when there were only 4 cycling kilometers - today, it has a cycling network of 125 segregated kilometers and 30 shared kilometers, and there is a promise to expand this network with 23 km segregated and 58 km shared. At the same time, a public network of shared bicycles, GIRA, came into existence in the Portuguese capital and has continued to grow, with new stations e more bikes. However, not everything has been smooth sailing: recently, the bike lane on Avenida Almirante Reis was at the center of an election campaign and was "to finish"; the bicycle lane on the Avenue de Berne - also controversial because it led to the removal of a hundred parking spaces - is being cut by a third; and the cycling contra-flows in Largo de São Sebastião have been replacedThis is still on paper for car spaces.
