Critical Mass parades through the streets of Bologna

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This is the weekend of Ciemmona 2024, the ‘interplanetary critical mass’ against smog and concrete. Bologna, for three days, will be the center of the event: the demonstrators, instead of on foot – as in a normal procession – will be on bicycles. The appointment for today’s early afternoon was at Don Bosco park, in the Fiera area.

Critical mass has roots that date back more than twenty years and is a phenomenon known worldwide. The Fiab (Italian Environment and Bicycle Federation) defines it as “a fighting tool adopted by cyclists from all over the world to demand more space for bicycles. The basic idea is that a ‘mass’ of cyclists can be very crowded and can be seen very well. In fact, it’s about everyone pedaling together through the streets of the city. The itinerary is not decided at the start, but entrusted to the extemporaneousness of those in front”.

The bicycles that are parading around the city, as Dire reports, have all kinds of shapes and colors: from pirate sailing ships to double-decker bicycles, as seen in the video. It is “an opportunity for the festive re-appropriation of the streets, for the reclamation of an urban space suitable for living beings (human and otherwise), for the right to mobility without borders” the organizers write online. “A wave of joy on pedals, an invasion of bicycles, unicycles, tricycles, skates and anything that moves with human traction to bring fresh air to the city, a wind of freedom without diesel, without smog, without concrete” , the promoters explain with a criticism aimed in particular at the Passante di mezzo, or “the doubling of the motorway and ring road” which “looms gray over the future of the city and harmful to the environment (after Civis, People Mover, Fico, Av station)”.