The once a month celebration of human powered transportation, Critical Mass, rode through the streets of Manhattan and Queens last night, providing a brief glimpse of what a city freed of its dependency on oil and cars could be. The ride began on the north side of Union Square in Manhattan then headed south on Broadway before returning north up 6th Avenue. On 6th, the ride passed two chartered tour busses with a heavy police escort. Some on the ride guessed that the busses were transporting delegates from the Republican National Convention Meeting being held uptown at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel as their agenda for Friday listed a tour of Manhattan. Who ever they were, they looked confused. The size of the Critical Mass has steadily grown recently, and last night was no exception. Organizers estimated the crowd to be between 1,000 to 2,000 people, enough to cut Manhattan in two: when the ride turned east on 42nd Street to head for the 59th Street Bridge, the front of the ride reached Lexington Avenue before the end of the ride cleared Times Square, giving drivers of automobiles going north and south time to reflect on their environmentally-destructive transportation. The ride then took over the 59th Street/Queensboro Bridge on its way to Queens. The ride ended in Socrates Sculpture Garden in Long Island City, where the celebration of the bicycle continued with bike jousting (an event that can not be described, only experienced) and music, before smaller Masses of cyclists split directions and headed home. Critical Mass meets at the last Friday of every month on the north side of Union Square in Manhattan at 7 pm. For more info, go to www.times-up.org or www.criticalmass.org.