http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...cpcycle22.html

Wheeler Dealers

Paula Bock

CULTURAL CHANGE reveals itself in weird ways.

Like the week gas topped $3 a gallon and Zack Treisman, a mild-mannered mathematician and avid cyclist, was arrested by plainclothes King County Sheriff's deputies while pedaling through Belltown with 300 others during a monthly ride called Critical Mass.

You could look at the incident as isolated, a twilight confrontation between free-wheeling cyclists and zealous cops.

Or you could see our city at a cultural crossroads — the conflict, really, over how to deal with congested streets, global warming, an obesity epidemic.

Loose, leaderless, Critical Mass is more Idea than Political Movement. Part celebration, part demonstration, the semi-spontaneous bicycle rally meanders over urban asphalt (intentionally clogging streets) in about 100 cities around the world on the last Friday of every month. There's no membership roster, no pre-planned route, just a parade of pedals, clots of stalled motorists and a provocative motto: We're not blocking traffic. We ARE traffic.