Neither the honking horns of mad motorists nor the nippy November evening air stopped 15 bike riders and one in-line skater Friday from participating in Columbus’s first Critical Mass Bicycle Ride. Started in San Francisco, Calif., Critical Mass is a bicycle ride in which participants ride down main intersections to bring attention to biking as a valid means of transportation and to recognize the need for bike routes and safety laws.”The purpose of Critical Mass is to make a statement that cyclists want safer streets and a more biker-friendly transportation department,” said Abhishek Lal, a senior majoring in sustainable resource management. “People get killed on their bikes because the streets aren’t safe for them.”Ten bike riders and one in-line skater met at 4:30 p.m. between the Wexner Center for the Arts and Arps Hall to embark upon the journey. Five more cyclists – including students from Denison University -joined the ride on south campus.The group rode south together on High Street to the Statehouse before returning to campus. They rode in the right lane until they got downtown, where the right lane is reserved for busses during rush hour. The riders kept a leisurely pace, and rode for about an hour and a half.According to its website, “Critical Mass is an organized coincidence in which bicyclists get together to celebrate their freedom and independence from traffic jams, insurance bills, gas station attendants and meter cops.” In keeping with the concept of an “organized coincidence,” Critical Mass had no single organizer, but was supported by Students for Freethought, the Underground student-run radio station and the Student Environmental Action Coalition, said Harmon Vredeveld, a junior majoring in history and zoology.August Brunsman, a senior majoring in psychology, rode toward the front of the procession. The angry drivers on High Street didn’t bother him.”There was some honking,” Brunsman said. “Nobody yelled or anything. I thought it was a lot of fun.”Dave Hill, a senior majoring in environmental education and communication, gave handbills explaining Critical Mass to drivers at red lights.”There was a lot of support. It seemed like people wanted to know what was going on,” Hill said. “Occasionally drivers were impatient or upset.”Vredeveld said some drivers tried to pass the cyclists by driving in the bus lane, which led to their getting stuck behind busses.If all goes as planned in Columbus, a larger Critical Mass bicycle ride will take place in April near Earth Day.”We’d like to get more public awareness next time,” Vredeveld said. “We’d like to make it bigger and ideally make it a public event.””I hope that something larger happens and we actually get some bike paths,” Brunsman said.