Reply #26: Bicycles are traffic, too

[gratuitous]

Certainly when there's a traffic jam of motor vehicles, nobody says they need a parade permit, and it takes far fewer cars and trucks to shut down traffic than it does bicycles. It also takes a lot longer to untangle a traffic mess of motor vehicles than it does a group of bicyclists. And if a bicycle has a mechanical failure (say, on a bridge or in the middle of a busy intersection), it doesn't tie up traffic for miles around and hours on end.

I'd be interested to see how a law could be written that would outlaw "coordinated traffic-blocking stunts" by bicycles that wouldn't impact motor vehicles as well.

Our society is so conditioned to motor vehicles as the sine qua non of personal transportation that so many people can't envision any other way of getting around, even when those alternative means are cleaner, cheaper and depending on circumstances faster than an automobile.