Critical Mass rides gearing up

[DoYouEverWonder]

March 9, 2006

The city may be fighting a losing battle against the Critical Mass bike rides.

As warmer weather promises to bring even larger crowds to the rides, observers wonder whether the recent court setbacks will affect police enforcement.

Last month, a state judge refused to grant the city a preliminary injunction to ban people from joining the ride. In January, another judge ruled that riders could not be arrested for "parading without a permit," one of the most common charges.

"The hope is that given the various legal decisions and all the attention being paid to police over-enforcing the laws on bike rides, that there will a de-escalation this summer," said Matthew Roth, a volunteer with bicycle-advocacy group Times-Up! "We would like to see it go back to what it was pre-2004, when there was a much more amicable dynamic between police and bike riders."

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/am-mass0309,0,109218.story?coll=ny-nycnews-headlines

[fasttense]

1. This is the first I've heard of Critical Mass

Glad to see them take the roads back for a change. At least they don't pour pollutants into the air by driving vehicles. It may even encourage people to drive their bikes to work. I don't understand why the police are so hostile to them.

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. The police are so hostile to them

because they are anti-war protesters who orginize large groups of bike riders and shut down traffic by blocking intersections.

[lowreed]

5. www.critical-mass.info

Some CM riders try to tie up traffic as much as possible and be otherwise confrontational with motorists. Such riders are missing the point about Critical Mass. CM is a celebration of cycling, not a war against motorists. CM is about asserting our right to the road, not denying others their right to the road. Those who want to play juvenile games are encouraged to stay at home instead.
<snip>

[BiggJawn]

3. No, they don't pollute...

They just make 100's of cars sit idling, dribbling more pollutants into the air than they would if they were traveling to their destinations.

IMO, it's not about Cyclist's Rights, it's about Anti-Auto-ism.
They're the ELF of the bike world.

Sitting in my car, being late for work because several hundred bicycles are blocking the intersection ahead of me is NOT going to "encourage" me to ride MY bike to work.

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. If you live in NYC

it's much easier to take the train or bus, then to drive anywhere. How much gas have you wasted in your life driving in circles looking for a parking spot?

[BiggJawn]

9. Well, I don't live in NYC, now, do I?

So that's a bit of a Strawman. Let me ask you how often you'd ride a bike to work if you worked for Subaru in Lafayette, Indiana, and lived in Mulberry, Indiana? You can't tell me, can you?

If I lived in a location that had the mass transit that NYC does, I seriously doubt I'd own a car.

But I don't live anyplace like that, so I pay through the urethra for the convenience of not having to spend the few hours I'm not working or sleeping commuting by foot or bike. To paraphrase Roger Lovin, the scumbag who wrote "The Compleat Motorcycle Nomad", a car is the "most absurd sex substitute ever invented".

[Lydia Leftcoast]

42. You have traffic-blocking Critical Mass rides in Lafayette, Indiana?

Who knew? :shrug:

[sendero]

7. Exactly...

... you know, I think bikes are great. But the fact is, on the main artery roads around Dallas, riding a bike (during rush hour) is borderline crazy. If the traffic is normally 45 mph and all you can muster is 15, you don't belong there, period.

[BiggJawn]

11. We need to become a more bike-friendly culture.

Adopting PETA-style tactics and pissing off people instead of educating them/showing them how much FUN you can have is not the way to do it.

But hey, a guy can only hang SO much metal off his face to scare the Straights, right?

[crispini]

12. I bike commute in Dallas.

Dallas is a very good city to bike commute in because of the large network of residential roads that are laid out in a grid, plus it's flat. Of course, most people don't realize that because they just see the large fast roads that they drive on every day, but there are lots of alternate routes from A to Z. If you can find a copy of the Dallas Bike Plan Map you'll see what I'm talking about.

[sendero]

13. That's why I said..

... "on the fast paced thoroughfares" :)

I agree, if you WANT to get around on a bike in Dallas, it's very possible to do so without spending a lot of time on Coit road in rush hour :)

The bicyclists who bother me, and are a danger to themselves and others IMHO, ride on Coit Road when they could easily take Meandering Way!

[400Years]

8. cry me a river, your the one spewing pollution

[BiggJawn]

10. Whatever.

So the Critical Massers can go "cry me a river" when the pigs bust 'em, too.

[400Years]

18. I think they are doing a good job of fighting back, they don't need you

[BiggJawn]

24. They do an EXCELLENT job of educating motorists!

So when they pass me out on one of my health rides to no-where, they're inclined to throw shit at me and yell "GET OFF THE ROAD, YOU FAGGOT!!!".. Really made an impression on 'em, yep, you sure did...

And for that, I say Fuck You, Critical Mass, Very Much.

It ain't about bikes, it's about being a pain-in-the-ass.

[400Years]

28. sounds like some kind of personal problem

[BiggJawn]

31. I think you're right.

Now, I wonder, what causes such an irrational, visceral reaction on the part of a cage-pilot to an old fat man on a bicycle on a country road?

I dunno, do you suppose it could be because they had a run-in with some 2-wheeled anarchist who thought they were "striking a blow for a car-free future" at some time in their past?

I really wonder sometimes...

[Rich Hunt]

26. Critical Mass happens at night

On Fridays, after work.

NOT during the morning rush hour.

And it's once a month.

You exaggerate outrageously.

[BiggJawn]

33. OK, so EVENING rush hour.

Gee, if an anarchist throws a bomb into the river, and all it kills are fish, is it still an act of anarchy?

I have to ride the roads of this world, and SHARE them with those stupid, fat, ReTHUGlican-voting, homophobic, yada, yada, yada, car drivers. The acts of a bunch of sociopath misfits hopped up on BAWLS playing Fearless Fix-Gear, pissing them off, doesn't make life any easier for me, okay? Like SUV drivers and skinheads (I've had run-ins with both) need any fucking other reason to hassle a bike....

Real "For us or against us" mentality going there, right?
OK, chalk me down as "Against".

[Xithras]

35. You're not the only one.

Critical Mass types don't seem to get the damage they do to the cycling community. When there's 500 bikes running down Montgomery Street in SF and one of them snaps the hood emblem off Bubba the Redneck's H3, he's not going to get out and pick a fight when that cyclist has 500 buddies within eyesight. But when he's driving down a country road a few weeks later and see's "whiny liberal cyclists" all alone on the side of the highway, that cyclist is going to be in big trouble...even if he was nowhere near a CM event. I've been DELIBERATELY run off the road more times than I care to remember because many people DON'T LIKE CYCLISTS. The actions of CM are simply increasing the numbers of people who do that.

That makes us ALL less safe on the roadways.

[BiggJawn]

39. My point EXACTLY.

I don't get it. The whole point seems to be a bunch of Punks on Paramounts trying to piss-off as many people as possible before they get killed themselves.

How many of us Old Farts who Get Fat in Winter in our 3X Coolmax jerseys they set up for later assaults isn't a concern of theirs, I guess. Oh, hell no, if we had been with THEM, we'd learn the VALUE of never cycling unless you're in a PACK...

HUGE black eye for cycling. HUGH111

[henslee]

41. I have seen them on the street -- its a cool feeling.

[ixion]

6. setback?

sounds like enforcing the Bill of Rights, to me.

Go Critical Massers!

[bikeboy]

14. It's amazing how many choices

there really are. If your sitting on your fat butt in your auto while a bunch of bikers roll by and your worried about your loss of gas and the abundance of pollution spewing from your tail pipe...turn off your motor...it's pretty simple.

Now the stress you under-go from the time that your being stuck at an intersection is usually no more time than what it would take for a freight train to cross your path, so try some deep breathing to relax yourself. the fact that you get so bent out of shape bye the cyclists might be a good indicator that a bicycle might be really good for you to reduce your stress.

If you read the rules of the road you will see that cyclists have many of the same rights to the road as the auto loving grunts. Bicycles make a lot of scence in every community and should be welcomed as a solution to many ills confronting America.

[ixion]

15. well said, bikeboy

and welcome to DU! :hi:

Having been an avid biker for many years, I completely agree.

[bikeboy]

16. Thanks ixion

the truth here in the land of the accirelerator pedal is that a bicycle is looked at as a toy. We are the only culture that doesn't accept the bicycle as a "real" form of transportation. Americans do many of their around town chores in their cars and those chores are in a very small 1-2 mile circle that a bicycle can do easily. With our population getting fatter and our gas getting more costly (how many boy's and girls are dead today because of good king george and his oil war???) can anyone point me to a more reasonable choice for transprotation?

The bicycle is the most patented device in the world. At one point in the early 1900's the US Patent office had one entire building for bicycles only. A bicycle is 99% efficiant, what more can you ask for? Then there is this really big problem for people too, bicycles are fun!

Oh well, at 5:00 PM here in my busy little town of El Cerrito CA I can get to and from Berkeley faster and happier than Mr./Mrs. auto any day and that is a three and a half mile trip each way. I'm grinnin and their grumpin... easy choice for me. I just hope they don't hit me while they're doin the grumpin thing...

[Ignis]

38. OT: Let's hear it for El Cerrito progressives!

Keeping Contra Costa County from turning red, one vote at a time. :)

Welcome to DU.

[Xithras]

17. I have a very poor opinion of CM.

Let me preface this by saying that I'm an avid cyclist (I ride at least 5 miles every morning) and that I've participated in numerous biking events. That said, I will NEVER participate in a CM event.

I've run into three CM events over the years...one in Modesto, and two in SF. The objective of Critical Mass, so the organizers claim, is to promote bicycling as a viable alternative to commuting in cars, and to make motorists more aware of the importance of sharing the road with non-motorists. It fails miserably on both counts. CM is an annoyance, and deliberately so. CM riders treat the entire event as a joke or use it as a soapbox to promote their own political, social, or personal causes. Many CM riders are openly hostile to motorists, and I've seen many of them repeatedly kick automobiles, key cars as they ride past, break off antennae and mirrors, or verbally assault the people inside. CM riders also like to shut down intersections by stopping in the middle of the road and blocking traffic for no reason other than the fact that they can do so.

CM isn't about promoting bicycling as an alternative, it's a chance for the anarchists to have a little fun at everyone else's expense.

Several years ago CM came to Modesto (I live very close to it) to start up some rides. Many people in the local biking community, which tends to be very professional and family oriented, decided to join up...including many of my friends. I wasn't interested since I'd dealt with the events in SF previously, but nobody I knew in the local biking community was interested in listening to my complaints. When they held the event, over 100 cyclists showed up, saw what it was really about, and all but about 30 left before the event even started...they had no interest in taking part in that. The following month, less than half of them showed up. The month after that they didn't even have enough riders to bother. Our local bicycling community got the message loud and clear...CM isn't about cycling, it's about protesting.

[400Years]

19. Why shouldn't we take back the streets for a little while?

People going around spewing pollution from their automobiles at everyone else's expense every day and yet I don't hear you whining about that.

[Xithras]

23. Because the point is supposed to be to convince people to JOIN cyclists.

CM events create the impression that cyclists are just a bunch of troublemakers who enjoy ruining everyone's day. Not only does this fail to convince people to join us, but it actually makes motorists MORE hostile towards cyclists, increasing the dangers the rest of us face when riding around during the rest of the month.

Which is worse, a motorist who doesn't care that you're there on your bicycle, or a motorist who is openly hostile to you? CM's solution to the first type of motorist apparently involves turning them into the second type.

And yes, I do whine about tailpipe pollution. All the damned time, in fact. I'm an active environmentalist and regularly petition and protest against sprawl and roadbuilding projects. I think that our dependence on the car is killing us, and that we need far more of an emphasis on bicycles and other forms of alternative/mass transportation in this country. I just think that making an ass out of yourself and deliberately shutting down major arteries during peak traffic is the WRONG way to pursue those goals. CM isn't about encouraging bike riding, it's about anarchy and revenge against the system. It's counterproductive.

If CM was actually designed to show the viability of bicycling as an alternative to cars, I'd support it completely. But street theatre? Political protests? Destroying peoples property? WTF does any of that have to do with encouraging people to ride?

[400Years]

27. no the point is to have enough of a presence so as to make cars

less of a dominant force on the road.

why do you think they call it critical mass?

[Xithras]

34. But what is the purpose of that presence?

Why do they want to make cars less dominant? What are their ultimate goals?

Critical Mass riders seem to have a disconnect when it comes to their tactics and their goals. You don't get people to join you by pissing everyone off. You don't get the laws changed by labelling yourselves as subversives. You don't attract common people to your activity by portrarying yourself as anarchists. You don't make friends with people by damaging their property.

The organizers of every Critical Mass event I've seen have always claimed the same ultimate goal: To realize a day when bicycles are as safe and accepted on the roadways as motorists are. I support that goal. What I do not support are the actual tactics used by CM which do absolutely nothing to further that goal.

[bikeboy]

20. Are you commuting

from Modesto to SF?

[Xithras]

21. Not anymore.

I did that for far too long. My office is actually within cycling range of my home, so whenever the weather isn't too bad I'll usually bike to work. I do have to commute to my teaching job though :(

[bikeboy]

22. I ask if you are

a commuter from Modesto for a good reason. Modesto is a couple of hour drive from SF on a good day. San Francisco fills up every day with cars from all of the bedroom communities filled with commuters that don't want to live where their job is. This put a great strain on the infrastructure that is there to support the residence of the city. Critical massers are dealing with your car in their city all day long and they have a right to protest your waste of their public resorces and time.

[Xithras]

25. I haven't commuted to SF since 1997.

When the Dublin BART station opened, it actually cut my commute in half. I'd commute from Salida (just north of Modesto) to Dublin, and then ride BART the rest of the way in. I even gave that up in 1999.

As for us straining "your" infrastructure, I have to point out that most of the commuters are coming in to work for the companies that support a huge portion of that infrastructure in the first place. The real long-term solution to the commuting problem will be for those companies to move out of San Francisco and relocate closer to their actual employee base. That's what many of us "bedroom community" environmentalists are fighting for, and there have been several notable wins in that area (it's cheaper for them to do business out here too). While that solution will unclog your roads, it's also going to do a lot of economic harm to the Bay Area.

[bikeboy]

30. Sorry for the dirrect "yours/ ours" typing there...

Your points are well taken. I think what for me is at stake is that when two competing forms of transpertation vie for transportation dollars the gas sucking one wins every time. So as the focus of americas attention once again turns to energy consumption and how best to move from one place to the other gas suckers are in the best position to lobby for their accepted point of view both nationaly and locally. As companies move to the suburbs the economic effect on the city could be be good or bad depending on how it's planned. I fear that the companies just take the congestion with them to a new community that has not planned for the increased flow of trafic and is only thinking automobile once again.

As it is now, the only time you hear of a bicycle related story is when it is about one of us dying on the road or crittical mass. There is an advacusy group called Bikes Belong and they lobby for transportation dollars but you as a typical Joe won't hear this or the thousand other reasons to ride a bike through the MSN's. Crittical mass is the only current form of making a point to the auto world that bicycles are by law allowed and regulated to the roads and it may not be pretty it is a voice.

Also the riders that did not participate in the ride sounded like a big enough body that they could have ridden with themselves and been their own mass.

[Rich Hunt]

29. that's a bunch of garbage

It's a one month celebration of one's right to the road.

Do you know the shit we put up with from cars?

Oh, she's guilty, guilty, guilty of anarchist protesting or whatever other gossip you people have heard about me.

Hang me already guilty I'm guilty I'm an IRA terrorist and anarchist and I rode in CM not looking for friends and fun and peace.

No, I did it to be an awful anarchist full of hate.

Whatever you've heard about Kerry Lynn Keane is true, and she deserved to be hit by a car last year, just like another DUer said, and that's documented.

Please kill me, I'm a horrible IRA anarchist terrorist.

Guilty guilty guilty I'm guilty.

[Xithras]

36. Yes, I'm aware of the shit you put up with...I put up with it every day.

As I said in my post, I ride every morning, and I have to deal with uncaring motorists every day.

Your right to celebrate your right to the road doesn't give you the right to shut the road down to everyone else, and it certainly doesn't give you the right to be violent or insulting about it. I seem to recall that there were actual RIOTS in 1997, the last year I commuted into SF in my car and had to deal with one of their "rides" directly.

[ReadTomPaine]

32. I wish some cyclists had the same consideration for pedestrians...

as they desire from car drivers. Almost every nasty habit that cyclists attribute to motorists they perpetrate themselves on pedestrians. It's almost as if it's some sort of compensation - "well, motorists can push me around, but at least I can terrorize pedestrians".

I'm a big walker, and almost everyone I know who shares my love for this has literal scars they can show you from hit and run cyclists, most of them gained by people riding bikes on paths either banned to bikes or by speeding in areas packed with pedestrians. The best is when they ram silently into you from behind, and then blame you for 'getting in their way' or damaging their bikes. That's precisely the same as the stereotype of the motorist who strikes someone at a crosswalk and then gets out of the car and yells at the victim.

[Book Lover]

37. I love the mountain bikers on walking trails, myself

No sound behind you except the crunch of the gravel/sand, and then (if you're lucky) a whoosh as they whizz by an inch away from you. If you're not lucky, well, hey, you don't mind eating a little gravel for the cause, right? I don't mind sharing any road, but walkers always have the right of way.

[BiggJawn]

40. The MYTH of the "multi-use path".

I tried riding on those things exactly TWICE.

First time was the Kal-Haven trail, and once we got out of SH further than the rental bike riders cared to go, it was very good. Did wish I could blow a whistle and blast through grade crossings like the trains used to, though.

The second time was a date on the M-U local trails. I'll never do THAT again! Great place to ride a bike if you're 3 years old and just starting, or 90 years old and barely able to keep upright, but I'll ride in the road, thank you.

A 20MPH cyclist has no business on a hiking trail. That's just MHO, though. That and $5 will get you a small coffee w/no fancy foam.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

43. In Minneapolis' Chain of Lakes area, the bikes and peds are

on parallel paths, not on the same path.