Critial Mshiny happy persons strike again

Any run into these guys yet?

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008074874_webcriticalmass26m.html

I'm all for bicyclists, I ride and even live on a bike path. But it seems like Critical Mass rides are basically looking for an excuse to act like anonymous anarchists.

I used to want to ride in the Atlanta events, but now I'd be afraid of being associated with these nuts.

I ride.. but thankfully we do not have the critical mass riders around here. Like you said Slefain, some people do take them as an advantage to take their frustrations out on people and cars

Gotta love what Wiki says about them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Mass

mad_machine wrote: I ride.. but thankfully we do not have the critical mass riders around here. Like you said Slefain, some people do take them as an advantage to take their frustrations out on people and cars Gotta love what Wiki says about them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Mass

Love the Wiki... It tells the truth.

I would have floored it as soon as one of them hit me/my car. Too bad I would have probably ended up in the slammer. Berkeleyem. I would have loved to see what would have happened if their vehicle to pick on would have been a big lifted truck.

The Critical Mass people got into a riot with the Minneapolis police last summer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Mass#August.2C_2007_Minneapolis_Crackdown. They've managed to make quite a nuisance of themselves - blocking traffic, breaking traffic laws and so forth. I'm all for biker's rights as well but I don't think they do themselves any good with these protests.

93gsxturbo wrote: I would have floored it as soon as one of them hit me/my car. Too bad I would have probably ended up in the slammer. Berkeleyem. I would have loved to see what would have happened if their vehicle to pick on would have been a big lifted truck.

I agree.. can say I feared for my life. I have driven on a flat, it is not going to stop me.

Should this have been added to the "what arseholes drive" thread?

Makes me wish I was still involved in emergency services, just flip on my blue(fire)/green(EMS) lights and make it clear that if need be, i will run them over.

I had to take a vandelism report a few months back. A bus sat in the stop while the group passed, and a few of the decided to smash window and break the left side mirror. I'm not sure how that promotes bicycle friendlyness.

considering they also seem to hate pedestriians.. the only thing they are promoting is somebody running them down

there was a critical mass ride here in detroit a few years ago. a kid i work with tried to get me to go, because he knows i ride. i told him i thought he was a retard, and that these jackasses would do more to damage motorist goodwill toward cyclists in one night than cyclists could repair in one year. I thought about going so i could pepper-spray the bikers from the inside, LOL.

The riders said the man's tires were slashed to keep him from fleeing the scene or running into more riders.

Riiiiiight. And then the driver ran over your ass to make sure you didn't stab anybody with your knife. "...and as I was getting punched and my tires were getting flattened, my foot just slipped off the clutch pedal. It was horrible, oh the humanity!"

I agree AngryCorvair, these guys are doing waaaay more damage to bicyclist rep than they could ever fix themselves. What a bunch of douchebags. Maybe they should burn a Hummer to save the world while they're at it too, that's just as sensible.

Bryce

I haven't really heard much about these rides before this but it sounds elitist, antagonistic and immature. Just a bunch of idiots who want to go out and say "I'm better than you because I don't happen to be driving a car at the moment'' in the most obnoxious way possible. Not surprising that it sometimes turns into mob violence.

Looks like its time to rewrite the laws so that bicyclists are not allowed to ride on streets.

F7ck these guys.

I might have had the self restraint to not go nuts if they hit the car, but when one punched me through the window, I would have run over as many of them as I could get, then back over them to be sure.

I’ve seen these guys in San Diego or some group similar to it. Yeah, they block all the roads and generally act as if their group has the right of way for about 15 minutes while they pass through. It takes place in "the people republic of Ocean Beach" though so I don’t get to upset as anytime you go to OB you see something at least a little bit crazy.

A number of the riders also form up once in a while on bicycles with no breaks and hold some sort of stage rally where they race from point to point in the middle of the night through city roads.

Wow, never heard of this before. What a bunch of morons. Would it be reasonable to assume that, to campaign for driver's rights, motorists should flock to bike lanes once a month, and drive illegally through bike paths?

Yes, and when bicyclists get angry we could smash their bikes up with tire irons.

From the other side of the fence, though, I've been driven off the road while riding a bicycle on empty country roads on several occasions, often with the car driver doing it on purpose. When I was in college in Houston I had to replace one rim or the other nearly every week because some @55hat in a car decided he didn't need to share the road with a bicycle and I should be riding over all the car debris along the side of the road.

Sure guys on bicycles who go out of their way to be jerks are just that: jerks, but in all honesty they bear the brunt of the car-bicycle exchange 99.9997% of the time. I don't agree with the tactics of critical mass, but I do completely understand where they are coming from.

I think the real issue is one of seperating cars from bicycles and providing for fair use of both. If I had my way there would be a seperate, designated, set of lanes for bicycles, Mopeds, scooters, and Kei cars in major metro areas and they would never have to get on a 55mph+ road with cars at all. America is a long way from any of that sort of thing, though.

oldopelguy wrote: I think the real issue is one of seperating cars from bicycles and providing for fair use of both. If I had my way there would be a seperate, designated, set of lanes for bicycles, Mopeds, scooters, and Kei cars in major metro areas and they would never have to get on a 55mph+ road with cars at all. America is a long way from any of that sort of thing, though.

that would be kinda cool

Wowak wrote: Looks like its time to rewrite the laws so that bicyclists are not allowed to ride on streets. F7ck these guys. I might have had the self restraint to not go nuts if they hit the car, but when one punched me through the window, I would have run over as many of them as I could get, then back over them to be sure.

Aaack! NO!! This is why these guys piss me off. This is not majority of bike commuters. I love commuting by bike and more bikes mean less traffic. If bikers follow traffic laws there is very little incovenience to motorist. Bikes on sidewalks are very unsafe, do you want to have to look half a block down a side walk before every time you make a turn? You won't and a lot of the time it is impossible and people on bikes will get hit.

Bikes on sidewalks wouldn't be a problem if they followed the same rules that cars on streets follow. I used to ride regularly and despite being recquired by law to use the streets, (I would ride in downtown Ann Arbor), I would use the sidewalk and be mindful of pedestrians. I always gave pedestrians the right of way when on sidewalks, and cars the right of way when I venture onto the street.

I never had a problem with this. If there was a lot of foot traffic, I would ride at a walker's pace, if traffic died down, I'd speed up, just like when driving a car.

It also helps that I have the same tiny BMX I've had for the last 14 years.

I feel that with airbags becoming standard fare in A, B and C-pillars, I'm very worried that I won't be able to see a lone biker while I'm driving around.

I ride, and I drive, and I personally believe right of way should be given to the one that is capable of inflicting the most damage.

I've been honked at, yelled at, run off the road countless times and been hit by an apple at full speed but that's just a few people being shiny happy persons. When you ride you have to assume that at every intersection a car will cut you off and the drivers side door is going to pop open from every parked car just as you pass it. In a car you don't have to worry about bikes the same way. I'm just convinced that the only way people will be more aware of bicyclists is if there are more people biking. You see this when riding in the city. On a weekday it's no big deal because the drivers are used to bikes every where but riding your bike in the city on weekends when people come in from the suburbs is suicide.

I guess my point is that it just isn't an even playing field.

Start carrying loaded weapons?

Theres wackos for anything out there. This so called "critical mass" is actually only a very small part of the population that uses a bicycle regularly. Don't lump all cyclists in there with them. My family and friends will be quite unhappy if you run me over in a fit of rage.

seann wrote:

GlennS wrote: Yes, and when bicyclists get angry we could smash their bikes up with tire irons.

I've been honked at, yelled at, run off the road countless times and been hit by an apple at full speed but that's just a few people being shiny happy persons. When you ride you have to assume that at every intersection a car will cut you off and the drivers side door is going to pop open from every parked car just as you pass it. In a car you don't have to worry about bikes the same way. I'm just convinced that the only way people will be more aware of bicyclists is if there are more people biking. You see this when riding in the city. On a weekday it's no big deal because the drivers are used to bikes every where but riding your bike in the city on weekends when people come in from the suburbs is suicide. I guess my point is that it just isn't an even playing field.

For claritys sake i was being completely sarcastic. Im fairly certain bastomatic was aswell. Im sympathetic to the crap most cyclists have to put up with. People on two wheels dont get enough consideration from a large percentage of the people on four.