Critical Mass

In My Humble Opinion
1

After having a couple of discussions about it in recent days, and after witnessing it yet again on Friday (first four pictures), I really want to ask what the deal is, and what it’s like in other cities.

San Francisco is often considered the most bike-friendly city behind Portland, OR. Bike lanes all over, campaigns to draw drivers’ attention to bikes, etc. Not to say that cycling is all cotton candy and rainbows, but if only by the sheer number of people who bike here despite the hills, I think we, as a city, do a pretty good job.

Critcal Mass, at least in SF, is a big movement of cyclists who basically take over the streets on the last Friday of every month. This is not an official event, there are no police escorts (quite the opposite), and it is not endorsed (nor condemned) by the SF Bicycle Coalition. A couple hundred cyclists will storm down Market Street- the city’s main commercial & public transit thoroughfare- and just plug up traffic at their whim. I’ve been lucky enough to avoid their traps, but I’ve witnessed them several times. They’ll just stop at Market & Church or Market & Castro and just hang out, blasting music, and not let any non-bicycle vehicle get through for five or ten minutes, or I guess however long it takes those trapped to learn their lesson.

I’d like to think that this is a good cause, and that this is a useful bit of civil disobedience, but what really pissed me off was this trapped J Church streetcar, visible to the right. Those people are not burning oil, they’re not cutting off bikes, they’re not doing a goddamned thing but trying to get home on a Friday night, via the most unobtrusive, unselfish way readily available. Not that the drivers deserve to be trapped either, but that I could at least understand.

Now, I like cyclists in this City. They don’t burn oil, they don’t cause gridlock, and they don’t take up parking spaces. Plus, they stay in fantastic shape, and they know the city better than anyone else. I truly admire them, and if I can shed some weight, I’d like to be one of them. I give them a wide berth, I change lanes to pass them or stay well behind them, despite the lower speed. The point of all this being that I don’t have anything against cyclists in general.

Which is why Critical Mass pisses me off so much. It’s supposedly a protest to increase drivers’ awareness of bikes. Which, I grant, it does, and the cyclists deserve it, if not more. But is this really the way? “We want drivers to give us the respect we deserve, and we want them to realize how dangerous cycling is in the city. So we’ll take over the streets, evading police individually but holding our ground as a group, trap people as long as we want for no reason on a Friday night, and harass drivers simply for being on the busiest street in the city.” I don’t buy that it’s a protest, not anymore. At this point, it’s just an excuse for assholes to be assholes.

Can anyone defend this? Is this what it’s like in other cities?

2

I was quite surprised to find from your link that there is a group here in San Diego. Well, I guess it might be better to say “was” since the website had information from 1998. I have never heard of Critical Mass outside the scope of San Francisco.

3

There’s a group here in Chicago. I don’t have the impression that they’re assholes, though - most times, they just ride on through and the people in cars just let it happen. Doesn’t take very much time out of anyone’s schedule.

I’ve thought many times of joining them, but would maybe like to get a helmet first.

4

Oh, yeah - Critical Mass pisses me off here in Portland, too, for the same reason you give - they keep my damn light-rail train from getting through!

There just seems to me to be this war going on between (some) bikers & (some) drivers in this city, and a lot of innocent people get caught in the middle of it. Sometimes the Critical Massers can get pretty intimidating, even attacking occupied cars with metal pipes, etc. - comparisons could be made to a terrorist approach, even.

But I know for a fact that some drivers have the mistaken belief that bikes don’t “belong” on the road. They have the responsibility of up to 2 tons of deadly force that they need to not aim at other human beings for any reason. I used to ride a bike to work years ago, and it was a scary proposition.

“Why can’t we all just get along?”[/Rodney King]

5

I know nothing of them beyond what I just read above but I’d not think deliberately obstructing folk’s Friday commute home is the best way to endear anyone to your cause. I completely sympathize with their goal but would judge their method to be non-productive.

6

Well, as i’m both a cyclist and a driver (or “cager” as some of the more millitant bikes-only riders euphamistically call them), i’ll say this…

i admire the sentiment behind CM (let drivers know that cyclists have the same rights as other road-users), but the way they go about it could stand some improvement, you do not get confrontational with other road users no matter what vehicle they choose to use, a CM’er is not going to convince a fence-sitter that bikes have the same rights to the roads as cars by delaying the driver, if anything it could be counterproductive and turn a fence-sitter to an anti-bike driver

heck, if i was delayed by a CM in my car, it’d piss ME off not only for the delay and confrontational tactics, but the fact that it’s being done “in my name” as a cyclist

you want car drivers to respect cyclists, fine, i have no problem with that, and as a cyclist myself, i try to present a good example, and other cyclists should do the same thing, by following the rules of the road, no bikes blowing red lights/stopsigns, no riding two (or more) abreast when there is traffic overtaking, but also ride the bike as a vehicle, take a lane and stay in it (no weaving in and out of traffic and parking spots), be prepared to move aside to let faster vehicles pass IF CONDITIONS PERMIT, if your choice is between riding over a drainage grate or broken glass, or holding your lane and temporarily inconveniencing a driver, hold the line then move aside when it’s safe

another thing to my fellow night bikers…

PUT SOME FRELLING LIGHTS ON YOUR BIKE, BOTH FRONT AND REAR!

i can’t count the number of times i’ve been driving home in the evening, and end up coming upon a biker with a death wish riding with no lights and relying on their reflectors alone, here’s a clue, reflectors do not work well when the light is coming from an angle like around a corner, invest in some ACTIVE illumination

put enough lights on your bike so you can both be seen (white blinking front, red blinking rear), and see (10 watt Halogen/HID or 2+ watt LED), when i ride my Trek at night, i have so many lights on it that drivers approaching slow down to a crawl to pass, they don’t know what i am, so they err on the side of caution

and finally…

RIDE ON THE CORRECT SIDE OF THE ROAD, WITH TRAFFIC, NOT TOWARDS IT

last week, as i was driving home at night, i came around a corner (a hairpin corner, to be precise) to encounter a spandex-clad roadie riding TOWARDS ME in my lane, as if that wasn’t bad enough, it was getting dark, and this Darwin-award contender had NO LIGHTS on his bike, if not for my quick reaction speed, he would have ended up a smear on the pavement…

7

I swear, I have seen more young males riding bikes at night, in the wrong direction, with no helmet, no lights, no reflectors, and dark clothing, than you can shake a proverbial stick at. Every time I see one, in fact, I say to my husband, “you can say all you want about ‘women drivers,’ but we’re not that dumb!” And he agrees!

8

My one bump, because I’ve yet to hear any defense of this that wasn’t flimsier than a Girls Gone Wild t-shirt, and I would really like to.

9

All I have to say is that here:

I think you’ve got it backwards.
Get a cycle, and start riding. The weight will then take care of itself.

10

[QUOTE=QuercusGet a cycle, and start riding.[/QUOTE]

Check and check. I’m stil quite a ways to being physically able to use a bike as transportation, but I want to try.