Originally Posted by
achoo
Fixed that for reality.
No you didn't fix it for reality when my point was about the kinds of things rides like Critical Mass do, not what an individual commuter on a bike does. The point I am making, and that people keep (deliberately, I think) ignoring is that you can complain all you want about motorists hating you and how this one time (or ten) this mean guy in this big truck... But the reality is that a huge majority of motorists really don't care if we are on the road or not as long as we don't go out of our way to get in their way and slow them down. Where we make new enemies is with rides like Critical Mass. The kinds of activities engaged in by people on CM rides and some other group rides take motorists who used to not care about cyclists and makes them into cyclist haters. So if you are riding that way and deliberately flouting laws and not being courteous to drivers, you are no better than the guy in the truck coal-rolling every cyclist he sees. You have to give respect to get it, and if you hate them and demonstrate it, you have no right to expect anything but the same in return.