Tapeworm21

This is more aimed towards the bay area.

Alright, San Francisco.... Critical Mass. I understand, the city isn't very good for cyclists. Actually, it's terrible for a a city that's trying to be so energy efficient. I understand your movement. Does blocking traffic once a month solve that? I don't think so, because people see it coming.... and it's gone the next day. Business as usual. IMO, it's more for fun than it is for some sort of movement. Not saying I'm right, that's just the way I see it.


Alright, Berkeley? We have bike lanes, bicycle boulevards, and pretty well lit streets. Why do we have a critical mass? I stay off Shattuck, San Pablo, University and sidewalks. Every other street is pretty damn biker friendly. So.... what exactly are you fighting for? Do you just want to block traffic? Yes, the drivers are downright terrible... blame the DMV for that.

Does anyone just ride their bike not only for commuting, but just because it's fun and enjoyable? No agenda, no politcal statement, no feeling to block traffic to get a point across to a community that bikes exist, but just biking because you actually like biking more than driving?

I dunno, I just have this feeling that even if a city were to surrender to a Critical Mass, the Critical Mass would still exist... just with a different agenda of some sort.

Drunken ramble... but just how I see it. Bicycle safety and education about the laws of riding and wearing helmets... hell yeah. All for that. Maybe Critical Mass in a way encourages people to join some sort of bicycling community. I'd be down with that movement... it's just advertised poorly.

Edit: I hit something funky and discontorted the text. Yes, I just used "discontorted" in a sentence.

ken cummings

I can understand SF, it was laid out by a man who did not know it had serious hills. Berkley was saner.

chipcom 

I would imagine most ride because it's fun without some wacky political agenda behind it.

slowandsteady

It is a toy. It is for playing. There are legitimate political issues. This ain't it.

I don't enjoy biking more than driving. I don't enjoy driving more than biking. They are mutually exclusive. I don't understand why some people feel there needs to be some sort of rivalry between the two. I love my horse too. But I am not going to start riding it to work or the grocery store or start blocking traffic with it.

Tom Stormcrowe

I don't consider a bike a toy, it's transportation, exercise, vacation travel...in short, a lifestyle.

N_C

Everytime I ride I have some sort of agenda, though not a political one. My agenda is for fun, to get to my destination when I am commuting, to complete a charity ride & once a year to complete RAGBRAI.

slowandsteady

My car is a toy too.

A lifestyle is behavioral. A bicycle is just a tool.

For example. I have a small hobby farm. My lifestyle is to raise small farm animals and to be somewhat self sufficient in regards to providing myself with food that isn't prepackaged. That is the lifestyle. Whether I go about doing this with goats, chickens, and corn or ducks, cows, and wheat is irrelevent.

Your lifestyle and values are ones of transportation, exercise and travel. You enjoy using a bike as one of the tools, but the bike itself is just a hunk of metal. How many hunks of metal are sitting in people's garages as we speak who do not share your values of transportation, exercise and travel? The bike itself is irrelevent. It can't make people have these values. It can't make people get off their butts and move. That comes from within.

rando

yES!

genec

I aways have an "agenda" be it exercise, transportation, or just simple fun (wanting to feel the sun in my face and the wind in my hair).

crtreedude 

Efficiency is my agenda. I don't like to wait for my wife when going to the office. I don't like to leave when she does, I don't like having two vehicles. And I don't want to have to figure out when I am going to have time to excercise.

It does cause comment when people see us leave and return at the same time - her in the car, I am on the bike.

chipcom 

el patron es muy puto - pedaling his butt all over the village

Helmet Head

I almost always have an agenda, like to get to a certain destination within a certain amount of time.

eubi

I like to interest Scouts in bicycling. So most of my "recreational rides" are with them.
Agenda: Hopefully a few of them will enjoy cycling enough to continue it after Scouts.

I am an overweight tightwad. Scrooge was a spendthrift. So I bike as part of my daily commute.
Agenda: Save money and get slimmer.

But I never thought of cycling that way until this thread.

fordfasterr

My agenda is to: KILL KILL KILL !

chipcom 

That breath 'll do it.

Ed Holland

Yes, I just ride. To and from work, to the tune of 100+ miles/week and for recreation when I get the time.

Thats it as far as I'm concerned, although its cheaper to commute by bike, and healthier too.

Ed

SingingSabre 

I ride it for commuting...because it's more fun than driving.

rando

actually I guess I do have an agenda-- I bike commute, so for transportation, exercise and fun.

crtreedude 

Yes, the patron gets looks - but it sure makes the workers proud that I am tougher than any of them. In a farm community, you don't want to be a wimp.

bikedaddy

I do it for the babes!

banerjek

People already think I'm nuts. No need to actually be one.

richardmasoner

That's kind of the point of CM -- people in their cars block other traffic every day of the week. Rush hour traffic is a critical mass of cars on the roads. So cyclists do it once a month and big deal.


RFM

slowandsteady

Ah, the two wrongs make a right logic. I see.

chipcom 

Too bad the motorists are pretty much clueless to CM's alleged intentions and message and see it as yet another reason to get us off the roads, rather than sharing them. With friends like this, cyclists don't need enemies. Perhaps if they spent more time trying to communicate the underlying message and less time ticking off motorists in a vaccum, they might make some progress...but I suspect that like many political groups, their vested interest lies in ensuring the problem perpetuates, rather than solving it.

oneredstar

I ride with an agenda at times and at others I am just out to have fun. I fully support what Critical Mass is doing. I know that many people have issues with it, but I think it has its place. I have never been to a Bay area critical mass but I assume it is quite large and has an active group of participants. I live in such a small city with non-progressive view points that I was actually kicked out of a Critical Mass for taking up another lane, I found it amusing but still throw my support behind the movement.