Advocacy & Safety - CM.. just a point of view...

Critical mass report - an opinion.

I've been critical of critical mass in the past. But I decided a while back that I should give it a try. The idea was to go in un opinionated, and get to know it and decide. I'd like to support cycling efforts, as it's important to me.

So in February, I sent out an email to the local CM people, and got a response "Military types not welcome, nothing personnel, we just don't want government types around.". I deleted it out of anger, thinking that I just didn't want to deal with it then. I tried again, and in April, got an email about a CM ride. Wandered around town for a few hours after work, met up with a Messenger named Travis.. and we had a good 1 hour talk about politics, war, etc. He then proceeded to kill me on the ride up to the park, that boy can move..

Anyway, the ride was fun, if uneventful. Big crowd, well behaved. One run in, and that was with some angry PT cruiser driver who was checking cones, and decided to flash high beams. There was a wide variety of people, including a few people who were very political, yet they were friendly. I think the email was fluke. A few collisions among riders, and a few cases of the group getting separated. And a few fixed gear rides, so I had someone to talk about odds and ends, and learn a few things. We passed out pretty basic flyers, and really, again, well behaved: not what you see on CNN. I would go again, based on that trip.

Fast forward, to this month. Friday night comes, the FG isn't ready (I had tore it down Thursday night to get it cleaned up and correct chain line), and I don't feel like riding the multigear bike. That and I unloaded about 4 tons of cement, brick and wood into my garage. I'm beat, and tired, and.. just too wiped out.

Some email comes across the bounce list for CM. Problems with the police, someone yelling @#$# the police, and a flag. On person is saying they are going to carry a "no war for oil flag." ~ or not come. It's hard to balance someone's free speech, which I totally support, with the balance of how it is probably unproductive, and the fact that others must assume that because your not with a completely certain political agenda, you must be against the bike as well.

What is sad that it seemed like a fun, productive way to represent, and also make a statement. I have to be careful of what statement's I make because of my choice of employement, and I have to be careful of the statement's made by those around me. And I'm not here to say that what is said is wrong, or I'm mad about on a personnel level. It's cool because people can be free to say what ever. But, I think that some of the activism is lost, and the credibility is lost, because others.. want to associate much of it with many issues, and not focus on the one.

...I sent out an email to the local CM people, and got a response "Military types not welcome, nothing personnel, we just don't want government types around."
William, I'm no expert, but from what I understand, CM has no "leaders" or "organizers." Therefore, nobody can exclude you from CM. What would they do, call the cops?

hehe...

William, I'm no expert, but from what I understand, CM has no "leaders" or "organizers." Therefore, nobody can exclude you from CM. What would they do, call the cops?

hehe...

Well... no but they might finger him as the "leader" and then he'd be in real trouble. :D

Na-na-na-na... na-na-na-na... LEADER! :)

Well... no but they might finger him as the "leader" and then he'd be in real trouble. :D

Na-na-na-na... na-na-na-na... LEADER! :)

Well at least he might get invited to another bike gathering during a *free weekend*, which won't cost anything and would be this weekend.

Hehe, honestly, I find that hard to believe someone would exclude someone from CM. I mean, the point is to get people together who enjoy doing something and they make a point to invite everyone.

I have to be careful of what statement's I make because of my choice of employement, and I have to be careful of the statement's made by those around me. Are you self-employed? Otherwise, I would think any employer that tried to do anything wrt. your employment as a result or function of any "statement" you make outside of work (other than revealing "work product" secrets, et al) could find itself at the wrong end of an employment discrimination lawsuit.

Are you self-employed? Otherwise, I would think any employer that tried to do anything wrt. your employment as a result or function of any "statement" you make outside of work (other than revealing "work product" secrets, et al) could find itself at the wrong end of an employment discrimination lawsuit.

Being around California, it might become physically dangerous for him to reveal that he's in the US Navy. The crowd could turn on him, even though he's just a small cog in the machine. They would be practicing their First Amendment rights while denying him his. It sounds like CM has been diverted for other purposes.

I've been thinking of doing the critical mass in Cleveland, but if it is going to act as a canvas for other political issues, screw it. I would only want it to be about bicyclists rights, not anything else.

Being around California, it might become physically dangerous for him to reveal that he's in the US Navy. The crowd could turn on him, even though he's just a small cog in the machine. They would be practicing their First Amendment rights while denying him his. It sounds like CM has been diverted for other purposes. Oh, I thought his concern was with what his employer would do if he were seen being vocal at a CM ride, not vice-versa. And it would be dismaying to hear of CM folks judging participants based on their employment. Shoot, we had a candidate for mayor (who ended up winning!) show up for one of our mid-winter rides. In any event, the military is the other obvious exception to my statement; I sometimes forget to think of the military as a "choice of employment".

I've been thinking of doing the critical mass in Cleveland, but if it is going to act as a canvas for other political issues, screw it. I would only want it to be about bicyclists rights, not anything else. This has been the topic of some debate with the local CM here. The two things I take from it are:

(1) Everyone participates for her/his own reason, with her/his own agenda, sometimes bringing her/his own message. Everyone has the choice to participate or not, and, if so inclined, to use the messages/issues of other participants as a criterion for making that choice.

(2) So far, every "other" issue that's become a part of a CM ride has been related or relevant to "bicycle politics" (whatever that is...). And it's always unofficial. This month's unofficial theme was "menstrual cycle", a focus on participation of women in the (as often evidenced in these forums) male-dominated world of bicycling. A lot of A/R people participate, because they see the connection between the auto-industrial complex and environmental destruction of wildlife habitat. Still others bring the "no war for oil" message.

I've been "critical" of CM in the past, and still am. But reading this in today's Portland Oregonian makes me think that the police response to one CM rider was a bit ridiculous. True, I don't know the police's side of the story, but this seems like a silly thing to be ticketing someone over. Fortunately, saner heads prevailed at the judicial level. Read and you decide...

Ticket to ride: Weather's great. Time to oil the bicycle chain and pull out a cautionary tale from the bike lane.

After all, as a friend is fond of saying, "If there's anything you can do with a bicycle, someone in Portland is trying to figure it out." Of course, as my dad would say, there are some things you shouldn't try.

Eliot neighborhood resident Sara Stout was recently acquitted of a "failure to use a bicycle seat" charge in Multnomah County Circuit Court. State law says bicyclists need to remain "astride" their seats. But during a Critical Mass ride last year, Stout lifted her fanny from the seat and a foot from its peddle, resulting in the $77 ticket.

Of course, on occasion, Stout has used her bike as an acrobatic apparatus. Last May, she appeared in a photograph in The Oregonian, riding while balancing one foot on her seat and holding the other in the air.

"I definitely was not doing anything like that" during the Critical Mass ride, she says. "In court, they tried to establish I was out of control. They couldn't. Obviously, the law is pretty vague."

Still, when riding, it's probably best to stay astride your saddle.

This is classic "nuisance law" language. As usual, it's those trying to apply these laws who constitute the "nuisance". Imagine the next big sponsored road race in Portland, and as fifty lycra-boys hike out of the seats of their Serottas all at the same time on an uphill straightaway, fifty of Portland's finest (Fineland's portlyest?) swoop in and blue-light 'em.

IOW, it's time for a re-write / repeal. No, it's way PAST time.

I never hear of CM? So a quick Google search and hey what do you know my town has a web page dedicated to it. It does'nt much look like my thing though. I commute fixed and race cyclocross and road. This thing seems like some sort of political protest or something?

This thing seems like some sort of political protest or something?

It's just a bunch of people going for a bike ride. ;)

Eliot neighborhood resident Sara Stout was recently acquitted of a "failure to use a bicycle seat" charge in Multnomah County Circuit Court. State law says bicyclists need to remain "astride" their seats. But during a Critical Mass ride last year, Stout lifted her fanny from the seat and a foot from its peddle, resulting in the $77 ticket.
How bloody ridiculous can you get.

Drivers around here don't get ticketed for hurtling tons of steel down a neighborhood street at 50 mph.

Eliot neighborhood resident Sara Stout was recently acquitted of a "failure to use a bicycle seat" charge in Multnomah County Circuit Court. State law says bicyclists need to remain "astride" their seats. But during a Critical Mass ride last year, Stout lifted her fanny from the seat and a foot from its peddle, resulting in the $77 ticket.

Sounds like some cop wanted to try the old "you will respect my authority" rubbish that some of them do from time to time. Good to see sanity prevailed in the court.

Stout lifted her fanny from the seat

Different country, very different meaning.
:roflmao:

CHEERS.

Mark