shokhead

https://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci...144?source=rss

If they would only be that concerned over drivers.

fietsbob

They apparently read Mr. Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four as a guide book.

travelmama

I do agree with your stating regarding the cars but people in cars do not rally like cyclists. I am not a fan of critical mass rides because, for the most part, do a great disservice to riding, especially for commuters. To ride around in a gang, running lights and taking over lane after lane is not cute. If all of those riders did something good for cycling, very little would be said. Until that happens, the cops will not back down.

Arcanum

Speaking as someone who is car-free, I agree. There's a very good reason participants are referred to as "Critical M*******s".

BlazingPedals

Why, oh why, am I not surprised that more bad press for bicyclists is coming out of a Critical Mess?

The sad part is, they don't understand why nobody likes them.

shokhead

Well we all get lumped together. From a cyclist to a kid riding the wrong way to someone riding on the sidewalk to the guy that rides through stop signs to the Critical junk. The drivers don't want us anywhere around them so one bad apple for sure rots the barrel. Then like around here they have nice bikepaths that go from the beach North for 35 miles. Bad part is EVERYONE ELSE uses it and they have just about mad it impossible for bike to ride on the bikepath. Sad.

gerv 

Isn't this what cars mainly do? They generally don't run red lights much, but there are a number of car scofflaws who regularly drive over the speed limit. Hopefully the cops won't back down on those...

Northwestrider

Cars it seems to me, run a scheduled critical mass every work day from 9 to 5 in Seattle and many other cities. I have never ridden a critical mas bike ride, but hope to some day, just to get a better handle on what they are all about.

achoo

I think a car equivalent to Critical Mass would involve a few hundred cars going the wrong way down an interstate highway.

It's really, really hard to be more obnoxious than to form a group to deliberately do things you KNOW will piss a bunch of people off.

<sarcasm>Gee, I can't think of a better way to endear cyclists to the general populace. </sarcasm>

Bianchigirll 

OK so as I understand it the charity ride was planned to raise money for cyclist fined at a critical mass ride.

a critical mass ride is done via twitter and is spontanious. so a huge crowd gathers and causes a disturbance and possibly runs afowl of local ordinances.

so did they organizers of the 'charity ride' have the correct permits? also most organized charity rides have a police presence for safety and secruity

BlazingPedals

The lesson from the civil rights protests was that the participants were doing what they were doing specifically to get arrested. Then, when they had their days in court, they could argue to the judge that there was a moral reason for them to do what they did. Through that process, laws were changed.

What Critical Mess does has nothing to do with getting unfair laws changed. Or do you think for a moment that a participant will go in front of a judge and try to argue that corking the intersection, or taking over the oncoming lane, or riding bikes on the freeway, was morally justified because... something... what? What CM is, is an exercise in anarchy. Like rioters, the CM participants believe they can do whatever they want because there's safety in numbers. Then when a few of them get tagged, the cops are to blame. The ones I genuinely feel sorry for are the very few honest bicycle commuters who are trying their best to avoid CM and end up being mistakenly arrested as participants.

<sarcasm>Yep, CMers should feel really proud about what they're doing to further cycling in their communities.</sarcasm>

Tem

Speak for your own city. I live in Miami where drivers consider red lights advisory.

Arcanum

Or cars doing donuts in busy intersections, with other cars blocking traffic.

XR2

While I understand the aversion to Critical Mass tactics what do you recommend for addressing grievances when conventional methods fail? So typical of Americans to criticize efforts while offering little to no alternative other than nothing.

nelson249

They do a pretty good job of running reds here which is why the city has installed red light cameras at several intersections around here.

Arcanum

Short of vigilante justice, there's little you can do. Critical Mass certainly doesn't do anything useful in the case of your example, unless you classify "making other people want to run down cyclists" as "useful".

achoo

A hit-and-run driver gets off with no jail time, and you believe a bunch of *******s on bikes deliberately blocking traffic with the INTENDED effect of pissing off non-cyclists is useful?

Robert Foster

Critical Mass always draws heated responses even in cycling forums. Can you imagine what it does in car forums? All I know is that when you are a commuter riding to work the day after a Critical mass ride the drivers seem even less friendly than they do before. It doesn’t seem to cause the safe effect in San Diego but I understand the Critical Mass rides are very late at night and on some kind of planned route.
As far as the police tactics go, I have been to car rallies in places like the Pomona fairgrounds and the police are there in force. If the car is lowered too far you can and will be cited. If you drive on the city street with the under car neon lights you will be cited. If your exhaust is too loud you will be cited. Tinted front driver side and passenger side windows will get you cited. So these particular cyclists aren’t being discriminated against any more than car clubs and motorcycle clubs.