1st philly critmass experience
 

so i went to one in boston. about 175 ppl i think the count was, it was the first time i felt completely safe on the road. today was my first one in philly and it was the first time i felt like any car at any time could just kill me. the honking and screaming was okay, but then some cars started getting really close. some would speed up and break feet away from my rear tire. there were only about 12 of us, so i guess thats why it was hard to really "own" a lane. one woman got clipped as a car sped by her. wow. i was so stunned at the lack of humanity and compassion these ppl had. i thought if a bicyclist felt that there was not sufficient space on the shoulder he/she could take over an entire lane, do car drivers not know this?

im just shocked and stunned. ive been thinking about buying a helmet, but in any of these scenarios i play in my head about critmass, if one of those taunting cars just breaked a few feet later, i dont think i helmet would have mattered that much.

sorry for the rant, but i had to just decompress. i hear it gets even worse in philly. one ride two ppl got hit... man's inhumanity to man...

Sounds like you did not quite have Critical Mass. One big vehicle could waste 12 cyclists. Please when you say I use caps. Check some of the other threads on BF a number of wearable video systems are described. The vehicular harrassment should be filmed. Otherwise it is just your word against theirs if anything happens. TV stations might like to have a feed from your camera. Some of the video systems are small enough that police that try bullying you won't see them and you can show the tapes later in court.

Your very right, we definitely did not have a critical mass. Anyway, thanks for the advice about the camera, someone should definitely have one to record things like this.

Philly is one of the ugliest, dirtiest and nastiest cities on the east coast.
The actions displayed by the people who wallow in this
**** doesnt surprise me at all. Even when I lived a few miles
from it , that was too close. I would never go in.

I don't know who disgusts me more. People who get mad at people who are blocking their way or people who are so ****ing stupid as to purposefuly and meaningfully block the way.
If you can't go 45 miles an hour in a 45 mile a zone stay in the shoulder dipstick. There are people that have to get to work, pick up children and thousands of other things that need to go the speed limit

Critical Masses only make it harder on those of us who try to co-exist peacefully. If you give them respect, they will usually give you respect. I feel very confident in San Antonio, TX with 3 lanes of traffic racing by me.

wth. I suddenlyu realized I was in Bike Advocacy.
Whoa that was weird. No wonder why I read the critmas as cristmass.

You're kidding, right?

^^^ 25, 30 or 35 mph is the speed limit in most of Philly.
If you have ever had the misfortune of driving / sitting in a car
or motorcycle in Philthy you eventually stumble upon the realization
the to be 'driving' or 'riding' you must be in forward motion more than
stopped. So realisticly, saying you are 'stopping' on a Philly street is
more appropriate than saying you were riding or driving on a Philly
street. That relates to this because a bicycle is going to be 10x faster
than any car in Philly traffic so these assaults commited by the Philly scum
were premeditated and intentional, " just because" not due to holding
traffic up. But, having suffered Philly a good portion of my adult life I learned
this type of behaviour is to be expected. Sad.

x2. That was one weird rant. But then again, he maybe a trucker from Texas. Dem boys don't like lycra, pedal-pushing pansies very much. Apparently, not paying road use taxes should preclude cyclists from using Texas roads, including Lance!

I'm not surprised that Philly wasn't receptive to your CM. You should see how they react to their sports teams! And they love their Eagles, Phillies and Flyers (well, maybe not the Flyers lately)... :D

No I'm not kidding. I drive a Chevy Malibu. It's a 4 door sedan. That's a car not an SUV or a drive. I've put on 1000 miles on my bike since january 2006. I put on some 6-7k miles easily last year. I ride in San Antonio traffic. Our access roads will be 3 or 4 lanes going in ONE direction. I have very very very very few problems with rude traffic. I can be cycling at 4-5pm which is prime commuting time, travelling alongside the access road for 1604 with neck to neck traffic with a few inches to a few feet for a shoulder and I do it fine.

Peeople seem to like saying that Texans are stupider, are ruder, less tolerant or more "red neck" amongst many other things. From having been on this forum, however I can tell you that most tales of extremely rude rude and intolerant people seem to be on the east coast.

Philly is a tough town, they even Booed Santa

smw

I doubt that 1% of the motoring public has even seen a cm ride. So I dont think that CM is going to cause a rash of lycra-clad cyclist deaths, by the few people who might have been delayed. In fact the bike deaths seem to be dropping. Though I am not drawing any connection between that and CM.

Even if every motorist knew about CM, I dont think that it would cause a significant problem.


If there are only 12 people, you would have to significantly change the CM tactics to prevent injury. Motoirists would feel more able to assert thier idiocy if there where only a few CM participants.

I wouldn't blame you if you want to quit the Philly CM rides. OTOH, it sounds like you need the rides there more than most places. I hope you can get more riders next time. Any way you could get better press coverage of the problems? Maybe you could contact some of the alternative media and university press?


CM is a protest and an assertion of our right to be on the road. It's supposed to be a little rude! (But truthfully I'm not sure I understand what your point is.)

Are you that sure you "understand" the "point" that the OP and the 11 others were making in Phila? How did you come to that understanding? It certainly wasn't in the OP. Do you really believe that there was even one motorist that they encountered who had an inkling about what "point" was being made by the 12 cyclists, what "problems" the cyclists' were protesting, or what possible solutions (to the unspecified problems) were being proposed by the 12 cyclists?

Yes. Do you?

No I don't since he didn't claim any purpose to the ride at all. So what do you understand was the purpose of the ride? (besides what you fantasize.)

Sorry, TG, didn't mean to ruffle your feathers. Just kidding. I actually had a great experience riding around Austin during Ride for the Roses 2002. Love the Hill Country. Just wish it wasn't so hot...

I do have to say though, I think your perception of CM is a bit off. Sure, there are those annoying participants, but is that any different than motorists who bend the rules to suit them? And it's definitely more of them doing so 24/7 as opposed to an hour or so a month in a CM. IIRC Austin CM changed the way that city viewed cycling.

My take on Texans has always been positive. And as you said, not the same can be said for some motorists here in the Northeast. :)

I doubt that you really want to learn anything realistic about CM. If you do, Google it and learn more the same way I did.

There are some rude people in the city of Philly but otherwise I have found it a great place to cycle. Because of the low speed limit and generally crowded streets, it's very easy to keep pace with traffic.

Texasguy, your post is so common on this forum. You seem to think that every road in the country matches your 3-4 lane highway with shoulder and you can't imagine anything different. In Philly, it's 25mph on streets where sometimes you can barely fit one car. There is no staying out of the way of the important, impatient motorist. Most of the time, they are delaying you anyway. Doesn't mean they won't honk at you just for being in front of them though.

I wasn't and never have been part of a Philly CM ride so I can't comment on the motorists reactions. I do know that most bikes in Philly are on the sidewalk so it really gives people the wrong impression of where bikes belong.

But you have no doubts about what Astrx and his 11 pals objectives were? They were on an alleged Ride for whatever reason you select from the generic grab bag of reasons found on Google. I suppose you think there is no reason for anyone to explain the purpose of their "protest". Everyone else should just take a stab at selecting a cause and reason from the Internet. Presumably all motorists who encountered the OP and pals doing what ever they were doing (did you learn what that was from Google) should refrain from any response until after Googling for "Learning" about Astix's alleged CM objectives.

Well.

Texasguy, you are really doing a hell of a job changing people's misconceptions about arrogant, rude, know-it-all texans...keep it up.

This puzzles me. What are these 'CM tactics' that bring on increased potential harm from motorists compared to plain old cycling such as done during commuting or recreational riding? A single cyclist, 12 or 50 should generally ride in the same manner: Follow the traffic laws and when and only when safe move right to let faster vehicles pass.

Unless I don't understand 'CM tactics' I can't understand why 12 cyclist would be more at risk from angry drivers compared to one or 50.

Al

Maybe the misunderstanding is a result of the OP providing zero information about what he and the other 11 people were actually doing, let alone why they were doing it. Only Roody seems to know and perhaps he can explain what he learned from Google that explains what actually happened. And what the drivers really did or did not do.

You're twistin it all around again. You asked if I knew the "point" and the "objective" of the CM ride. I did know, and suggested you google for the information. I didn't say I knew "what actually happened."

Try that little scrolly thing with the little mousy thing when you get all addled and confused. You can review what was said and avoid looking the fool.