wheel

So I haven't seen this here thought to post it...

I did do a search and didn't find this...

You can see some editted video I would like to see the whole thing...

https://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?sec...cal&id=5299419

ay 12 - KGO - The outspoken bicycling group that holds a monthly event called Critical Mass has had another run-in with a driver, this time in Berkeley, where an elderly couple tangled with angry cyclists.
It happened in front of a firestation where the firefighters were so worried they had to call the police.

Even on a good day, navigating the intersection of Alameda and Monterey in North Berkeley is challenging.

On Friday night a couple came through the intersection at the same time as dozens of Berkeley's Critical Mass riders.

Jason Meggs, Critical Mass Rider: "He keeps driving and then he drives some more and he drives some more."

Bicycle advocate Jason Meggs shot video tape and provided an edited version to ABC7. He claims the driver attacked the riders.

Jason Meggs, Critical Mass Rider: "There was one bike that got trapped. Another person came to help get her out of the way and his bike got trapped. So they were basically tangled and couldn't get out."

Berkeley Police Sgt. Mary Kusmiss says independent witnesses told police the driver was trying to escape an angry crowd. Police declined to release the driver's name.

Sgt. Mary Kusmiss, Berkeley Police: "What we understand is that the crowd had surrounded the minivan. There were some participants of Critical Mass who were pounding on the van and shaking the van enough for it to be moving and reaching into the van and trying to get the keys out of the ignition."

You can see from the tape that the 77-year-old driver is moving forward slowly while a bike rider appears to be snagged beneath the advancing fender. The van stops. The driver's disabled wife exits the van. She tells the crowd she has Cerebral Palsy.

Gabe Schnake-Mahl, Witness: "I started hearing a bunch of noises and I realized that it was someone kind of on the hood of the van breaking the windshield. They started kind of jostling with the driver."

No one was arrested and there have been no fines in conjunction with what happened here but Berkeley Police say if they can find out who broke the van's windshield they will prosecute.

Jason Meggs, Critical Mass Rider: "They're considering complaints against individual police officers."

Jason Meggs says the riders are considering suits against the driver and the city. Meggs has sued Berkeley four times in the past, and lost.

Last March in San Francisco, Critical Mass made headlines after a driver allegedly knocked down a cyclist. A mother and her five children had the back window of their minivan smashed out by the group of bikers after, they say, she tried to drive away.

pj7

Well, I saw no attack in that edited video. However I did see a predictable outcome to a situation.
Take one elderly confused driver, add a mob of cyclist, mix in with a little teenage angst, simmer and serve.

o-dog

an elderly couple! real classy, guys.

once again, people wonder why I don't back CM...

mike

Critical Mass is similar to the PETA in that both have terrorist tendencies; preaching their messages with a steel pipe in their fists.

I don't see how Critical Mass does the cycling world any good at all. How does frustrating drivers and clogging up traffic provide any kind of positive message or promote the idea of sharing the roadways? The only message it sends is that bicyclists on roads cause trouble and inconvenience and don't belong.

Most of the high-and-mighty Critical Mass riders transport their bikes to the ride scene with their automobiles anyway and commute to work daily with their cars, so who are they trying to impress?

Critical Mass has turned ugly and needs to go bye-bye ASAP. CM doesn't promote good bicycling ambassadorship, safety, or good-will. It is just a group of obnoxious people taking an opportunity to make a scene.

cal_gundert05

I'm sorry, but...

bikemoner2k

When there is a person standing in front of your car, and you drive into them purposely, that is vehicular assault. Whether or not it was in self defense is whats up to debate in this situation.
Maybe thats true in the snowy midwest (doubtful), but anybody showing up at a mass with a car will get laughed right back into their vehicle.

mike

Get real. If you haven't seen people unloading and loading their bikes onto cars before and after Critical Mass rides, then you haven't been to a Critical Mass ride.

Critical Mass is just a temporary gang of hypocrits and Wednesday-lunch-only vegans. I have absoluletly no respect for the vast majority of the people I have seen at Critical Mass events. The whole thing is bad for bicycling. The world would be better off if they just dressed as clowns and walked in the streets rather than ride bicycles.

bellweatherman

You're just biased and definitely have the wrong idea about Critical Mass. Maybe you've seen a couple bad instances and now you want to generalize about it. Whatever the case may be, Critical Mass is not about terrorism, or vegans gone wild. Critical Mass is about bringing to the forefront cyclist's rights and issues with road and traffic safety. My message to you is stop generalizing based on some preconceived notion of what you think Critical Mass is. Share the road or get off it.

mike

blah blah. Critical Mass is no longer about "bringing to the forefront cyclists rights and road safety issues" and it hasn't been for at least over a decade.

The only statement made by Critical Mass tangling up traffic and harassing motorists is that bicyclist are a pain-in-the-@ss.

I have been a sincere bicycle enthusiast before Critical Mass started and the only result I have seen Critical Mass bring about is that the "Mass" of citizens become "Critical" of bicyclists. Even motorists who are on the fence tilt away from supporting cyclists after they experience some of the obnoxious behavior they see at Critical Mass events.

Sure, not all Critical Mass participants are bad eggs, but the events are so poorly organized and so badly managed that a large number of schlumps show up and the worst of cycling is demonstrated.

sgtsmile

(I am using what you say here as a starting point for some thoughts only )

When a person threatens or indimidates another person, whether that person be on a bike or in a car, that is assault or at least harassment. The CM riders in this situation are guilty of that the second they started to behave in a threatening manner towards the people in that van - once they start making physical contact, it is assault.

Imagine "you" (the gentle reader ) are in your car at an intersection and you are surrounded by about 15 to 20 people NOT on bikes who are preventing you from moving, and they look angry, and they are a lot younger and stronger than you, and in fear you inch forward to try and escape from what you fear is who knows what, and they start pounding on the vehicle and making threatening gestures and screaming at you. You would call that a swarming right?

So how does the fact that these people swarming drivers at intersections are on bikes make it magically ok?

If cyclists want respect from other road users, they MUST show that respect in turn. The jerks will be jerks no matter what (be they in a car or on a bike or on a moose or whatever), but I for one do not wish to be represented by the jerks of the bike world (and lets face it, for those not interested in bikes who see the kind of crap that was in that story, it gives a pretty piss poor representation of the cycling public and MAY be the representation they remember.)

sgtsmile

Interesting point.

People who are not bike riders see the bad events and generalize about cycling.

Good one

And then, thanks to those stalwart ambassadors of the bike world creating a mess at CM, we get more motorists with no use for bikes, especially when the media broadcasts it. (Even if the majority of CM rides are ok, that is irrelevant when the court of public opinion meets...)

"Share the road or get off it" is a great message that those who participate in CM and WONT share the road need to get.

How about a CM ride where people take one lane of two, share the road, stop at lights, and obey the rules?

mike

That is a great suggestion, sgtsmile. I am all for that.

JustBrowsing

That's just crazytalk...

Dchiefransom

That would cancel the Critical Mass ride, since they don't do that.

maddyfish

It is just a matter of time , before one of these CM guys gets himself killed.

unkchunk

I agree. CM is pretty much an open source protest, which is only as good as it's worst protester. With time and arbitrage, bad protesters will drive out good protesters. Any type of group gets feedback (both positive and negative), but CM has no mechanisms to deal with it; so it will keep spiraling downwards. Now it seems they are even losing Bay Area press sympathy.

rando

critical masssholes

karmical

why doesn't any of this cm bs happen when they ride through oakland?

now they've stooped so low as to picking on old people in minivans...

whats next bullying kids and trying to take their lunch money, i'd better not give these punks any ideas.

Shiznaz

*Yawn*

You guys sure like beating a dead horse. If you don't like CM, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Write letters and start protests. Whining about it on the internet is just a waste of your time.

karmical

its not beating a dead horse with me, its more like laughing at people who have no idea that to me and mostly everyone else, how big a joke they are, and how pathetic their meaningless actions truly are...

Bikepacker67

By stomping all over the rights of everyone else using the road...

Great thinking.

Bikepacker67

Ohh you really are a self-righteous lil' *&^#, eh?

-=(8)=-

I see a mass of bicycle riders....
Let me just drive my 2 ton van into them.....They'll understand




Are mini-van drivers the new "I got anal probed by an alien on backroad in WV" people ??

JustBrowsing

Yeah, write a letter to the organizers of the Critical Mass events in your area. Oh wait, you can't...It's almost as if they purposefully don't have organizers so they don't have to take responsibility for their actions. Y'know, something tells me that people in these parts would gain a bit of respect for CM if there were some accountability behind it...

JustBrowsing

And you're absolutely positive that it wasn't a situation of someone driving a minivan down the road or waiting at a stoplight and finding themselves being surrounded by bicyclists? Yeah, cos that could never happen...