https://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/....showdown.king

Idiots.

Advocacy devolving into assholery.

Wanks.

how nice it would be if cnn sent out a news crew every time a motorist ran a cyclist off the road...

Problem is it doesn't matter. The reality is that we're perceived as the nuisance, not cars. The majority of the American public would respond to your hypothetical story with "serves 'em right. They shouldn't be on the road."

I wouldnt necessarily take the local news station for golden truth. I saw the car.... it was messed up. I thought maybe it was stolen and police shot it up to keep the person from fleeing.

There are some angry apples in the Seattle crit masses. This doesnt suprise me. But look to other news sources in the upcoming weeks to get some different stories on what happened.

Dang, accidents happen I'm sure, but yeah, definitely doesn't help the biking community to have retaliated w/ such brutality

there are two sides to every story, but yes, this does not give a favorable impression to cyclist. BTW, the cyclist claim that the vehicle ran over two of them...one being an attorney :O

Critical ass

But from the sound of it, the cyclists had the car surrounded and were already taunting/threatening the driver, prompting the revving/backing into people.

Either way, the cyclists' side of the story doesn't really matter to the average dumb American news-watcher. They'll see the above story and be left with the idea that cyclists are a violent menace to society and you need to protect yourself from them.

Totally agree, now the rest of us out here have to deal with the aftermath

I agree, this is a autocentric country and bicycles are perceived as toys that belong in parks to those who have no clue that many people take the sport seriously and as vehicles have rights to be on the road. I don't think attacking a motorist does any good especially if they already had the mindset of being "anti car" which is really quite silly. My goal as a cyclist is to be able to share the road safely with motorists, not forcing self righteous views on them. Since I don't know what exactly happened I won't opine on the cyclists motives, but surely they didn't think surrounding a car is something that was going to elicit a positive response.

the majority of the american public are fat idiots... who cares what they think?

the driver deserved having his car smashed, sounds like he tried to run people over. i doubt they meant to make the guy bleed, but sounds like he ******** deserved it to me. i wonder if he'll pull the same stunt again? doubt it.

btw cars have hated bikes before CM was around... taking it away wouldn't help anything.

A harsh generalization and we should care if we're sharing the road with them. No one deserves to be dealt with violently because it serves no purpose other than to justify violence against the attacker, so while he may not want to retaliate at some point, some who watched the news and already have negative views about cyclists might be more likely to harrass a cyclist when they see one because they'll now assume that some cyclists want a bit of aggro. I don't think taking CM away will help the cyclists cause, but having cyclists take the law into their own hands doesn't help either.

Um, the "fat idiots" of whom you speak are the ones driving the 3,000 pound machines that can kill you. I think it's quite important what they think and how they react to cyclists.

And if you keep your current view, cyclists will continue to be marginalized.

riiiiight... and if everyone had your view, cars would yield to bikes incessantly?

Yes, surrounding and taunting the driver of a car completely justifies driving it into a crowd of people at high speed. Because a bunch of folks being mean are SO dangerous to the manly-man inside the two-ton death machine. Sure. What a mess all around.

And yeah, I think Critical Mass is ineffective, but does it make things worse? On the individual level, it can lead to incidents like these, but I doubt it does anything to the larger balance of public opinion, which is of course the root cause of these road rage incidents in the first place. Drivers who thought cyclists were shiny happy people do not suddenly start driving into a CM upon their first encounter with it - seriously, did this guy think his initial action of driving through the crowd wasn't going to be seen as the incredibly hostile act it was?

Cyclists are not marginalized because of our behavior. We are no worse, on average, than motorists. We are marginalized because we are a minority without effective political representation or organization. The public opinion of cyclists is NOT OUR FAULT. Believe me, neither abiding by the law at every intersection nor participating in Critical Mass is going to make one whit of difference here.

CM has never been about advocacy.

No.

My view is that if you want to be accepted as a user of the road, you need to adhere to the rules and coexist with everyone else on the road. And like it or not, cyclists are the ones under the microscope--we run red lights, pass on the shoulder, get in the way, etc. etc.. I'm not saying anything about the reality of the law. I'm talking about the perception by the American public that cyclists are a nuisance with no place on the road.

Just look at the publicity generated by this vs. the publicity generated by CM rides. Which one went straight to CNN?

It doesn't work this way. Period.

That's not true; drivers percieve everyone as a nuisance-- even other cars. The problem is that a driver is more likely to become physically aggressive with a cyclist than another car.
The difference here, though, is that there were enough cyclists around for there to be immediate consequence.

I've ridden many critical masses before. While i hate them and won't ride them again, i've been in enough to see the consistent trend of drivers with an unwarranted sense of entitlement creating unnecessary situations in order to do little more than prove a point.
The riders-- i'm certain of it, as this happens every time-- most certainly didn't begin circling the car for no reason. what most likely happened is, a motorist got pissed off because he didn't like what he was seeing, drove too close to a group of cyclists, yelled something, then most likely came into contact with one or more as he attempted to drive through the procession. This sort of behavior 100% of the time results in the driver being confronted. It's most likely at that point that the "witness" turned around to see what was happening, and "witnessed" a mob of angry cyclists surrounding the car. What she probably didn't see was the multiple cyclists the driver hit which escalated things to that level. No, the incident won't help anything, but you can't possibly forgive the actions of a driver willing to cause bodily damage to a cyclist (or anyone for that matter) because he's a little annoyed at what he's seeing.

Have you ever been surrounded by a hostile crowd before? I once was in the wrong place at the wrong time in a car, was surrounded by a bunch of lunatics and I assure you it is a very scary experience. In the end, I decided I had to drive into the crowd that surrounded me for my own safety (they got out of the way). They guy behind me couldn't get himself to do the same and had his car rolled and burned.

It's jackasses like those who attacked the car that cause assaults on cyclists. Yesterday, I rode a solo century along the coast in OR and WA. Normally, encounters with hostile motorists are extremely rare. Yesterday though, people were going out of their way to buzz and threaten me in the tunnels. On the highway itself, I encountered the most aggressive drivers I can remember, and I've been riding these roads a long time.

I was wondering why the motorists were acting so nuts yesterday, but now I can guess they've seen this snippet on the news thanks to CM. To all you who advocate threatening motorists, try riding on your own and dealing with the crap you start.

You have no more sympathy from me than you do from the motorists that you hate. Bike advocacy, my ass.

OK, just exactly how many wrongs does it take to make something right?

This report needs to go on the Daily Show, they have a regular feature called "YOU'RE NOT ****ING HELPING!"

so your solution to road-rage and the situations it causes is to eliminate the bicycle procession?

Perhaps what we all need is a song. Here's one for the occasion, written and sung by Tommy Shaw of Styx.

Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)

(after the longest musical intro ever...)
You see the world through your cynical eyes
You're a troubled young man I can tell
You've got it all in the palm of your hand
But your hand's wet with sweat
And your head needs a rest
And you're fooling yourself if you don't believe it
Why must you be such an angry young man
When your future looks quite bright to me
And how can there be such a sinister plan
That could hide such a lamb
Such a caring young man
And you're fooling yourself if you don't believe it
You're killing yourself if you don't believe it
Get up, get back on your feet
You're the one they can't beat and you know it
Come on let's see what you've got
Just take your best shot and don't blow it.