This was a Critical Mass event, which is why the bicyclists are taking up all of the street as a way to reclaim the streets and protest the lack of safety for riders under usual conditions. It’s not legal, but protests are never useful if they’re fully legal now, are they.
Idiots in cars, idiots on bikes. Hell yeah I’m pro bikes but setting a wheel on incoming lane? Yeaah… no thanks, I’m fine
In the bike party near me, we take over the traffic lane but not the oncoming lane.
Maybe that’s why bike party split off from critical mass
How about they take this up with the officials who can actually make a difference in bike safety and quit making life worse for people who just want to get home?
Go bike around City Hall if you want to “raise awareness.” All you’re doing here is pissing people off.
People who are downvoting literally never leave their house. You are entirely correct. This is an issue of local policy, and that is something that can actually be changed by individuals choosing to be more active in their local politics. It just requires some organization and a coordinated political effort.
Cycling down the street will not only not achieve anything, but it’s also putting both drivers and cyclists in danger. If an accident does happen, it’s not going to be pinned on the driver because they didn’t do anything wrong. Instead, whatever these cyclists were trying to achieve is going to be scrutinized due to their recklessness.
How brain dead does a person have to be to see an entire parade in front of them and think, “this can’t be some organized event, I must just be able to drive right through here!” Main character syndrome. Or more likely, a sociopath just looking to murder someone.
Here’s an idea. Find another fucking route. They plan these events, publish the routes in advance, have a police presence there, and place them in areas where they won’t cut off people’s only means of getting somewhere.
Do you ever find yourself in this situation? Here’s how to handle it without being a fucking moron:
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Pull off the road.
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Pull out your phone.
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Google “<your city>” critical mass route <today’s date.>"
Is that really that hard? Or are you someone who is so concrete sequential that you have one and only one route you can drive, and any other route home will break your mind? What if a sink hole opened up on the road you normally take home. Would you just blindly drive right into it because you this is the route you take home, and damn it if you’re going to let anything stop you?
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Imo it looks remarkably safe as long as we ignore the person in the car driving into oncoming traffic.
With her smartphone out, recording.
It doesn’t matter if a protest is legal. The word you’re looking for is “non violent”
I’m all for bike activism and fuck cars. But what they’re doing is illegal and the driver likely had no idea what’s happening. If they weren’t riding the wrong way, then everything would have been perfectly legal (at least here in Germany). As long as the cyclists form a mass, they’re considered one long vehicle and can even pass red lights that way, as long as the first person did so with a green light. But riding on the wrong side of the road and expecting everyone to know what is going on is kind of a dick move and just brings more hate on cyclists.
No idea what’s happening? Who doesn’t know what critical mass is? Even if you didn’t, if you’re so cousin-fucking stupid you can’t look at this situation and see that this is obviously an event you shouldn’t drive into, then you should be locked in a rubber room and not be allowed near sharp objects, let alone be allowed to drive a car. You’re too stupid too be allowed in public.
Running people over is also illegal. A defensive driver would stop and wait for the road obstruction to clear, or take a wide-berth, safe alternative path around it.
Why can’t the bikers stay in the right lanes. What about anyone walking, get out the way and fuck them too.
This looks like Miami. If it is… critical mass usually has a police force in the loop they do usually to stop people driving right through the crowd. The loop is posted online about a week before and there is always police presence
Probably LA? Looks similar but police less likely to beat the shit out of white people on bicycles
This is a CM?
I have never been to a CM with oncoming lane blocked (or in this case - not really blocked).
Also where are the corkers?
Dows it work tho, im a simple man, anything inconveninces me directly and im against them, have had multiple hotels in the last two years where they protested with bullhorns and sirens loudly from 2am to 8am every night, they ruined my sleep and expect me to support them? Im not able to get a refund or swap hotels, in the future im still not planning ahead and getting the first available decent hotel near the location close to the time of the event. It happened multiple times at different locations/cities, not recording them or helping their cause when they actively ruined the 3 vacations I have a year by not letting me sleep.
Aw poor you.
so protests should only be done where nobody notices them?
No. Protests should be done in a way to gain voter support. Not destroy it.
Personally I never cycle without a crowbar so if you hit me you better hope I won’t get up.
I too carry around a 5lb bit of unwieldy metal for the sheer purpose of hitting cars if one hits me. I dream of the day it happens, I’ll pop right up and go “Hey buddy, you like hitting things? well now I’m gonna hit YOU” (in my dream I’m not injured, and they don’t get out of their car or respond in any way) then I hit their car while they cry. Everyone around me in the street claps. I get so excited thinking about it. That’s why I always bring it with me despite it serving no purpose other than the imagined scenario in my head.
Hey me too!
I wasn’t like that before my best friend got crippled by some text and drive bitch. Or after i got insulted, spat on, almost hit more time than i could count simply for cycling on the road
Also if i ever get terminal lung cancer i’m shooting at random cars lmao
Honestly, this was fine. She went through slowly and she’s understandably annoyed. She doesn’t her car being hit.
Ride your bike in the park or stay on the sidewalk. Streets are made and paid for by motor vehicle’s.
Streets are made by motor vehicle’s what now?!
Its illegal to ride on the pavement (or sidewalk) here in the UK (though tbh rarely enforced). Drivers pay “road tax” on their vehicles and a lot believe that pays for the cost of the roads. But it doesn’t. Residential and industrial roads are maintained by the local authority and paid for with council tax. Highways are covered by the Highways Agency and paid for by income tax.
Downvoting because of your opinion, and also because you can’t spell “motor vehicles”
Streets are paid for by income tax, idiot. You think your meager vehicular taxes are enough?
Streets are paid through tax dollars. Often income, property, and sales tax. Not from car or gasoline tax. :-)
Get fucked.
It’s illegal where I live to ride my bike on a sidewalk (US)
Fuck you.
Meanwhile pedestrians get angry at me for riding on the side walk and tell me to ride in the road, there’s no winning.
A critical mass to be massively critical of the critical masses. I’m certain folks who see or hear of such protests are going to become very sympathetic to the cyclist cause. Am I doing the mass criticism thing right?
It’s a nice way to blow off steam and feel important, but I suspect it polarises against rather than towards the desired cause. Shame really since it looks fun!
The point of a critical mass ride is to demonstrate that the cyclists are going to assert their right to the street whether car drivers like it or not, so drivers’ choices are to either support cycling infrastructure or stay stuck behind them forever. Not having cyclists use the road isn’t an option.
It doesn’t matter whether the drivers like the cyclists; the drivers must be made to realize that it’s in their own best interest to capitulate and demand bike infrastructure in order to get the cyclists out of their way.
That seems somewhat foolish - a driver delayed by such an event is liable to be angry and complain rather than feel that surrender is necessary.
If other posts in this thread are correct (let’s walk out on that limb), and politicians try to meet the demand of drivers over cyclists, then this is more likely to lead to stricter laws against cyclists as a result of drivers issuing (very justified in this case) complaints.
An effective protest wins both sympathy and ire, and leads to more voices calling out for your cause - this one just inspires ire. It doesn’t unequivocally paint the picture “vote for cycle infrastructure or else”, it more emphatically implies “too many cyclists will add to my commute, just look how bad it is now, we need less of them, so I will now vote against anything for cyclists”.
Just to point out, for the record, I’m in the third camp - pedestrians. I’ve seen drivers dangerously overtake, I’ve seen cyclists randomly pull out forcing emergency stops, and I’ve seen both put pedestrians at risk with self righteous indifference. My take home from the post is “more legislation is needed for cyclists using the road inappropriately”, not “we need more cycle lanes” and definitely not “we need more shared space sidewalks”.
Well, that was a mass of criticism for a critical mass; one wonders if the critical masses will mass against this criticism or perhaps such masses will critically reflect instead and engage in mass critical thinking!
bicyclists are taking up all of the street
It’s not legal
It is absolutely legal. The driver’s manual for my state:
Bicycles are considered vehicles when on roadways. Bicyclists are required and expected to follow the same rules of the road as motorized vehicles. As a motorist, you should know that a bicyclist has the same rights, privileges, and responsibilities as you. Respect for each other will aid in the smooth flow of traffic.
Unless there’s a bicycle lane, bicycles get the full lane of regular streets like any other vehicle. On highways, they stay close to the right boundary. Bicycles are passed with abundant clearance.
Bicyclists are required and expected to follow the same rules of the road as motorized vehicles.
Do you also live somewhere that cars can legally cross a double yellow and travel in the wrong direction down the roadway?
Read the last line.
Misled by crappy title & description that didn’t mention cyclists riding the wrong way against opposing traffic, and a picture that didn’t clearly show cyclists doing that.
Fair enough.
“Dangerous to drivers”
Because you’re going to give yourself an aneurysm over a minor inconvenience? You’re in a giant suit of armor. You could hit every single one of those cyclists without sustaining even a scratch.
If the cyclists were actually dangerous to drivers, do you think the diver would be accelerating aggressively towards them?
This is how cyclists feel when they are surrounded be cars on busy roads because the cycling infrastructure is shit.
Except, cyclists can’t kill people in cars with their bike.
So, lady, imagine our frustration.
This gives me an idea. How about every bike gets retrofitted with a large titanium hook. The idea is that if you hit my bike, your car is pretty much totaled. Not just that but if you really hit me, the hook passes thru the radiator, thru the firewall and into the drivers asshole.
Put a little LED light on it as a warning beacon.
A tactical pool noodle with a very abrasive end should do the trick.
