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.
You have a very poor understanding of how these critical masses work, they do NOT function like normal protests, at least in the US.
Most critical masses of cyclists are intentionally made to be spontaneous, barely organized, and they do not give prior warning to locals (through the local media or such), the government, or even the police. The whole point of the intentional disorganization to escape the authorities when they eventually come in to restore order. The reason why they’re called “critical masses” to begin with is because large turnouts is the only requirements of these events. There is no organization or leaders or hierarchy or anything to hold accountable.
So what happens is unsuspecting locals going on about their day get met with a mob of cyclists who are blocking traffic, ignoring any and all established safety laws, and disrupting the flow of the city. The people who do come across them don’t know where they came from, where they’re headed, or what they’re going to do next.
That’s why you can’t “go around them” like you’re suggesting. You’re basically trapped in your car until they go away. These events put the cyclists in danger and they put the drivers in danger. That’s why they’re considered dangerous. If they functioned like how you imagined they functioned, then way less people would have an issue with them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Mass_(cycling)
None of your paragraphs addressed my comment. Your comment is completely orthogonal to mine.
Yes, it may be difficult to find the route in advance. But again, how brain dead do you have to be to see a giant parade of people and think “I know, I’m going to try to drive right through that!” Your license should be confiscated if you’re so stupid.
The routes are published in advance. How do I know? Because there’s thousands of people here. It has to be published somewhere if all these people are finding the route. So again, what keeps you from pulling over, searching the route, and simply going around?
You’re not trapped in your car. You can back up, do a u-turn, and go somewhere else. The dumbass in the video could have just turned right and got out of the situation entirely.
Again, just how cousin-fucking stupid do you have to be to see a parade of thousands of people and decide “you know what, I should drive through there!” I don’t care if it’s a protest, a parade, or a mob of people standing on the street because a building just had a fire alarm pull. If you are so stupid that you can’t realize you shouldn’t drive into such a crowd, you need to have your license suspended, as you are simply too stupid to drive.