Comments on CycleDog: My take on Critical Mass...

I agree. Critical mass for many is about being not...

2005-11-18T16:37:00.000-06:00

I agree. Critical mass for many is about being noticed. Often cyclists, no matter what they call themselves, feel invisible as they move through open spaces. With oil prices, population increase, etc., hordes of bicycles probably are the wave of the future. Can't we all just get along?

drowned in a sea of bicycles, it's a glimpse of a ...

2005-11-18T01:36:00.000-06:00

drowned in a sea of bicycles, it's a glimpse of a possible future.

is it blocking traffic and pissing off motorists? when you're in rush hour in LA (read, when you're driving anywhere anytime in LA), are all the cyclists in front of you just as irritating? what are they protesting? don't they deserve the same criticism?

critical mass is about celebrating the right of bicycles to ride on the road. it's not about denying rights to other users. LA traffic, whether in the front of the back, is not trying to deny access to the roads for other users. it's simply employing the rights they have to the road. big whoop.

i'm a critical mass rider and certainly not a card carrying vehicular cyclist (dogma sucks no matter what it is), but i've seen many more dangers in "paths and paint" than in riding on the busiest street in town, taking a lane.

so don't judge critical mass by a few people. frankly, don't judge any group of people by any number of people within them. i might add to this there are masses all around the world where, say, they'll take up a whole lane or two but leave one open for the cars. some won't run lights.

people on the street cheer us in eugene. cars honk encouragingly at us. some don't. many do. it's irrelevant; everyone disagrees with somebody. the point is that it's not pissing off everyone. many see the validity.

critical mass to me is not a protest. there's no politics involved. but there's a joy in being surrounded by bikes. a wonderful blissful joy. and that's why i'm there.

that's also why cycle oregon is nice. but it's a lot more flipping expensive!!

I've never thought of CM as an overreaction to fea...

2005-11-17T12:01:00.000-06:00

I've never thought of CM as an overreaction to fear of traffic, but that makes sense. I think there's some irony that many CM participants also seem to be strong advocates of paint and paths.

CM as an overreaction to fear of cars. Thanks, th...

2005-11-17T08:37:00.000-06:00

CM as an overreaction to fear of cars. Thanks, that at least is SOME explanation of CM. I've read about CM for a long time and have never been able to figure out what the hell they were trying to accomplish, other than to irritate people. I personally don't have any problems or fear riding in traffic, so maybe that's why I don't understand them.

CM, if taken at their word, are protesting their being abused by law-breaking vehicle operators, and they do this by becoming law-breaking vehicle operators. WTF? Shall we protest the war by going out and killing some people too?

I understand that sometimes unfair laws must be broken as a statement of protest. But the traffic laws are about as egalitarian as laws come.

What riders really need is for motorists to be educated and for law enforcement to understand and uphold the law uniformly. Sorry, but you don't get the public and the police on your side by irritating them as much as possible. You do get their attention, in the same way that an exploding sewer line would get their attention, but that's not the kind of attention you want.

I think the problem is that some of the riders are interpreting "critical mass" not as the number of riders needed to be noticed, but the number of riders needed before the cops can't possibly arrest everyone, so they get to do whatever they want.

Garrison Keillor said that he had some friends wit...

2005-11-16T21:35:00.000-06:00

Garrison Keillor said that he had some friends with lifestyles and other friends with children. I've always liked that line.

Since I pedal nearly everywhere, a lot of people know me from seeing me on the street, including some of my daughter's friends. I've offered to pick he up from school on the tandem, but to a high school senior, that would probably be the height of embarassment!

I don't think of riding a bike as a lifestyle, either. It's just how I get to work.

Well, in my short, young life I've never viewed ri...

2005-11-16T21:19:00.000-06:00

Well, in my short, young life I've never viewed riding a bike as a political statement. I simply do it for some reason or another that I cannot really explain. Most people look at me like I'm from Mars, when I pedal past the local McDonald's at 8am in the morning. Other then demonstrating a very "unusual" life-style compared to the average human being of today, I don't think riding a bike is much of a statement either way on the political scale.