Critical Mass Rides

Hurts, without a doubt in my mind

I can't imagine how the organizers of these rides think they help cyclists' image.  It's counter-intuitive to me that a large group of cyclists acting disrespectfully towards motorists is somehow going to cause the motorists to behave more respectfully towards cyclists.

From what I've seen they try to make it like a party atmosphere- it gets more people to come the event, but I think it annoys the drivers even more.  They want to be taken seriously, but it's hard when they are dressed as a frog playing a bagpipe.

x2

And in my experience there was alot of profanity being used.  And to boot, there were about 2,000 folks coming out of a Disney Live show.

I voted it hurts.

Hurts =-( 

Unfortunatly, cause it could be a great thing.

Hurts.  I told some non-cycling friends about it one day and they said, "How can that help you guys?  It would just make me dislike cyclist' even more!"



Edited by Gregkl 2009-08-18 8:03 AM

Hurts.

I watched the Vancouver video and thought it was pretty bad. I mean a hundred or so is stretching it. If they were in race formation, pack, maybe. But not strung out riding silly bikes and being stupid.

That's just asking for a car to go bowling through the line!

I hate the CMR in Chicago....thousands of hipsters riding around slamming their hands on the hoods of cars riding like morons......and get this, drinking BEER during the ride. WTF....

x whatever number is next ........

It hurts.

Unfortunately (fortunately?) we don't have enough cyclists in San Antonio that a Critical Mass ride would ever happen.  No hipster scene either.  The only fixie I've ever seen downtown has been mine, which has a brake, fenders, and a luggage rack....

A Critical Mass ride here might actually be fun since cars pretty much abandon downtown San Antonio after work hours!

Brian

At least the one in the Vancouver video shows some of them wearing helmets.  For the Critical Mass rides here, its just hundreds of folks and not a single helmet among them. 

I have to assume that for most participants (at least ones that I have talked to), the notion of promoting cycling awareness is just an excuse to have a party on wheels. 

At least in Chicago, they are the biggest bunch of asshats to ever occupy space on this planet.  Drunken mob, banging on cars.  They started banging on mine the one time I got stuck in their "ride".  I started getting out of my car and surprisingly Fairy Princess Boy found it in his better interest to disappear into the crowd of asshats.

x2 -- we have both in my city.  The Critical Manners ride has the positive effects of forcing drivers to realize that there are, in fact, cyclists in the city and that we do, in fact, have the same right as everyone else to use the road.  Critical Mass here isn't as bad as it is in a lot of other cities (partially because there aren't enough participants for it to actually reach 'critical mass'), but there are still the occasional asshats.  Critical Manners is a much smaller ride yet, but it doesn't cause the rage in drivers which will then backfire on me, when I try to commute in the morning.

However, even Critical Manners is not a panacea.  Its success is predicated on all the participants actually understanding and following the rules of the road, and at least here, the ride leaders aren't very good at enforcing the rules in the back of the pack.  There are sweepers, but they always tend to miss the last few stragglers (who are the least-confident cyclists, needing the most guidance, and the most likely to do stupid stuff because they're afraid of getting left behind).  I actually almost got run over as a pedestrian by our local Critical Manners ride, when a couple nitwit girls on cruiser bikes, no helmets, and flip-flops, decided to ride down the sidewalk because the shared bike/car lane was too scary.  I yelled at those girls, who then yelled "F--- you, you aren't a cyclist, you don't understand!"  At which point I just burst out laughing.

I'm not a fan of it in Chicago.

Without a doubt it hurts the image and future of legitimate cyclists. These hypocrits trample the rights of everyone else out there in the name of their own.

I think for a lot of them its an excuse to be counterculture kind of like bad graffiti.

xWhatever.  The ones in Chicago are terrible and do nothing but hurt cyclist causes and tick off drivers. 

I recall once that the Critical Mass ride in Chicago went on the Expressway. That was not the plan - it was a breakaway group - but c'mon people.


Here in Columbus we have Critical Manners. Our whole cycling scene here is designed not to be confrontational. The cycling advocacy group is called "Consider Biking." However the group has a loud and influential voice. I'm not trying to say they are totally passive. When a well-know cyclist and cycling leader was killed on his bike by a drink driver, there was a huge ride to the funeral service, but with everyone following all the rules and laws.

I think the tactics of our local group are probably pretty effective. Nobody likes jerk cyclists. That's why when I'm on my bike, commuting, I yell at cyclists running red lights: "Hey! That's why cars hate cyclists!!"

WOW! What a bunch of idiots! Let's see... how about we take up all the lanes so cars can't get through and not wear helmets (about 50% of the people weren't wearing helmets- including one lady the put on camera with the bathing cap on her head)! IDIOTS!

They are doing us no favors. It's just going to make people in cars hate people on bikes more.

Sure they probably won't drive through a mass of cyclists... but one lone cyclist on a country road with no one around to see him get hit... ????

The mob antics of Critical Mass can't have any positive consequences.

Love the idea of Critical Manners.

Yep.  It makes me think of the guy at my former University's campus who occasionally showed up to shout out racist propaganda to anyone who didn't want to listen, all the while constantly reminding the unwilling audience of his right to do so.  Sometimes I thought "Hmm.  Maybe free speech ain't all that great...".