FROM THE CRITICAL MASS WEBSITE (AUSTIN):

What is Critical Mass?

Critical Mass is a monthly bicycle ride to celebrate cycling and to take back the streets. It began in San Francisco in 1992, and quickly spread to cities all over the world. Critical Mass appeared in Austin in October 1993. [more on the origin of Critical Mass]
We meet on the last Friday of every month (holiday or not, rain or shine) at 5:00pm on the UT West Mall where it meets Guadalupe (between 22nd & 23rd Streets). Participation varies a LOT. There have been as few as two riders and as many as 200. "Typical" is 50.

What's the purpose?

Everyone has their own reasons for riding on Critical Mass. Some see it as a protest of cars, others just like to go on a fun bike ride. After being menaced every day by cars, many of us find it exhilirating to ride with 50-100 other cyclists in a fun, supportive atmosphere. Critical Mass doesn't have any specific agenda or goals. While most of us would like to see an end to the car culture, Critical Mass doesn't have a specific plan to hasten that goal; it's just a bike ride. (Although many of us do work with other organizations that have specific plans for increasing cycling access.)

Do you break traffic laws?

Most riders run stop signs and red lights on the ride (after making sure that it's safe to do so). Some riders obey all the rules, all the time. Many of us feel that the road rules were written with cars in mind and make little sense when applied to bicycles, especially 100 bicycles. (Try staying in one lane on a ride that large.) Requiring a bicycle to behave like a car is much like requiring a fish to behave like an accountant -- they're two totally different things. Other more enlightened parts of the world (including one state in the U.S.) allow cyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs.
Many of us also have contempt for the law because it's applied unevenly to bicyclists and motorists. When Austin had a helmet law, bicyclists were thrown in jail left and right for not wearing helmets, while we've never heard of a motorist going to jail for not wearing a seatbelt. And while cyclists can easily get tickets for something as mundane as riding on the sidewalk, motorists who hit and kill or severely injure cyclists often get off scott-free. The law also provides extra rights for motorists at our expense, such as the right for cars to park in our bike lanes. With all this in mind, it's no wonder that many cyclists have little regard for a law that requires them to stop at a stop sign when there's no danger in their simply slowing down instead.

Do you block traffic?

Many contend that bicycles can't block traffic because bicycles *are* traffic. In reality, it's obvious that if cyclists take up all the lanes of the road then cars (which could travel faster) can't get by. In any event, most CM rides leave at least one lane open for cars. Cars control ALL the streets, 24 hours a day, every day of the month. We only take SOME of the streets, for a COUPLE of hours, ONE day a month. People who complain about traffic blocking are basically saying that 99% control isn't enough for cars, they should have 100%. Taken in that light, who's *really* being greedy about road rights?

What about the cops?

Police were a constant presence for about the first year of the Austin rides, and often made many unjustified arrests and issued lots of bogus tickets. (Most Critical Massers had their cases dismissed or won their cases in court.) Typically, dozens of motorcycle, car, and bike cops would be waiting at the meeting site before the ride started, and ride with the mass, looking for any excuse to issue tickets or make arrests (and inventing "infractions" when that didn't happen). After Critical Massers showed videotapes of out-of-control cops to the City Council in late 1994, the cops mysteriously stopped showing up to the rides. These days, cops only show up when CM'ers do something stupid like take up EVERY lane of traffic on a roadway for an extended period of time (at which point all the yuppies tie up the 911 system with their car phones). In general, if we leave at least one lane of traffic open for cars (even on a three-lane roadway), then we don't get hassled.

Who runs Critical Mass?

Nobody. There are no leaders. Anybody can ride, and whoever happens to be in the front of the mass usually determines the route. Riders are free to follow all traffic laws or break all the laws as they see fit, with each rider being responsible for his/her own actions. Riders can also try to convince fellow riders that they should take up all the lanes of traffic or that they *shouldn't* take up all the lanes of traffic.

What route do you take?

It's random. Sometimes busy streets, sometimes peaceful streets. Whoever's in front usually determines where we go. Often someone suggests a special destination, such as the site where a cyclist got hit by a car, a bank that doesn't allow cyclists to use the drive-thru, or a street with bike lanes where we "ticket" cars parked in the bike lane (although it's legal for cars to park in bike lanes in Austin. Go figure.) In the summer months, the ride usually ends at a swimming hole, like Barton Springs, the spillway, or Sunken Gardens.

saw this when it first came out. note how quick the bicyclists were to concoct a group lie, portray themselves as the victims, and whine for the police.

this is a unique and new kind of dangerous.

A Cool and Logical Analysis of the Bicycle Menace
 

And an Examination of the Actions Necessary to License, Regulate, or Abolish Entirely This Dreadful Peril on our Roads

by P.J. O'Rourke

Our nation is afflicted with a plague of bicycles. Everywhere the public right-of-way is glutted with whirring, unbalanced contraptions of rubber, wire, and cheap steel pipe. Riders of these flimsy appliances pay no heed to stop signs or red lights. They dart from between parked cars, dash along double yellow lines, and whiz through crosswalks right over the toes of law-abiding citizens like me.

In the cities, every lamppost, tree, and street sign is disfigured by a bicycle slathered in chains and locks. And elevators must be shared with the cycling faddist so attached to his "moron's bath-chair" that he has to take it with him everywhere he goes.

In the country, one cannot drive around a curve or over the crest of a hill without encountering a gaggle of huffing bicyclers spread across the road in suicidal phalanx.

Even the wilderness is not safe from infestation, as there is now such a thing as an off-road bicycle and a horrible sport called "bicycle-cross."

The ungainly geometry and primitive mechanicals of the bicycle are an offense to the eye. The grimy and perspiring riders of the bicycle are an offense to the nose. And the very existence of the bicycle is an offense to reason and wisdom.

PRINCIPAL ARGUMENTS WHICH MAY BE MARSHALED AGAINST BICYCLES

1. Bicycles are childish
Bicycles have their proper place, and that place is under small boys delivering evening papers. Insofar as children are too short to see over the dashboards of cars and too small to keep motorcycles upright at intersections, bicycles are suitable vehicles for them. But what are we to make of an adult in a suit and tie pedaling his way to work? Are we to assume he still delivers newspapers for a living? If not, do we want a doctor, lawyer, or business executive who plays with toys? St. Paul, in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, 13:11, said, "When I became a man, I put away childish things." He did not say, "When I became a man, I put away childish things and got more elaborate and expensive childish things from France and Japan."

Considering the image projected, bicycling commuters might as well propel themselves to the office with one knee in a red Radio Flyer wagon.

2. Bicycles are undignified
A certain childishness is, no doubt, excusable. But going about in public with one's head between one's knees and one's rump protruding in the air is nobody's idea of acceptable behavior.

It is impossible for an adult to sit on a bicycle without looking the fool. There is a type of woman, in particular, who should never assume the bicycling posture. This is the woman of ample proportions. Standing on her own feet she is a figure to admire-classical in her beauty and a symbol, throughout history, of sensuality, maternal virtue, and plenty. Mounted on a bicycle, she is a laughingstock.

In a world where loss of human dignity is such a grave and all-pervading issue, what can we say about people who voluntarily relinquish all of theirs and go around looking at best like Quixote on Rosinante and more often like something in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade? Can such people be trusted? Is a person with so little self-respect likely to have any respect for you?

3. Bicycles are unsafe
Bicycles are top-heavy, have poor brakes, and provide no protection to their riders. Bicycles are also made up of many hard and sharp components which, in collision, can do grave damage to people and the paint finish on automobiles. Bicycles are dangerous things.

Of course, there's nothing wrong, per se, with dangerous things. Speedboats, racecars, fine shotguns, whiskey, and love are all very dangerous. Bicycles, however, are dangerous without being any fun. You can't shoot pheasants with a bicycle or water-ski behind it or go 150 miles an hour or even mix it with soda and ice. And the idea of getting romantic on top of a bicycle is alarming. All you can do with one of these ten-speed sink traps is grow tired and sore and fall off it.

Being dangerous without being fun puts bicycles in a category with open-heart surgery, the war in Vietnam, the South Bronx, and divorce. Sensible people do all that they can to avoid such things as these.

4. Bicycles are un-American
We are a nation that worships speed and power. And for good reason. Without power we would still be part of England and everybody would be out of work. And if it weren't for speed, it would take us all months to fly to L.A., get involved in the movie business, and become rich and famous.

Bicycles are too slow and impuissant for a country like ours. They belong in Czechoslovakia...

5. I don't like the kind of people who ride bicycles
At least I think I don't. I don't actually know anyone who rides a bicycle. But the people I see on bicycles look like organic-gardening zealots who advocate federal regulation of bedtime and want American foreign policy to be dictated by UNICEF. These people should be confined.

I apologize if I have the wrong impression. It may be that bicycle riders are all members of the New York Stock Exchange, Methodist bishops, retired Marine Corps drill instructors, and other solid citizens. However, the fact that they cycle around in broad daylight making themselves look like idiots indicates that they're crazy anyway and should be confined just the same.

6. Bicycles are unfair
Bicycles use the same roads as cars and trucks yet they pay no gasoline tax, carry no license plates, are not required to have insurance, and are not subject to DOT, CAFE, or NHTSA regulations. Furthermore, bicyclists do not have to take driver's examinations, have eye tests when they're over sixty-five, carry registration papers with them, or submit to breathalyzer tests under the threat of law. And they never get caught in radar traps.

The fact (see No. 5, above) that bicycles are ridden by the very people who most favor government interference in life makes the bicycle's special status not only unfair but an outright incitement to riot.

Equality before the law is the cornerstone of democracy. Bicycles should be made to carry twenty-gallon tanks of gasoline. They should be equipped with twelve-volt batteries and a full complement of taillights, headlamps, and turn signals. They should have seat belts, air bags, and safety-glass windows too. And every bicycle rider should be inspected once a year for hazardous defects and be made to wear a number plate hanging around his neck and another on the seat of his pants.

7. Bicycles are good exercise
And so is swinging through trees on your tail. Mankind has invested more than four million years of evolution in the attempt to avoid physical exertion. Now a group of backward-thinking atavists mounted on foot-powered pairs of Hula-Hoops would have us pumping our legs, gritting our teeth, and searing our lungs as though we were being chased across the Pleistocene savanna by saber-toothed tigers. Think of the hopes, the dreams, the effort, the brilliance, the pure force of will that, over the eons, has gone into the creation of the Cadillac Coupe de Ville. Bicycle riders would have us throw all this on the ash heap of history.

What must be done about about the bicycle threat?
Fortunately, nothing. Frustrated truck drivers and irate cabbies make a point of running bicycles off the road. Terrified old ladies jam umbrella ferrules into wheel spokes as bicycles rush by them on sidewalks. And all of us have occasion to back over bicycles that are haplessly parked.

Bicycles are quiet and slight, difficult for normal motorized humans to see and hear. People pull out in front of bicycles, open car doors in their path, and drive through intersections filled with the things. The insubstantial bicycle and its unshielded rider are defenseless against these actions. It's a simple matter of natural selection. The bicycle will be extinct within the decade. And what a relief that will be.:D

© P.J. O'Rourke
from 'Republican Party Reptile', The Atlantic Monthly Press, New York, 1987

And cyclists have a helmet. Plus, they can get popped on radar for exceeding the speed limit or running red lights, stop signs, illegal right turns, etc. They have to adhere to the same rules as automobiles. So I'm not sure if there is a point in what you've written that I'm supposedly missing.

As many bozos in cars who, while on the cell phone, eating food, painting their nails, drunk, stoned, or out of just sheer dislike, stray into the bike lane and kill one or more cyclists? Let's discuss "regard."

A cyclist can hurt many people if they crash. Any place there is a crowd and bicyclists, there can be a crash and hurt individuals. If you hit one of them, you should pay for your stupidity in not being aware of their presence. And rightfully so. If you see a cyclist riding on the sidewalk or in a pedestrian crosswalk, it isn't fair game.

Write your congressman.

Write your congressman.

I guess even guys in sissy bicycle tights are tough when in groups of 300.

+1

I was thinking the same thing... Or that the woman in the Subaru could've probably fended off the crowd pretty well on her own if she wanted to.

They were both women actually. They just thought it was a man they were beating.

EDIT: for those outside Seattle, Capitol Hill is gay central. You see two woman in a Subaru in Capital Hill, I'm thinkin' they are 'roommates'.

Welcome to Seattle. I like cycling too, but this is out of hand. If that's the case and they insist on being treated equally on a roadway designed and paid for by motorists then they should

1) get licensed

2) tabbed / taxed like the rest of everyone who uses the road

Lord, I hate this town and the local culture. Only here does something like this have teeth. Too bad it wasn't someone from Pierce Co. that was in the Subaru. Be dead bikers everywhere and it would be a "tragedy"

(for those not familiar with Seattle and it's surrounding areas Pierce County is where 1/2 the episodes of "Cops" is filmed)

rjp

This is why I carry while I ride. The P3-AT fit's nicely in the bike Jersey back pocket. OTOH, I respect cars around me.

Jeez I can't imagine WTF is going on out there. I ride my bicycle every night after work for exercise( I'm unable to jog). I obey all traffic laws, keep as far to the right as is possible and never ride in groups(this may be due to personal reasons).

I occasionally have trouble with teenagers throwing insults,jeers and sometimes cans of soda at me(and yea that really hurts). Some motorists think tis funny to pull close to me and lay on the horn then laugh when I freak out. And some people don't want me to be using their roads. BUT the NJ laws allow me to do so IF I obey all the laws(which I do).

Maybe Seattle is just screwed up?

This is bad for everyone.

I can't imagine there are people so utterly stupid in the world that would either (1) despise cyclists who are getting some exercise and acting in an environmentally responsible manner or (2) cycle in such a callous and obnoxious manner as to completely undermine the sport. Oh wait, actually I can believe people are that stupid... Forgot I was talking about people for a second...

This is just idiocy all around. Drivers are almost universally a-holes (or at the very least inattentive) and pose a mortal threat to bicyclists every time you go ride. I've personally been run off the road and injured twice - both times by schitkicker redneck jackass types. The first time the guy DELIBERATELY ran me off the road and threw a glass bottle at my head before trying to physically ram me with a pickup truck. This was years ago in Florida (I was riding solo and well to the right of a multi-lane road, apparently Mr. Tough Guy didn't feel like swinging into the left lane briefly to pass me - never was able to get a plate # unfortunately). The second time was more recently when I actually had an SUV driver cuss me out for "using his road". No lie. This was about 2-3 months ago. I laughed in his face, which I think just antagonized him more.

Point is, I tend to side with the cyclists. I love cycling, it's fun, efficient, good exercise and much better on all fronts than driving a car. A car is a convenience item only - I don't NEED a car, I often PREFER a car because it's easier and a luxury. I further have no real love for our traffic laws - I think there are (in general) too many of them and they're all-too-often written for the lowest common denominator of idiot out there to save them from themselves.

HOWEVER, the guys on these CM rides are a bunch of knobs. They're doing more harm than good to the movement of people who want to see cycling (particularly commuter cycling) popularized. These guys are just flagrantly thumbing their noses at the system and automobiles and traffic laws just because they can. That doesn't ultimately help us and I seriously wish they'd just STFU and go for a ride somewhere on their own. All they're ultimately doing is creating a situation where there will be a crackdown by grandstanding politicians that will ultimately result in more traffic enforcement of bikes and/or registration requirements, both of which are stupid, detrimental to the advantages cyclists enjoy today and a couple of the primary reasons to bike now.

I like to ride to work occasionally precisely BECAUSE I don't have to necessarily sit at red lights and/or stop signs. Yes, if I come up to a 4-way stop and nobody's there, I keep going. Absolutely. It's a huge PITA to stop, then start again. It breaks cadence and is annoying. But if someone else is coming I absolutely follow the standard procedure and right-of-way laws. This (IMHO) is how someone is SUPPOSED to ride. The day they require me to pay a fee to register or insure my friggin' bicycle is the day I'm going to go down to City Hall and cram my bike up the mayor's ass personally. Last thing we need is idiots like these CM riders putting ideas like that / justifications for it into the minds of greedy and increasingly desperate-for-money politicians.

I support cycling 100%. I don't support this Critical Mass crap. It's only going to make things worse for us.

So P-O-P, Tell us how you REALLY feel! :D

Tom

Sorry... I do that. :)

People never remember or think about the mediocre, boring, non-opinionated posts.

POP is right, this is lose/lose for all.

I used to ride a lot until I was T-boned riding to BB practice in college...I had stopped at the red light and pushed off on green. The guy ran the light way after red. I was stupid for not looking twice, he was criminal for pushing red.

I bear the mess and pain my mangled left leg and foot have caused to this day.

But the CM folks are off the page...I read the link provided earlier and was floored by the arrogance and double speak. What motives human behavior often escapes me...especially the attack on the van, then fleeing.:confused:

Every day when I go to work, I have cyclists cut me off or pull out in front of me or cross in front of me...usually with no warning. They run the stop signs and red lights to get in front of traffic...then move over in front of traffic and pedal at 10 mph in a 40 zone. Adds 5 to 10 minutes to my commute and almost gets me rear-ended. I cannot fathom why more are not killed. I cannot imagine why anyone would choose to ride a cycle at 10 mph on a road where all the cars are going 40-45. Another thing that I don't understand is why...on streets with wide cycle lanes or with cycle paths...cyclists either drive in the street
(20 or 30 mph slower than everyone else), two or three abreast...or right on the line of the cycle lane where cars cannot pass instead of in the center of the lane.

The fastest way to get hit/killed cycling is to try and be a "nice guy" and leave room for cars to "squeeze by" you. I have a friend of mine who lost his four front teeth and ended up in the E.R. because of that (got "squeezed" into a parked car by one of those guys he was trying to be nice to).

I agree - 2 or 3 abreast is dumb and inconsiderate, but on a multi-lane road speaking as someone who understands this from a rider's perspective, you simply HAVE to take the lane. The cars have another lane (or two) to go around you. No harm no foul. It's a passing lane. That's what it's for.

The most dangerous situations are single-lane roads with 2-way traffic and lots of blind curves. Very little room for cars to pass, so they invariably try to squeeze you off the shoulder. On a multi-lane road this shouldn't be an issue, but sometimes is because drivers are too impatient, too inconsiderate to be bothered with turning the wheel 10 degrees for a momentary lane change, or too stupid to know what the rules of the road are...

Unfortunately, regardless of what the laws say and whether your intentions are good/"nice guy" or not, if someone clips you, you're just as dead. So you do have to take bold action sometimes.

Not defending 100% of what riders do, but in most cases there's a reason. Not all, but most.

<----cyclist.

First Critical ASS is a problem. bad P.R. for cyclist.

Second. Any of you that can't stand cyclist on the road should try driving with out modern tires. A cyclist invented the tires that your car uses.

Third. Do you enjoy the quickness of air travel? Fricken bike geeks made the a=first airplane!

Fourth. At one time our country's patent office had a seperate office just for bicycles. it seems that 1/2 of all patents in the U.S. were for bicyle items

I'm not sure on this one but I've heard that the sewing maching was the work of a bike mechanic.

As for taxing cycilist, wow. First offI'm sure that most of them allready pay road tax on cars that they own. I know of a couple gusy here in California that own/ed 73 rs's. yes real ones. one of them was sold to Seinfeild.

I've worked in the cycling biz for all but 1 year of my adult life.

The year that I was out of it I worked automotive. I hated the people that I was working for and the customers that I was seeing.

Bike shop people on the whole are good people

As for rollilg stop signs. yes, it's a problem. BUT a car traveling 4 miles an hour past a stop sign has a ****load more energy than a bike weight200#'s does at 15mph.

3 or 4 abreast, yup bad p.r for all. but they're easeir to see and less likely to be hit.

I've been hit by a mirror on a Gas company truck. The road was 3 lanes wide I was riding on the FAR right side of the lane, he had to go out of his way to "buzz " me!

Same road a young woman decided to slap my ass as I was riding. She was in a car going 40 ish and I was maybe doing 20 It nearly knocked me off of the bike.

Soda's thrown @ me etc.

Most of us try to ride on the far right side of the road. the only problem is that's where all of the debris from your cars end up. Beer bottles, baby diapers,chicken bones,misc car parts, nails, screws etc. Some of the items that I've pulled out of bicycle tires have been large fish hooks, sewing needles, and drywall screws that have destoyed $400 wheels.

please go out of your way and give 3 feet of way for ANY living thing on the road.
you wouldn't buzz a deer for fun would you?

Back in the old days it was the tri guys who ignored the laws of the road. They would blast through stop signs and red lights wearing nothing but a speedo on their carbon bikes. :rolleyes: Nothing like a big group ride up the coast, hammering on I-5 through Pendelton, and some dork riding in his aero bars touching a wheel...

Those dudes in Seattle need to be shut down. Some guy starts hitting my car and I can predict a few flattened bikes. I agree with M21, these guys are like the clone Harley dorks, minus a ton of chrome.

Anyone that drove a car 10 mph on a 45 mph highway every day and created traffic jams and dangerous driving conditions would be considered a total butt-head, why are cyclists any different? On one road I drive daily (50 mph speed limit), there is a freaking 10 ft wide cycle path running parallel to the road...with about a 12 grass strip in between. Yet the cyclists have to ride two or three abreast in the street at 20 mph. What a bunch of jerks.