Thread started by marino at 08.12.07 - 2:05 pm

Today, Sun Aug 12, the LA Times published an article on San Francisco Critical Mass with the title: When bikes rule the road, motorists fume

The way I read it, it paints the bicyclists as obnoxious hooligans.

It's obviously ignorant, since they had to go to San Francisco to find a ride with 1,500 people. They couldn't find one here under their noses.



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yeah i read that... it's kinda lame and i'm sure that writer will just get TONS of e-mails about "what's the ride in LA?!"

you can see dak's back on the front picture! he's the one on the right-ish side with a black t-shirt and white "tren way" logo on the back... yeah... what?



neverclever
08.12.07 - 2:17 pm

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um... i think the whole reason for going to SF was due to the 15th anniversary of CM. not because the Times couldn't find a bike ride locally.

former staffer John Balazar wrote many cycling related articles including one about Midnight Ridazz long before anyone else.

personally, i've thought critical mass was pretty stupid since the one and only time i went on one back in '95. the reporter touched on many of the same reasons why i think the rides are dumb. personally, i thought the story was very fair and even handed.

but that's just my opinion.



chunk
08.12.07 - 2:35 pm

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"former staffer John Balazar wrote many cycling related articles including one about Midnight Ridazz long before anyone else."

Except this one is written by John M. Glionna who covers SF and never written a bike story before.

"personally, i've thought critical mass was pretty stupid since the one and only time i went on one back in '95."

Who can argue with such depth of experience?




marino
08.12.07 - 2:52 pm

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well.. at least he mentioned that there's even a ride "..here in LA."

word



e-rock
08.12.07 - 2:54 pm

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So are you saying that just because someone hasn't covered a bike story before, they're unqualified to write such a story?

Let's see that story was in the regular news section. it's not like they're going from covering baseball to the tour de france and as a whole, the story was about Critical Mass and its place in SF. I pulled out these chunks from the story that I think do a great job getting the point across.

Or are you just upset because the reporter had the audacity to report the fact that someone intentionally damaged someone else's property? Should that detail have been glossed over?

Also, thanks to this reporter's intrepid work, I learned about Critical Manners. I'm all for that one.

I've really been over the whole corking thing since the Midnight Ride that had a cult theme a while back. It was either in '03 or '04. Anyhoo, after it went by the Scientology Headquarters, the ride went along Sunset past the hospital. A few people corked up the intersection right before Vermont St. which just happened to be the road you take to get to the Emergency Room.

So the driver of a car (a lady) is blaring on the horn asking folks to get out of the way because the person in the passenger seat is having some sort of medical emergency that warrants a trip to the ER so what's the person corking do when they hear a such a frantic car horn? They start slapping the roof of the car and yelling at the lady completely oblivious to the fact that someone in the car just might have been dying.

Myself and a few others realized what was happening and did what we could to get the intersection uncorked. Really, that was even worse than the time I saw a drunk kid plow a Mini Cooper, completely dent the hood. When he came to his senses, did he stick around and show the responsibility we all hope a motorist shows when they take out a cyclist? Nope, He he just took off into the night leaving someone with a damaged car.

Not cool.

That's why now when I go out and do a ride, I pull over to the side and wait for red lights. Every single one.

Sorry if that was long winded. Here's those blurbs from the story I mentioned about a mile up this post.


"Though his predecessor feuded with Critical Mass riders, Mayor Gavin Newsom has extended an olive branch of sorts. Last year, he named the head of the bicycle coalition (which claims independence from Critical Mass but advertises the rides on its website) as a commissioner overseeing the city's powerful Municipal Transportation Agency.

"Meanwhile, in the 15 years since Critical Mass began, the number of San Francisco bike commuters has doubled to more than 2% of the population. Bike activists have successfully lobbied for more cycling lanes, bicycle racks on buses and a weekend ban on cars in popular Golden Gate Park. The city charter even guarantees that "bicycling shall be promoted" in any drafting plans for traffic flow and public safety.

"Critical Mass energized the bicycle movement here," said former Berkeley cyclist David Cohen. "It lent a sort of spiritual energy, the idea that we could gather en masse. There were no leaders. We were all leaders."

That's one point of view."

and here' another...

"Detractors point to the March 30 ride as just one example of Critical Mass spinning out of control.

Riders clashed with motorists in two incidents. Limo driver Dennis Webb says the melee started after a female cyclist blocked his path.

When Webb got out of his car to confront the cyclists, one dented the limo's hood with a U-shaped bicycle lock. Another slashed his tire. Someone else grabbed his car keys and rode off. The hood-denter was charged in the incident.

"Some of these people try to provoke motorists," said Webb, 46. "When you start that, you're looking for trouble. It's only natural you're not going to let them get away with that."

Another altercation came later in the ride, as cyclists made their way through Japantown.

Susan Ferrando, who was driving with her two kids in the car, said a throng of riders attacked her. Others said a frustrated Ferrando plowed into the cyclists, struck one and tried to drive on. Riders surrounded her until police arrived."

No charges were filed. But Ferrando said she remains in shock. "It's been traumatic," she said, her voice breaking. "I've got a child standing here saying, 'No, Mommy. I don't want to talk about it.' This isn't over for us."

and gee... here's something completely different...

"In a play off Critical Mass, a new cycling event recently was launched here. Its few riders make a point to observe traffic laws and stay out of fights.

They call it Critical Manners."





chunk
08.12.07 - 3:28 pm

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Ok,

For the one millionth time, the 15 year anniversary is not until sept. heh



kyber
08.12.07 - 3:55 pm

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NAYSAYERS UNITE FOR MASS RITUAL SUICIDE!

HOORAY!



kyber
08.12.07 - 3:57 pm

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The article glances over but at least very briefly mentions (when mentioning cyclist complaints), the fact that road infrastructure, especially in urban american cities, is NOT designed for cycling.
If they were, we would have comprehensive systems for dealing with intersections on hills, lights that actually trigger when a bicycle enters its sensor, pavement that doesnt have potholes or ridges or whatever large enough to destroy a wheel or hurt a cyclist, parking somewhere else that doesnt put cyclists in the door zone or any other number of differences.
There are reasons many cyclists treat red lights simply as stop signs.
But I digress, Critical manners rides originally started as a result of police pressure. The original was done in a regular CM, and afterwards the police asked massers never to do it again (this as about the time that they started getting support from police rather than opposition in SF), as it tied up the city for nearly twice as long as the regular mass. It has continued, albeit as a much much smaller group, it's original point made, it is now mostly for riders who feel that corking is "unnecessary" or not right or whatever.
The thing is, these systems (such as red lights, a los angeles invention by the way) are designed with cars in mind. It is MUCH safer for the cyclists to move through the city as a group rather than endign up with a bunch of cars in their midst growing angry at the fact that they have to drive at 15 mph, who can potentially decide to floor it either through or around the group, both of which can cause accidents or near misses. As for stopping at red lights, the 1000 rider ride that happened on friday night stopped several times at red lights, it happens.
As for the experience Chunk described above, I'd have to ask, if the person was in that much trouble, why not get an ambulance? She could just as easily have gotten stuck in automobile traffic and had to wait just as long. I have seen many rides stop to allow emergency vehicles to pass, both in LA and in other cities.
When it comes to pedestrians, an argument I hear often from SF when it comes to CM (but, oddly, not so much from other cities) it sometimes has to do with pedestrians throwing themselves out into the mass. We had people try to do this in Vegas, I've seen people do it here in LA, most people will wait until the ride has passed then cross the street (as one would do with cars) but there are some who belligerently force themselves out into the throngs of cyclists then complain about almost being hit.



FuzzBeast
08.12.07 - 4:55 pm

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I read this a few hors ago on bikepirates over on livejournal.
I'm not sure what to make of it.

It goes 50/50 good and bad.



Ratt_Bones
08.12.07 - 5:00 pm

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chunk -
"Myself and a few others realized what was happening and did what we could to get the intersection uncorked. Really, that was even worse than the time I saw a drunk kid plow a Mini Cooper, completely dent the hood. When he came to his senses, did he stick around and show the responsibility we all hope a motorist shows when they take out a cyclist? Nope, He he just took off into the night leaving someone with a damaged car.

Not cool.

That's why now when I go out and do a ride, I pull over to the side and wait for red lights. Every single one."

Me -
Not sure if this is the same incident I was involved in or not, I think it is. This one happened around the Heavy Metal Ride. This "drunk kid" that ran into the Red Mini Cooper really wasn't completely at fault. The driver was crossing Sunset at a small intersection that had no lights and had just a stop sign for the driver. What he decided to do, instead of making a right turn, was to cross Sunset. He got half way across and was stuck in the middle waiting to cross. I rolled up on him and corked him as I thought this was the better option then to let try and cross the pack. As a large group of riders were passing, this said drunk kid clipped this Mini Cooper. The kid couldn't have been more than 16 was my guess, couldn't really tell as he had a full monster mask on. Anyways he clips the car and goes down. He quickly got back up and pedaled off, probaly to catch up with his friends. Yeah the driver was pissed as he now had a dent on his fender and good scrape of about 4-5 inches, but he brought it on. There was no ways he was going to be able to cross with all the ridazz coming and the chances of a worst outcome was rather high IMO. Anyways the driver was asking what all this was about and I told him. I happened to run into him on a ride a couple of months later too. I think it might have been a combination of him hoping to find this guy that hit him and curiosity of the ride. Haven't seen him since and assumed the ride wasn't his thing.

Just thought I would set the record straight on this "drunk kid."


Fuzz -
The thing is, these systems (such as red lights, a los angeles invention by the way) are designed with cars in mind.

Fuzz, you may want to checkout the wiki reference and either change their page or your statement above.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_light

Well I think that's about it for this superhero tonite. Or is that super clown hero?




User1
08.13.07 - 1:16 am

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hmm, I saw something in a book a while back about the first traffic lights being in LA, I just looked it back up, I had misread it, it was a photo of the FIRST traffic light IN LA... my bad.



FuzzBeast
08.13.07 - 2:46 am

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Today Monday Aug 13, the LA Times has two VERY positive articles on cycling in the Health section.

"On the mean streets of L.A.
Bicyclists and runners just want to share the pavement with drivers. They're entitled, right?"

You can read it here



marino
08.13.07 - 8:48 am

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gotta love the LA times, one day, it's an arguably anti cycling article, the very next it's one that sounds pretty positive...



FuzzBeast
08.13.07 - 1:58 pm

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I love how journalists always use babies and small children to evoke emotion.

"Stop! I have a baby!" Cried a woman as she was trying to cross the street.

"I don't want to talk about it Mommy" says the child about an altercation between her Mom and some CMers.

I have kids - but it does not give me an excuse to blame other people for my own stupidity.



BillyB
08.13.07 - 3:43 pm

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Can we have a "Stop! I have a baby!" ride?????????



Eric Hair
08.13.07 - 3:55 pm

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That would be an awesome ride. You could yell "Stop - I have a BABY!" and then everyone stops. I would stop and have a lot of babies. The ride nickname could be "Maternity . . . LEAVE!"

Knits



Knittens
08.13.07 - 4:14 pm

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Yes, we could all be carrying babies in backpacks.

Then we could cork the streets by leaving babies in the intersections . We could get mistaken for some crazy prolifers....

Fuck clarity of message...




marino
08.13.07 - 5:39 pm

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I think - Dingo Stole My Baby Ride - would be better!





Joe Borfo
08.13.07 - 6:07 pm

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