Seattle critical mass disaster
It’s reported all over but the best first-hand account I’ve seen is here at Checksum Arcanius. The short story is that during a critical mass ride a driver was blocked by the ride and ended up running over a cyclist and into several others before he was stopped by the riders who assaulted him, slashed his tires, and broke his windows.
Many people (cyclists included) are using this story to condemn critical mass rides. But I think this could have happened at any large community ride, even those that do not have the edgy, agro attitude you find at critical mass rides.
It seems to me that what happened is the driver became threatened by the number of people and angry that he was being physically blocked by the “corkers;” there might also have been a little bit of chest-puffing involved for the benefit of his wife, in the car with him. One thing led to another and soon he was driving over people. It’s only natural they would have done what was necessary to get him to stop, and I am saddened but not surprised that somebody saw fit to clock him with a U-lock. The whole thing is just a disaster and will fuel a lot of future indignation and resentment against bicyclists. For an example of the message most people will be taking away, see cnn.com’s awful reporting.
Please folks, keep a steady head. This corking business is not a good idea–if you really feel you must do something, just go up to the window and develop a friendly rapport with the driver. Approach with a smile on your face and assure them that they will be on their way in a moment. Remember that most people today spend 95 percent of their time locked indoors watching news reports about how dangerous it is to be outside. They are frightened of us and it makes them act strangely.
Lauren is in Seattle right now and may have even been on this ride . . . perhaps she will have more to add about it soon.
–Erik Ryberg
July 27th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Yeah but corking is essential to our safety. The danger point in every ride is at the bike-car interface, and keeping the number of those interfaces to a minimum — 1 contiguous border — is the best bet.
We rode a “Courteous Mass” in Atlanta a couple weeks ago, stopping at all stop signs and red lights, keeping to the right according to the rules of the road (taking the whole right lane on multi-lane roads — theoretically 2-abreast as legal but sometimes more like 3), the whole nine yards. We still had cars playing it fast and loose with cutting into the Mass, trying to make right turns from middle lanes b/c they didn’t want to wait for the cyclists, nudging up into stopped groups of riders (Video). It really made me miss corking.
July 28th, 2008 at 5:38 am
Did you ever consider that mass community rides that block other traffic are a bad idea? Of course not, because you suffer from “Cycle-head” where everyone in your hippy wonderland can ride a bicycle wherever they need to go. The weather is always great, nothing is more than 10 miles away, and everyone has the physical ability to ride as far as they need. I keep hearing you people talk about sharing the road. Getting together a bunch of cycle-bullies to block up the road for no other purpose than amusement and protest is not sharing the road.
Critical Mass is essentially a gang of people going out on the road and picking fights with drivers. They impose their will on others by abusing the law and the humanity of the drivers they impede. Is it any wonder that respect for the law and sympathy for cyclists wears thin during these demonstrations? Participants should not be surprised when they eat bumper.
July 28th, 2008 at 5:46 am
Update: The Driver Speaks
http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/07/the_driver_speaks
The driver could have turned it in to a cyclist bloodbath. Instead someone hits him in the back of the head with a bike lock when he tries to do the right thing after hitting two people. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard about U-Locks being used as weapons. Maybe we should ban them so your bikes can get stolen and y’all can walk home.
July 28th, 2008 at 11:28 am
What is this hippy wonderland you speak of?
“The weather is always great”
In tucson it kind of is. Sunshine for 10 months of the year with temperatures never dropping below 50.
“Nothing is more than 10 miles away”
Again, tucson is not that big of a city. I live at the north side of town and commute to the south side, and it’s about a 13 mile trip.
“Everybody has the physical ability to ride as far as they need.”
10 miles is not the tour de france. You don’t have to be lance armstrong to ride a bike. You just ride slower in a far more comfortable position. People do it all the time, on terribly inefficient bicycles. It’s really not that hard. Really, everybody does have the physical ability to ride as far as they need.
This isn’t some unattainable fantasy relegated to the streets of Holland. It is a reasonable, practical form of transportation.
July 28th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
I’ve done over 90% of the Tuesday night rides since last October, and I can tell you that corking is in no way necessary or essential for the safety of the riders.
It’s possible to have a great, safe Tuesday night ride with the only violation being the 2 abreast rule. If that were the only problem no one would be calling 911 and TPD would never be there
This isn’t some anarchist state we live in. Corking is against the law, and it aggravates motorists who are forced to wait through green lights. It just takes people who are already agitated or predisposed to violence and pushes them a little closer to the edge.
We do just fine waiting for green lights and regrouping along the way. The trouble as I see it is the 1% of cyclists and motorists who are just looking for a confrontration. Every week I see a few cyclists ripping through landscaping, terrorizing a few pedestrians, and blatantly running red lights. It’s not necessary and it’s not right.
July 28th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
I’m with Steve. I watched the video linked in Shelbinator’s comments above and I still think the corking is not necessary. We don’t have the right to run the lights and we should not do it.
Some of the stop signs are harder. Getting 300 people through an isolated stop sign in a residential area with every single one of them stopping at the intersection before proceeding seems like a pretty tough problem to solve. But it can certainly be done without holding up any traffic.
July 28th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Erik – I agree on the stop signs in residential areas. It only takes a few cyclists to stop to let a car go if necessary. I haven’t seen rolling through the stop signs to be a problem.
July 29th, 2008 at 1:18 am
I always find it interesting how people justify their actions and positions. Some (but not all) cyclists have a perception that they own the roads that were paid and built for motorized vehicle owners. The operation of a bicycle has never contributed on red cent to the building, or maintaining of any public road, but somehow the perception is that cyclist own it.
I as a cyclist consider myself lucky that cars drive and in tern pay to build roads that I can enjoy. I would never presume that they should give me the right of way and here are my reasons why:
1. As mentioned above the roads were built for and paid by car operators.
2. As a cyclist I will always loose if I try to take on a car.
3. It’s always better to avoid conflict where possible.
As a finishing note corking is rude, inconsiderate and on top of that illegal.
July 29th, 2008 at 4:55 am
Mickey:
What applies to Tuscon does not apply to the rest of the country. Eventually everyone who lives in the desert will figure that out because you can’t keep using water from an aquifer that fell as snow in the last ice age. Just like oil, it too will run out. Besides, this whole event happened in Seattle where the weather sucks and the roads are hilly.
http://academic.emporia.edu/schulmem/hydro/TERM%20PROJECTS/Musgrove/Basin_Range.htm
July 29th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Not everywhere is like Tucson in regards to perfect weather all year round, but you will find that in vast majority of the country you will still find it possible to make trips by bike at least 6 months of the year. Seattle is a perfect example! The weather sucks, the roads are hilly, yet it is still one of the most popular cities for cycling in the country.
Perhaps for some people the bike is not an ideal form of transportation. This is fine. But for a great number of people it does make more sense than driving for short trips.
My point is that there doesn’t have to be a hippie utopia in order for people to travel by bike. It already happens all the time, by regular people going to regular places.
Critical masses often bring out extremists on both sides of the debate and make all cyclists look like hippies and all drivers look like car-heads. The reality of course is that most people really are neither. Cyclists generally own cars for long trips and hauling heavy objects and drivers don’t like sitting in traffic or paying $60+ at the pump. What it really comes down to is that you shouldn’t be a dick, whether you’re in a car or on a bike.
July 29th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
“Some (but not all) cyclists have a perception that they own the roads that were paid and built for motorized vehicle owners. The operation of a bicycle has never contributed on red cent to the building, or maintaining of any public road, but somehow the perception is that cyclist own it.”
Geezer, I agree that bicyclists don’t own the road any more than motorized vehicle owners, but the popular misconception that they don’t pay for roads is based on at least a couple of false premises. The obvious one is the assumption that bicyclists don’t pay registration fees and gas taxes. Of course they do – pretty much every bicyclist you see on the road owns at least one motor vehicle, many own several and typically pay just as much as anyone who doesn’t even own a bicycle. Considering that they can only operate one vehicle at a time, the idea that they should pay extra for occasionally using a vehicle that doesn’t contribute to the need for road maintenance (i.e. a bicycle), is absurd. Of course, whether you think they should or shouldn’t pay more than a non-bicyclist is pretty much moot anyway, because depending on the state you live in, registration fees and gas taxes pay mostly for highways and rural roads anyway. In most cities, the lion’s share of roads are paid for with property taxes and development fees, so even if a bicyclist doesn’t own any other vehicle, if they live in town they pay just as much for the roads in that town as anybody else. Even if they don’t own their home, the costs are passed on in the rent. So lets put the misconception that cyclists don’t pay for roads to rest right here.
July 30th, 2008 at 1:10 am
#2–Hippy wonderland??? let me know where it is , because I’m stuck somewhere in your Albanian disneyworld and can’t seem to find my way out. Please text me with directions for exit and if you are driving–put the hamburger down and turn off the video—multi-tasking can be very distractive–even dangerous!! Thanks, DG