"This is so dangerous!", laments the woman driving directly into a Critical Mass bike ride
This was a Critical Mass event, which is why the bicyclists are taking up all of the street as a way to reclaim the streets and protest the lack of safety for riders under usual conditions. It's not legal, but protests are never useful if they're fully legal now, are they.
This is how cyclists feel when they are surrounded by cars on busy roads because the cycling infrastructure is shit.
Except, cyclists can't kill people in cars with their bike.
So, lady, imagine our frustration.
Edit: spelling 🤦♂️
This gives me an idea. How about every bike gets retrofitted with a large titanium hook. The idea is that if you hit my bike, your car is pretty much totaled. Not just that but if you really hit me, the hook passes thru the radiator, thru the firewall and into the drivers asshole.
Put a little LED light on it as a warning beacon.
They feel like cars are coming from both sides of the road through red lights?
Where do you bike?
Yes.
I've witnessed cars driving in the wrong lanes (headed towards me) as they recklessly pass drivers.
I've seen drivers turning onto dedicated bike paths.
I've seen drivers jumping curbs. In the city, they've even managed to hop TALL, concrete barriers protecting bike lanes.
I've seen numerous cars flying through stop signs and red lights. At least a few times per week. And even more "stopping" on crosswalks.
I've witnessed a teen getting hit by a car while she used a crosswalk in front of her school. I've nearly been hit several times crossing at intersections, too. I saw an elderly man who was almost run over by a car turning right without slowing down (the driver then yelled at the old man).
If you think these are rare occurrences, you likely don't live anywhere near cars. This shit happens all the time, everywhere.
And I won't even bring up aggressive drivers who are hostile towards cyclists and use their cars as weapons.
Car brains are incapable of realizing that they're the deadly threat.
I said it elsewhere but it's worth repeating here that fighting drivers is fighting the wrong fight. Fight the government.
Even if you convince the drivers that you're right, nothing changes.
NGL, you're fighting the drivers for this, just in a different medium. You think the government is just doing shit for kicks and giggles? Nah, they don't put in bike lanes because too many residents complain when they lose their parking lanes to bike lanes, or the road gets widened solely to add a bike lane.
Sure there are some cases where the govt is making a bad decision, but don't think that you don't need to argue with those same people, just in a Public Information Session instead of on the road.
Those cyclists? Many are drivers. This is a community event that builds solidarity and changes driver attitudes by mobilizing them against the vehicular violence we are all currently subject to. A critical mass ride has hundreds or even thousands of participants. It changes the way THEY think about cars, bikes, traffic, and public safety.
You can do both
Idk about the usa but here in europe its EXPLICITLY written into the drivers code that even if someone is driving illegaly if its in your power to stop an accident you have to. So if a person steps in front of you randomly and you have half a second to react thats usually not your fault BUT if you for example saw that there was a school bus dropping kids off and then you hit a child running across the road theres a large chance that theyre gonna charge you. Of course in europe you have to put like 30 hours into theory and then a lot of driving lessons to get a license while in the usa you basically get a drivers license instantly and nobody gives a fuck so thats why people dont know the rules...
To add, in the Netherlands, known for it's stellar bike infrastructure it's exactly with actions like this that they reclaimed their cities from being purely car oriented.
That's also because bike usage is encoded in legislation.
If you hit a cyclist with a car you are almost always considered liable. It needs a lot of proof to prove that is the cyclists fault.
Guess what, that makes people very careful around bikes.
The US license comes with the fruit loops.
one could very well argue that it's still your fault if you hit someone who unexpectedly jumps out, if you cannot stop in time for such a thing you are driving too fast.
It's like sprinting right past a corner and then insisting it's not your fault when you inevitably run into a person who walks out from behind the corner. You fucking slow down when approaching a place like that, then speed back up when you are not longer liable to hit people.
"Everyone except me is crazy."
The irony
Whenever I've been on a Critical Mass ride, we've always had designated "corkers", people whose job it was to block traffic with blockading/dancing/whatever while the others continued onward. Without people doing that, you run the risk of this sort of carbrained nonsense.
Something else that happened on mine was that as soon as we hear sirens, we drop the mass protest and prioritize making a path for emergency vehicles to get through.
"Dangerous to drivers"
Because you're going to give yourself an aneurysm over a minor inconvenience? You're in a giant suit of armor. You could hit every single one of those cyclists without sustaining even a scratch.
If the cyclists were actually dangerous to drivers, do you think the diver would be accelerating aggressively towards them?
Confused Portlander here. Why are these bikers fully clothed?
After last years was cancelled, I wasn't sure if was happening this year. Apparently, a split in the org means there will be two this year.
I would expect Umbrella to sponsor zombie walks rather than this.
And ignoring a lot of traffic laws?
It's a protest. Showing how dangerous the streets are to cyclists (and how many cyclists use the roads) is the message. A protest that challenges law and inconveniences people peacefully is how they garner attention (hopefully as a prelude to change and improvements).
So yeah, ignoring a lot of traffic laws.
She definitely should have either stopped or gone a different route, but it is incredibly dangerous to cycle head onto incoming motor traffic. Not really a great look for the cyclists.
Better off staying in the correct lane but hogging it so vehicles had no choice but to stay behind.
I'm with you. I get this is a protest, but I don't protest gun violence against kids by parading them down a firing range. Taking up the whole road can result in you getting hurt, it doesn't matter what should be our what your ideals are. It's a road for cars and behaving like this increases the chance that someone gets hurt.
On top of that this does what every protest that interrupts traffic does, makes people dislike you and your cause.
It's functionally identical. The lane is occupied. Motorists cannot enter it, whether the cyclists are facing them or not.
It is not.
Cars follow the rules of traffic. This means you know basically what they will do. These people are just a mob. Look at how many of those bikes just cross solid lines. This is no where near the same. We can't make progress if we start acting irrationally.
Also, cars don't drive on the wrong side of the road into traffic and through red lights.
It's not functionally identical, the function of the right lane is to move traffic in the opposite direction to the left. It would be absolute carnage if every other vehicle decided to disregard the rules of the road and use any lane they want because it would make it theirs.
Of course the traffic in their own lane has to stop when others are breaking the rules of the road as you don't want to hurt anyone, but it's still dangerous and stupid to ride a bike into oncoming traffic.
Yes the bicycleist are wrong and are only hurting the cause. What if the lady had to get to work with no orher way, or what the hell they do if there was emergency that ambulance needed access. Riding bike on wrong side of the road just makes them assholes. If you don't know its a protest it ineffective. Besides protesting late at night is also dumb. This isn't a protest, just bicycles wanting to be dicks.
or what the hell they do if there was emergency that ambulance needed access
I'm guessing they would get out of the way?
It's a protest not a rally.
Be glad they're not carrying bricks.
lots of people in this thread that don't understand how protests work.
While she is clearly a dumbass for not just parking and waiting, why is the bike ride taking up all of the lanes in both directions? Was the street blocked off and this lady ignored it?
Why was there an oncoming car in her lane?
This really needs context.
The OP has some context but Lemmy is bad about showing the text included with a media post so it's easy to miss. The OP states it's a "critical mass" protest where large numbers of cyclists reclaim the street to demand better bicycle infrastructure
I figured that was happening, which is why I updated the title to explicitly state it's a Critical Mass event
I have no official context. If I had to guess this was some kind of organized night bike event. There were multiple cars on the road so likely not a closed course thing, probably organized only on social media. The car on the wrong side of the road was probably trying to go around the cyclists. The cyclist were likely in the wrong, but as a driver she definitely should have turned off of that street and gone around.
Not sure how she could turn off and go around when she has no idea why there is a massive amount of bikes, where they are coming from, or where they are going. Going around requires more information than someone surprised by a massive number of surprise bikes would have.
I'm not opposed to the idea, and I do think just stopping and waiting it out is the best option. She was wrong to just drive forward through the crowd of bikes, but maybe she hoped she would get past the mass of bikes faster?
But expecting someone to 'just go around' is pretty dismissive of someone's confusion when completely surrounded in a situation they don't understand. Like what if she just needed to turn left and go two blocks?
The context is if the lane ahead of you is blocked you do NOT drive directly into it.
You do ride a bike directly into it though!
The video originally had a vague title and zero context, which is why I asked for some.
Idiots in cars, idiots on bikes. Hell yeah I'm pro bikes but setting a wheel on incoming lane? Yeaah.. no thanks, I'm fine
In the bike party near me, we take over the traffic lane but not the oncoming lane.
Maybe that's why bike party split off from critical mass
ITT: confounded folks who live in areas where Critical Mass events don't take place.
And recording while driving...
I agree that more bike lanes are needed and also cyclists need to be treated with the respect any life demands.
But flipping off a driver or generally blaming people who drive is fighting the wrong fight. I drive a car, I also cycle, being in a car doesn't make me anti-bike.
Fight the government - flip off the government - that is refusing to put in safe infrastructure for the bikes (with protests like this, of course. But don't flip off the driver, at best it does nothing, at worst it widens the gap between both groups and makes it easier to dehumanize and villianize the cyclists).
This isn't about flipping off a driver. This is flipping off a bad driver who doesn't understand that what they're doing is unsafe. They're flipping off bad behaviour.
Fuck bike lanes. We need to dedicate a percent of roads to be car free
It doesn't matter if a protest is legal. The word you're looking for is "non violent"
it's only non-violent until someone in a car drives into it tho (good)
Imo it looks remarkably safe as long as we ignore the person in the car driving into oncoming traffic.
With her smartphone out, recording.
No but see youre responsible for all the actions of people who want to kill you.
The bikes in the oncoming lane are safe? C'mon what kind of joke. Blocking streets is one thing but they're actually moving forward straight on in oncoming traffic, in what world is that safe?
This looks like Miami. If it is.. critical mass usually has a police force in the loop they do usually to stop people driving right through the crowd. The loop is posted online about a week before and there is always police presence
Probably LA? Looks similar but police less likely to beat the shit out of white people on bicycles
This is a CM?
I have never been to a CM with oncoming lane blocked (or in this case - not really blocked).
Also where are the corkers?
Where I live, critical mass is legal. Bikes can go on the street and we have a law that allows multiple vehicles that move as one to be treated like one vehicle.
Where is it legal to drive in the oncoming lane?
The organizers will inform the city that a critical mass protest is taking place, the city will inform the police and they will cordon off the route. If there are enough people talking part in the protest, the public order authorities will have no other choice - thus the name critical mass. The right to protest takes precedence over the right to drive this specific route.
Depends on where you are.
In most places you can certainly drive in the oncoming lane to overtake things in your own lane or avoid obstacles. You wouldn't do it if something was coming the other way though, unless you really like the taste of airbag.
As a Bicycle commuter... there's plenty of "Am I the Asshole?" that needs to go around here.
I understand the cyclists are treating this as a protest, but unless the road is closed, get the hell out of the oncoming lane. You're not doing anything here other than confirming the drivers bias that you're the problem.
As for the driver, just fucking STOP until they pass. Is the risk of you hitting someone worth the few minutes that pulling over out of the way costs you? The driver's pissing and moaning on the video is some self-entitled bull shit.
I obey the traffic laws. I'm apparently one of the only people in my town that has read them. I like riding my bike. I like my town. People Hollar at me from their cars. I get called "removed" every second day. For taking a bike ride.
Can’t see it; “failed to load media”.
For all of the unequivocally civic commenters on this thread, ask yourself this: would you be defending someone driving through a protest if the protesters weren't on bikes?
I'm all for bike activism and fuck cars. But what they're doing is illegal and the driver likely had no idea what's happening. If they weren't riding the wrong way, then everything would have been perfectly legal (at least here in Germany). As long as the cyclists form a mass, they're considered one long vehicle and can even pass red lights that way, as long as the first person did so with a green light. But riding on the wrong side of the road and expecting everyone to know what is going on is kind of a dick move and just brings more hate on cyclists.
Running people over is also illegal. A defensive driver would stop and wait for the road obstruction to clear, or take a wide-berth, safe alternative path around it.
Why can't the bikers stay in the right lanes. What about anyone walking, get out the way and fuck them too.
I’m all for bike activism and fuck cars.
proceeds to selectively ignore their activism and promote car centric infrastructure and viewpoints
As long as the cyclists form a mass, they’re considered one long vehicle and can even pass red lights that way, as long as the first person did so with a green light.
That's awesome. I love that.
But that's not the situation here, so already what you consider tolerable behavior and valid protest is law breaking in the context of the video. Surely you can see that reasonable people can also disagree on whether crossing the centre line is valid protest.
No idea what's happening? Who doesn't know what critical mass is? Even if you didn't, if you're so cousin-fucking stupid you can't look at this situation and see that this is obviously an event you shouldn't drive into, then you should be locked in a rubber room and not be allowed near sharp objects, let alone be allowed to drive a car. You're too stupid too be allowed in public.
Meanwhile, in Germany: §1 StVO
pretty sure that's true everywhere that has signed the vienna convention on road traffic, so like 86 countries
Meanwhile, in Germany they think people can read german
StVO § 1: Das Auto des Menschen ist unantastbar
Protesting the lack of safety for riders by being unsafe riders? I don't think the best way to convince the public that cyclists can be safely integrated into traffic is to purposefully create dangerous situations.
Ah yes, the inevitable “protests should only happen when it’s convenient for everyone and 100% approved by the authorities” comment.
Yeah, but this is a little like protesting against gun violence by juggling loaded handguns and putting everything on the safeties working perfectly. You don't protest an unsafe amusement park by going on the unsafe rides standing up.
Point being, most people would probably not want to serve as the example of what not to do. Most rules/regulations are written in blood, but most people aren't volunteering to be the ink to pen those regulations.
What is the best way?
They could try attending local government meetings that decide city ordinances, or protest outside of the city government buildings?
Are people on this thread really that ignorant that I need to explain how local government works and how the people trying to get home from work in this disaster are not magically going to be on the side of these criminals trying to cause accidents?
Funny how it's a problem when cyclists start acting like drivers
There is exactly 2 persons creating dangerous situations in that video and none of them are on bikes.
She sure is.
bicyclists are taking up all of the street
It’s not legal
It is absolutely legal. The driver's manual for my state:
Bicycles are considered vehicles when on roadways. Bicyclists are required and expected to follow the same rules of the road as motorized vehicles. As a motorist, you should know that a bicyclist has the same rights, privileges, and responsibilities as you. Respect for each other will aid in the smooth flow of traffic.
Unless there's a bicycle lane, bicycles get the full lane of regular streets like any other vehicle. On highways, they stay close to the right boundary. Bicycles are passed with abundant clearance.
Edit: Full street? Nevermind.
Bicyclists are required and expected to follow the same rules of the road as motorized vehicles.
Do you also live somewhere that cars can legally cross a double yellow and travel in the wrong direction down the roadway?
I mean Ive been a part of many of these in Orlando and the point was to never cross into incoming traffic. So she sort of has a point. That is super dangerous. The idea isn't to give people who hate cyclist more fuel to hate cyclist. Have respect for all types of traffic.
Honestly, this was fine. She went through slowly and she's understandably annoyed. She doesn't her car being hit.
This will make people hate bicyclists more than they already do. Maybe the bicyclists should be more weary of a 2 ton vehicle and safeguard their own lives. And stay on bike paths. And the bike lanes.
One thing I hate is when there's a dedicated bike lane/path and the bicyclists are driving in the middle of the road instead with the 2 ton+ vehicles and then wonder why people hate them.
Maybe the bikers should be as considerate as the drivers.
Go ride a bike.
I need to repair my bike. I do enjoy a bike ride every once in a while. But I do stop at 4 way stop intersections and yield to cars, because I know I'd lose in a game of chicken.
Too bad for those losers who hate bicyclists I guess. They are trash people anyway
How about they take this up with the officials who can actually make a difference in bike safety and quit making life worse for people who just want to get home?
Go bike around City Hall if you want to "raise awareness." All you're doing here is pissing people off.
People who are downvoting literally never leave their house. You are entirely correct. This is an issue of local policy, and that is something that can actually be changed by individuals choosing to be more active in their local politics. It just requires some organization and a coordinated political effort.
Cycling down the street will not only not achieve anything, but it's also putting both drivers and cyclists in danger. If an accident does happen, it's not going to be pinned on the driver because they didn't do anything wrong. Instead, whatever these cyclists were trying to achieve is going to be scrutinized due to their recklessness.
How brain dead does a person have to be to see an entire parade in front of them and think, "this can't be some organized event, I must just be able to drive right through here!" Main character syndrome. Or more likely, a sociopath just looking to murder someone.
Here's an idea. Find another fucking route. They plan these events, publish the routes in advance, have a police presence there, and place them in areas where they won't cut off people's only means of getting somewhere.
Do you ever find yourself in this situation? Here's how to handle it without being a fucking moron:
<your city>
" critical mass route <today's date.>"Is that really that hard? Or are you someone who is so concrete sequential that you have one and only one route you can drive, and any other route home will break your mind? What if a sink hole opened up on the road you normally take home. Would you just blindly drive right into it because you this is the route you take home, and damn it if you're going to let anything stop you?
Trying to pin this on just one group of people won't ever achieve anything. The whole point is to raise awareness and possibly have some fun while doing it. That woman who brazenly ignored the cops and recorded it on her phone while driving? Totally oblivious asshole who missed the entire point.
The entire name "critical mass" is based on the thinking that if there are enough cyclists on the road at once, then drivers wouldnt dare to drive through them. They organize with the city (a date and path are set and publicized) to force their bike traffic through town with the ultimate goal of trying to improve safety for cyclists.
Interestingly enough, your entire argument can be wrapped up with a bow that neatly provides justification for their protest. That is some special kind of woosh.
Nah… the asshole driver could literally have waited 30 seconds…
You don’t know what you’re talking about… sorry mate
I don't like cars, but this is fucking bonkers. Trapping people in place isn't 'protesting', it's being a twat.
All the people claiming that this is a legitimate protest surely understand that the car driver was only 'counterprotesting', right?
Only protest where no one is inconvenienced and you can easily be ignored, mkay?
What's fucking bonkers is car infrastructure. Highways trap me in place all the time when I want to talk a a walk or cycle.
Trapping people in place isn’t ‘protesting’,
Have you ever seen any protests? How do you think they work lol
FFS we close our streets for less important things like construction, marathons, parades.
Oh. Is that how protests work? I am a non-driver who supports initiatives like making cities car-free, increasing public transport, improving cyclist/pedestrian infrastructure. Yet, I am now blocking this community because it's clearly full of attention-seekers craving a power-trip.
This 'protest' makes me support the drivers, not the cyclists. I don't understand how this silly idea came about that making people hate you somehow builds support for a cause.
A critical mass to be massively critical of the critical masses. I'm certain folks who see or hear of such protests are going to become very sympathetic to the cyclist cause. Am I doing the mass criticism thing right?
It's a nice way to blow off steam and feel important, but I suspect it polarises against rather than towards the desired cause. Shame really since it looks fun!
The point of a critical mass ride is to demonstrate that the cyclists are going to assert their right to the street whether car drivers like it or not, so drivers' choices are to either support cycling infrastructure or stay stuck behind them forever. Not having cyclists use the road isn't an option.
It doesn't matter whether the drivers like the cyclists; the drivers must be made to realize that it's in their own best interest to capitulate and demand bike infrastructure in order to get the cyclists out of their way.
That seems somewhat foolish - a driver delayed by such an event is liable to be angry and complain rather than feel that surrender is necessary.
If other posts in this thread are correct (let's walk out on that limb), and politicians try to meet the demand of drivers over cyclists, then this is more likely to lead to stricter laws against cyclists as a result of drivers issuing (very justified in this case) complaints.
An effective protest wins both sympathy and ire, and leads to more voices calling out for your cause - this one just inspires ire. It doesn't unequivocally paint the picture "vote for cycle infrastructure or else", it more emphatically implies "too many cyclists will add to my commute, just look how bad it is now, we need less of them, so I will now vote against anything for cyclists".
Just to point out, for the record, I'm in the third camp - pedestrians. I've seen drivers dangerously overtake, I've seen cyclists randomly pull out forcing emergency stops, and I've seen both put pedestrians at risk with self righteous indifference. My take home from the post is "more legislation is needed for cyclists using the road inappropriately", not "we need more cycle lanes" and definitely not "we need more shared space sidewalks".
Well, that was a mass of criticism for a critical mass; one wonders if the critical masses will mass against this criticism or perhaps such masses will critically reflect instead and engage in mass critical thinking!
Or go like Canada and just remove biking or making it illegal. You're viewpoint seems clouded.
Sure, fuck cars and all that, but jesus that is a stupid way to protest. Being very squishy and in low visibility (because it's night), riding slowly while blocking all lanes. Sure, I support their cause, they probably DO need better bicycle infrastructure, but ffs, don't put your fucking life on the line like this. All it takes is 1 lunatic who roadrages, and you're dead.
You're right. It's a stupid way to protest. Instead we should be setting fire to cars parked in bike lanes.
Honestly. Assuming you make sure people aren't actually in the cars before lightning them on fire, that would be a much safer, and much more efficient way to protest. No one is going to park their car in bike lanes if there's a high chance they'll come back to a charred mess.
Dows it work tho, im a simple man, anything inconveninces me directly and im against them, have had multiple hotels in the last two years where they protested with bullhorns and sirens loudly from 2am to 8am every night, they ruined my sleep and expect me to support them? Im not able to get a refund or swap hotels, in the future im still not planning ahead and getting the first available decent hotel near the location close to the time of the event. It happened multiple times at different locations/cities, not recording them or helping their cause when they actively ruined the 3 vacations I have a year by not letting me sleep.
Aw poor you.
Nah poor them, they didn't get their jobs back? Their conditions didn't improve, their business wasn't effected, life moved on and if I ever have a ballot infront of me with a measure to prevent protests at certain times in redidential areas where ppl sleep, im not going to vote the anarchist way now that I've had it effect me negatively. They looked out for themsleves and actively fucked me over, so why should I be a saint and do the opposite for them.