There was one in Philly last year where everyone was nude.

But generally, bicyclists often piss me off. They have no concept of red lights, one-way streets, or why a sidewalk is called a sideWALK.

Portland has one all the time too, and those idiots you posted the picture of look like what happens thousands of times a day here. If bicyclists can follow the rules like they ate supposed to I can tolerate them, but I rarely, if ever see any the do it right.

While I agree that it is a dumb thing to do -- It also should be free from assault -- especially from the police.

Amy may have blogged about this a few weeks back.

Critical Mass are big here too - and although I was once a keen cyclist (honesty forbids me from putting that in the present tense alas), they piss me off. It's not the way to get sympathy for your cause - their tactics are stupid and counterproductive. I probably shouldn't have put it that way to the girl I was dating who was wearing their T-shirt.

We don't have the the critical mass for Critical Mass here in Syracuse, but there are enough cycling jerks out there that I find it hard to sympathize. There is a bridge over the railroad tracks on the way to work that requires cyclists to walk their bikes, but they are too good to follow the rules. So cars can just drive at the 10 mph these road warriors can manage uphill, after they've blown through the red light.

Every once in a while, karma catches the real jerks, like the now dead guy who couldn't be bothered by a stop sign on the Syracuse University campus.

When there is a line of single cyclists I'll hang halfway into the oncoming traffic lane just in case. When there is three of the assholes riding side by side I like to honk as I pass them

See, this is EXACTLY the sort of thing that makes me want one of those "heat ray" guns for the top of my car.

You want to bicycle in front of me? That's fine. I won't run you over. But you're going to feel really, really, really hot if you stay there. Your call, Captain Spandex.

http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/city-news/the-american-civil-liberties-u/

It also should be free from assault -- especially from the police.

L.A. style.

The problem w/ these protests is that they just remind people of what a nuisance bicyclists are.

Hey, look!

All of a sudden, you're right there with the Hummer driver!

"These eco-nuts really take the cake, trying to tell me what and how to drive!" - Hummer owner, regarding Holy Hybrid Driver; "ordinary people", regarding bicyclists.

Often, "rude" depends on the point of view. In your picture, I see 8 people getting where they're going without burning a drop of fuel. Not one drop.

Yeah, these protests are counter productive. I almost got pummeled by these bastards when I tried to walk across the street (on a green light). Eat a dick, Critical Mass. And you too, Burning Man.

The Critical Mass of idiots is an annual thorn in the side here, too. But even without it, the feud between cyclists and cars is an ongoing thing.

Actually, I think most of our cyclists are good. As usual, it's the bad ones that I remember.

And rudeness has nothing to do with saving energy. They could prove their point without incurring the hatred of a single person. Not one single person.

Only in America could a simple bicycle be turned in to an instrument of sanctimony.

But did you know that carbon output for bicycle riding is comparable to that of an automobile on a mileage basis if the bicyclist is a carnivore? It's about a 1/3. Delays imposed on auto and bus traffic by bicycles further close the gap. Car pooling alone can make the comparison equivalent. Really the most low-carbon mode of transport involves a combination of public transport and walking. So these bike zealots are part of the problem, not the solution.

Also you'll notice that even very green cities don't have a lot of dedicated bike capacity downtown. Bikes just aren't efficient in these traffic patterns. They accelerate too slowly, and generally bog up traffic. Plus bicyclists are pricks and no one want to share the streets with them.

Seeing that photo makes me want to weld a big cow-catcher onto the front of my truck. I'm all for bicyclists using the roads, but they have to realize that when they pulling a stunt like this just pisses people off.

This discussion reminds me of an incident I had several years ago involving a bicyclist. I was driving toward an intersection where I was going to turn right. On my way to the intersection, I passed a bicyclist who was riding on the right hand side. Right when I got to the light, it turned from red to green. I'm so used to bicyclists who suddenly speed up when a light turns green, I expected her to just run right past me as I was turning, so I stopped and waited for her. After a few seconds, she still hadn't passed me. I looked back, and she was at a complete stop, waiting for me to make my turn. I remember getting mad at her, but later realized that anger was unjustified, because she did the right thing. The ironic thing is that I got mad over her proper behavior when I would have been just fine with a jerk cyclist endangering their life as I was trying to turn.

So this isn't about bicycling, but about the behavior of a small number of activists who ride bicycles.

Let's be clear about that.

As we are clear that there is no special gift possessed by motorists.

It's about people on bicycles who do dangerous things that require drivers to slow down or wait or go into the other lane to pass them.

I used to ride a bicycle to college until I got hit by a car. Now I drive. And even though I wasn't hurt badly (thank goodness for bike helmets!), I get mad when I see a bicyclist doing something that seems deliberately stupid. To be fair, I think a lot of them are very careful, but some act like they own the road.

In your picture, I see 8 people getting where they're going without burning a drop of fuel. Not one drop.

In Florida, at least two of those people are in violation of the law. Actually, all of them are in violation of the law. Side-by-side riding? illegal. Not all the way over to the right hand side? also illegal.

As we are clear that there is no special gift possessed by motorists.

Other than paying the taxes to build the roads, you're right.

My friend is an EMT and they call bikers "organ donors". Many are very responsible, but the ones who aren't put everybody, and mostly themselves, at risk.

Of course they're inconveniencing cars and breaking the law. That's the whole point of Critical Mass - to temporarily take over the roads for cyclists as a way to make drivers feel the way cyclists do the rest of the time. I don't think gestures like this help help causes. But making things a pain for others is entirely the point.

LA's traffic is bad. All are punished! Bicyclists, pedestrians, and motorists!

Seriously, Every category above is capable of the most incredible behavior, which I witness most days.

Sadly must assume everyone around me is crazy. Glad people can't hear me screaming in my car with the windows up. :P

This event is very typical of the "I don't have to follow laws or act courteously" attitude of some bicyclists out there. A few years ago, I lived in the heart of a mid-sized city. I walked to nearly all of the stores and restaurants in my neighborhood. I can't count the number of times that I was hit by bicyclists (nearly always hipsters) who were speeding down the sidewalk with no regard for the pedestrians. They never obeyed traffic lights or stop signs, either. However, I bet these same people would get really upset if I drove my motorcycle (another two-wheeled and fuel-efficient vehicle) in the same fashion as they rode their bicycles.

As I recall, there have been some incidents where they surrounded cars and beat on them when the nasty motorists didn't show sufficient respect(i.e. "YOU GET OUT OF OUR WAY!! THESE ARE OUR STREETS!!!") to the Mass morons.

Good thing they only do it in the places they do; try that around here and some will wind up wearing tire tracks.

to temporarily take over the roads for cyclists as a way to make drivers feel the way cyclists do the rest of the time.

They wouldn't feel that way if they weren't riding on streets that were never designed for them. That's the real issue w/ urban biking in highly trafficked areas. Auto and bicycle traffic flows don't mix. Bike and pedestrian flows don't mix either. Bikes aren't well suited for densely trafficked urban areas.

If you want direct evidence of this, visit an urban center in a country where bikes and cars do commonly mix on the streets, such as in many Asian countries. It's a disaster. Once they become a significant proportion of traffic, everything has to slow to the speed of the slowest bikes. That's why many of these countries have banned bikes in urban centers, due to the traffic problems they cause.

The funny thing is that the CM guys would hate a world in which they got their way. They wouldn't be able to zip along the streets, they'd be walking their bikes through miles of slow, snaking traffic, and all the resources they want to save would be getting burned up and emitted by all the idling cars.

This kind of stuff is why I approve of bike lanes on roads: the cyclists will stay the frack out of my way!

Is it also acceptable for six people walking really slowly to hold hands across the sidewalk so nobody can get by?

That's something I had to put up with in college: skinny, ectomorphic me would be in an actual hurry to get to class, and three large frat brothers would be dawdling side-by-side down the sidewalk, making it difficult to pass.

They wouldn't feel that way if they weren't riding on streets that were never designed for them. That's the real issue w/ urban biking in highly trafficked areas. Auto and bicycle traffic flows don't mix

You are probably right about the bike/car traffic flows not mixing. But bikes are usually regulated for traffic purposes as though they were motor vehicles in the U.S.. When on a bike, if you obey the law, you signal a left turn and use that lane (legally). If you don't want to get hit by a car, you skirt the law and turn when things are clear.

I ride a bike some for fun and exercise. I don't like the critical mass approach. the fact that our laws don't distinguish between bikes and cars helps encourage bad behavior by cyclists.

It's too bad the California Vehicle Code section regarding caravanning doesn't apply in residential or business districts -- "21705. Motor vehicles being driven outside of a business or residence district in a caravan or motorcade, whether or not towing other vehicles, shall be so operated as to allow sufficient space and in no event less than 100 feet between each vehicle or combination of vehicles so as to enable any other vehicle to overtake or pass." Bicycles are not exempt from this section.

Many times I've had to tailgate the hogs of the road when there are scores of bikers running together and pressure 'em until they finally yield to my passing attempt. Bicycle riders also fail to stop at red lights and stop signs all the time.

It's really a kick to shut your engine off and turn it back on fast with the throttle floored when you pass the cyclist, as then you get a nice loud backfire and scare the shit out of 'em.

but they have to realize that when they pulling a stunt like this just pisses people off

That's the point.

I heard, a few years ago, about CM bicyclists surrounding and battering a minivan driven by some out-of-town woman who dared drive on the bicyclists' street, one night in San Francisco. Of course, the CM yahoos don't announce their routes in advance...that would be "against the spirit" of their stinkin' protests. Even though the woman was screaming "There's children in there! There's children in there!" (She'd just come from bringing a bunch of her kids to a friend's birthday party in San Fran) the a$$holes on bicycles kept it right up.

It would have served them damned well right if that minivan had been loaded, instead, with a bunch of out-of-town Hells Angels in San Fran on a visit to their bros in the local chapter. There'd have been blood in the scuppers...and the Angels know how to keep a feud alive. Next Critical Mass could be met by a whole bunch of them, along with their allied clubs, and the spandex-clad sh!theads would find out what "stomped into the cracks in the pavement" feels like. And...wonder of wonders!...the police probably wouldn't intervene for quite a wihle. The PDs in a lot of cities are good and sick of CM.

Technomad: in San Francisco, the Critical Mass events are planned in advance and get a police escort.

Police escorts for people clogging the roads as a show of intimidation?

That's what's wrong with SF, in a nutshell.

And, radwaste?

Being rude vs. polite has nothing at all to do with how much fuel you use, or your eco-whatever.

It has to do with your consideration of others - and no, "we're not burning fuel!" is not enough consideration to make up for "we're intentionally blocking every lane just to piss people off".

(And, of course, they are burning fuel by biking; the food to replace those calories is coming in on trucks. And when they slow down vehicles, they make them burn more fuel, too.)

Amy gets mad that eight cyclists slowed her down. Fair enough.

The other day, I tried to go out bicycling at 5pm on a weekday, and thousands and thousands of cars were slowing me down. Man!

They were rude. You are right.

But, they weren't just blocking traffic; they were traffic. And what they did wasn't dangerous. You described Gregg as motoring past them; I hope he did that safely.

In the scale of things though, this is minor. They didn't endanger your life, they slowed you down only slightly, and they did get some (weird, prurient) fun out of what they did.

Now, what about those thousands and thousands of cars that blocked me bicycling the other day? They suck! It's apparently some kind of organized antisocial activity too, since a very similar group of cars shows up on my city's streets at around 5pm every weekday. Critical Ass is, after all, only monthly...

On a less sarcastic or silly note, I just want to say how sad I am for those of you above who are describing retaliating against traffic offenders by endangering their lives and also others who are wishing death on people who have offended you in traffic.

If you did these things in this thread, please stop and think about these activities, the sanctity of human life, and what your role is in, if not protecting it, not willfully destroying it. Don't demean yourself by wishing harm on others who have only incidentally harmed you; it is not good for you. Doing so in public makes you look awful.