Fuck Cars
A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!
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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.
A big part of the problem is that they DON'T do this. If they did then people can plan ahead of time to avoid running into them, and way less people would be annoyed with them. But that's not how they operate, these events aren't protests because they're so disorganized. There's no leadership, no organization, nothing. They also don't give any notification to locals, law enforcement, the media, or their local governments. This why they're considered dangerous, it's because this disorganization puts the cyclists and drivers in harm's way.
Most people who run into them, like the woman in the video, do so without prior warning. They're just going about their day when they're met with a mob of cyclists who are ignoring the established safety laws and blocking traffic. You have no idea where they came from or where they're going. Their unpredictable. Yes, this woman filming and driving is being reckless, but she's not the only one in the video who is.
Too bad I guess. Drivers need to learn to share the road.
Pull over. Wait thirty seconds. Pretty simple
This is an issue of urban planning. Blaming drivers for it is childish.
Drivers are the ones who whine to politicians to stop urban planners from doing their jobs properly.
But that's not true. Drivers aren't a cohesive group. Just about every adult in this country drives. The people who are against more pedestrian development are either NIMBYs or the car lobby.
And why would the infrastructure be planned this way unless drivers have specifically demanded it?
She needed to wait thirty seconds
You complain about one day of bikes being disorganized jerks in one place but you fail to reflect on how the automobile has utterly dominated the structure of all cities and urban areas. I think one is far more disruptive than the other and you're focusing on the wrong.
That's the thing, I actually agree with you and these cyclists. Cars DO take up way too much space and we're way too dependent on them. I 100% support better urban development that's more sustainable and pedestrian friendly. That being said, I don't see things like this as a meaningful way to achieve results. If it was an organized protest that actually gave people a heads up that this would be happening then that's fine, but just randomly forming up cyclist mobs to takeover streets is still dangerous and unnecessary.
Protests have to be disruptive to be heard. If they weren't disruptive, people would ignore them.
Disruptive and dangerous are two different things. Rosa parks sitting at the back of the bus is a disruptive protest, cycling as an unorganized mob into oncoming traffic is dangerous.
Cars aren't disruptive and dangerous are they?
Of course they are, but bad urban development doesn't justify people intentionally creating dangerous situations.
They're creating danger for themselves to make a point. What are you getting on about? The people in cars were not in danger.