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Chicago Critical Mass rant
Hi everyone,
I'm a long time lurker and very infrequent poster, but am in rant mode and need an outlet. Last night, being the last Friday of the month, CM had its usual ride. Prior to last night, I was largely non committal about the ride, even though I have been delayed while driving a car during the ride window. I figured, I'm non - pedestrian traffic, they are non- pedestrian traffic, so be it. Last night changed that though. While trying to cross a street with the green light (on foot and walking my recuperating dog) that CM had corked, I encountered an amazing amount of resistance and low-level abuse. I had one woman swerve toward at my dog and cut back at the last minute, telling me to get out of the way. A couple people spat at me. saying "it's raining, it's raining". While standing there, still trying to inch across to get to the park, so that my frantic dog could relieve itself, I pretty calmly said,(all things considered) "Guys, I'm not in a car - I'm just walking my dog". The reply, almost in chorus, " F**& you". I was pretty dumbfounded, and had the group not been so huge, would have probably done something very stupid. Reaching the sidewalk, I had nowhere to walk, since it was absolutely filled with folks on bikes, often times perpendicular to the sidewalk itself. Several "Excuse me-s" had zero effect in getting me through the crowd, but "Pedestrian trying to get through" opened up a lane wide enough to navigate. As a cyclist, I hate it when motorists don't respect my right to be on the road, or when drivers get off with a slap on the wrist for hitting a cyclist, but I really don't think it's about the cm-ers wanting equality, unless by equality, they mean the rights to do and be all the things they are railing against... rant mode off. Chuck |
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#2
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Chicago Critical Mass rant
CM wrote:
Hi everyone, I'm a long time lurker and very infrequent poster, but am in rant mode and need an outlet. Last night, being the last Friday of the month, CM had its usual ride. Prior to last night, I was largely non committal about the ride, even though I have been delayed while driving a car during the ride window. I figured, I'm non - pedestrian traffic, they are non- pedestrian traffic, so be it. Last night changed that though. While trying to cross a street with the green light (on foot and walking my recuperating dog) that CM had corked, I encountered an amazing amount of resistance and low-level abuse. I had one woman swerve toward at my dog and cut back at the last minute, telling me to get out of the way. A couple people spat at me. saying "it's raining, it's raining". While standing there, still trying to inch across to get to the park, so that my frantic dog could relieve itself, I pretty calmly said,(all things considered) "Guys, I'm not in a car - I'm just walking my dog". The reply, almost in chorus, " F**& you". I was pretty dumbfounded, and had the group not been so huge, would have probably done something very stupid. Reaching the sidewalk, I had nowhere to walk, since it was absolutely filled with folks on bikes, often times perpendicular to the sidewalk itself. Several "Excuse me-s" had zero effect in getting me through the crowd, but "Pedestrian trying to get through" opened up a lane wide enough to navigate. As a cyclist, I hate it when motorists don't respect my right to be on the road, or when drivers get off with a slap on the wrist for hitting a cyclist, but I really don't think it's about the cm-ers wanting equality, unless by equality, they mean the rights to do and be all the things they are railing against... rant mode off. I few months ago I picked up a friend at the downtown (SD) train station. Riding thru our "Little Italy" section I discovered a CM ride was going on when about 4 or 5 different riders SWERVED DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF ME as I was slowly rolling thru a green light. Morons and thugs. Hope the cops arrest some soon. BS |
#3
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Chicago Critical Mass rant
On Jun 30, 8:34 am, "CM" wrote:
Hi everyone, I'm a long time lurker and very infrequent poster, but am in rant mode and need an outlet. Last night, being the last Friday of the month, CM had its usual ride. Prior to last night, I was largely non committal about the ride, even though I have been delayed while driving a car during the ride window. I figured, I'm non - pedestrian traffic, they are non- pedestrian traffic, so be it. Last night changed that though. While trying to cross a street with the green light (on foot and walking my recuperating dog) that CM had corked, I encountered an amazing amount of resistance and low-level abuse. I had one woman swerve toward at my dog and cut back at the last minute, telling me to get out of the way. A couple people spat at me. saying "it's raining, it's raining". While standing there, still trying to inch across to get to the park, so that my frantic dog could relieve itself, I pretty calmly said,(all things considered) "Guys, I'm not in a car - I'm just walking my dog". The reply, almost in chorus, " F**& you". I was pretty dumbfounded, and had the group not been so huge, would have probably done something very [snip] I've tried CM twice in Chicago. It is what it is--a gathering of self righteous bicycle terrorists. The bigger the number, the braver and ruder they get. It's no different than a rabid PETA protest, or Klan rally, or right to lifers getting all lathered up and killing abortion doctors. It's a rolling riot of hysteria. |
#4
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Chicago Critical Mass rant
On Sat, 30 Jun 2007 17:12:50 +0000, landotter wrote:
I've tried CM twice in Chicago. It is what it is--a gathering of self righteous bicycle terrorists. Add 'em to the "one-percenters." I have often wondered how many CM riders ride only on CM days and only to be assholes. -- Luigi de Guzman http://ouij.livejournal.com |
#5
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Chicago Critical Mass rant
From your lips to G-d's ears.
I call this the ironic law of activism: the loudest proponents of an idea are often its least desirable faces. ..max learned it the hard way, in Chicago. |
#6
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Chicago Critical Mass rant
In article ,
"CM" wrote: Hi everyone, I'm a long time lurker and very infrequent poster, but am in rant mode [...] rant mode off. Chuck if you don't mind terribly, i'd like to forward the full article to chi.general with headers intact. ..max |
#7
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Chicago Critical Mass rant
On Jun 30, 1:03 pm, Luigi de Guzman wrote:
On Sat, 30 Jun 2007 17:12:50 +0000, landotter wrote: I've tried CM twice in Chicago. It is what it is--a gathering of self righteous bicycle terrorists. Add 'em to the "one-percenters." I have often wondered how many CM riders ride only on CM days and only to be assholes. -- Luigi de Guzmanhttp://ouij.livejournal.com Some of the long term riders (and map / derailer writers) are getting tired of the drunks and rude riders of the last two years also. So they have scheduled the 10th anniversery to be the last Chicago Critical Mass. In October, the Evanston Critical Mass will ride from Daley Plaza on the last Friday of the Month. http://chicagocriticalmass.org/ http://listserv.uic.edu/archives/chi-crit-mass.html |
#8
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Chicago Critical Mass rant
In article ,
Luigi de Guzman wrote: On Sat, 30 Jun 2007 17:12:50 +0000, landotter wrote: I've tried CM twice in Chicago. It is what it is--a gathering of self righteous bicycle terrorists. Add 'em to the "one-percenters." I have often wondered how many CM riders ride only on CM days and only to be assholes. Shouldn't matter. It's up to the other CM riders to keep them in check. If no other cyclist was willing to smack them with a frame pump when they started to verbally assault and spit on pedestrians, then the whole group is full of assholes. A misguided Us-vs-Them attitude is at the root of so many problems it isn't funny. -- My personal UDP list: 127.0.0.1, 4ax.com, buzzardnews.com, googlegroups.com, heapnode.com, localhost, teranews.com, x-privat.org |
#9
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Chicago Critical Mass rant
Luigi de Guzman wrote:
On Sat, 30 Jun 2007 17:12:50 +0000, landotter wrote: I've tried CM twice in Chicago. It is what it is--a gathering of self righteous bicycle terrorists. Add 'em to the "one-percenters." I have often wondered how many CM riders ride only on CM days and only to be assholes. Seattle Mass seems pretty mellow. I'm not a regular attendee, but I ended up going last Friday. It was pretty relaxed, lots of people, lots of dinging bells and honking (bike) horns. I saw people with kids and lots of smiles. Part of this is probably Seattle PDs relaxed attitude towards Mass. They've stated unofficially that corking helps Mass get out of the city center faster and causes less disruption than if you had dozens of clots of cyclists. They believe that if they really started cracking down on Mass, the people who come next month would be a much uglier crowd. That said, they were flyering mass telling people to please not be jerks or they would start having to arrest people. This is because some geniuses decided to take Mass up the Alaskan Way Viaduct last month. Imbeciles (the cyclists - not the cops). There was a much larger police presence than usual, but everything seemed to go smoothly. We ended up at Greenlake eventually with no incidents (that I've heard of). I appreciate the Police going out of their way to communicate why they had an increased presence there. They could have been much less forthright - see NYC or others for good examples. -- Dane Buson - "Washington could not tell a lie; Nixon could not tell the truth; Reagan cannot tell the difference." - Mort Sahl |
#10
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Chicago Critical Mass rant
On Jul 2, 2:17 pm, Dane Buson wrote:
Luigi de Guzman wrote: On Sat, 30 Jun 2007 17:12:50 +0000, landotter wrote: I've tried CM twice in Chicago. It is what it is--a gathering of self righteous bicycle terrorists. Add 'em to the "one-percenters." I have often wondered how many CM riders ride only on CM days and only to be assholes. Seattle Mass seems pretty mellow. I'm not a regular attendee, but I ended up going last Friday. It was pretty relaxed, lots of people, lots of dinging bells and honking (bike) horns. I saw people with kids and lots of smiles. Part of this is probably Seattle PDs relaxed attitude towards Mass. They've stated unofficially that corking helps Mass get out of the city center faster and causes less disruption than if you had dozens of clots of cyclists. They believe that if they really started cracking down on Mass, the people who come next month would be a much uglier crowd. That said, they were flyering mass telling people to please not be jerks or they would start having to arrest people. This is because some geniuses decided to take Mass up the Alaskan Way Viaduct last month. Imbeciles (the cyclists - not the cops). There was a much larger police presence than usual, but everything seemed to go smoothly. We ended up at Greenlake eventually with no incidents (that I've heard of). I appreciate the Police going out of their way to communicate why they had an increased presence there. They could have been much less forthright - see NYC or others for good examples. It is good to see that some police forces remember that they are there to serve the people and not to rule them. -- Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia The weather is here, wish you were beautiful |
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