Critical Mass

[Soup du Jour]

I was thinking of just throwing this into youtube dump but then I thought the few remaining members of our community might want to generally discuss critical mass and whether or not it is "good".

Below is a video of some guy in brazil who just had enough and decided his time was more valuable than people's health.

I don't know where I stand with these people. I am an avid cyclist and try to commute on my bike whenever it's sunny/warm enough so I don't disagree with the principles of these critical mass'rs. However, causing massive traffic jams and generally pissing people off is probably not the best way to get supported in a cause.

In conclusion, I needed to get away from reading for a minute.

[Bioture]

No... we need to share the road and not do stupid shit like this. More car roads = more bikeable roads, especially if they add lanes. Just because you care about health doesn't mean I don't care about getting my pregnant wife to the hospital.

[Dabram]

i don't really get critical mass.. doesn't seem like you'll gain more respect from drivers at all.. it'll just piss them off and probably confirm their idea that cyclist are assholes who deserve to be run over.. and i doubt anyone (apart from some hipsters) has ever decided to start using a bicycle because of critical mass... to me it just makes the bike seem more of a leftist/hippie thing, while actually the first thing that needs to change is that exact image the bike has in so many countries/cities..


i'm always surprised that in so many major cities (london esp) there's seems to be no respect between drivers/cyclist/pedestrians.. the best thing about holland is prob that we respect each other (probably because everyone drives, cycles and walks from time to time) so we've learned to share the road (a few nutcases aside on both sides obv).. this is why i'm glad i live in holland, doubt i could be a bike messenger anywhere else without a near death escape every other day....

i'm always nice to drivers (esp to buses / taxis / delivery vans etc) so they become nice to me as well (as in don't cut you off when you're on their inside).. but maybe the road culture in a lot of cities is so f'ed up that won't really have any effect.. i'm probably just too much used to cycling in holland (or belgium/germany).. and we're not really a good example to the rest of the world of how to get the bike into the city-life, because we simply 'always had it'..

copenhagen however has very successfully, and in a short time, managed to make the bicycle a very popular way of commuting, and probably should be followed by every major city that right now gets jammed up every day.. + getting the bike to be more popular gives nice health care benefits from those who use it each day..

ps. soup don't be pussy, it's never too cold to cycle, just put on an extra sweater / pair of socks or w/e and you'll be fine.. :P snow/ice is more annoying because u need to adjust ur bike to it + ruins ur bike = costs money

pz

/too long post.. happens when u use the word bicycle, it awakens me


pps. probably going to buy this new racing bike this month: http://www.rosebikes.co.uk/article/r...025/aid:478027 going to be an awesome cycling year guaranteed!!

[Jerome Scuggs]

lol i have wanted to do that many, many times

would never ACTUALLY do it

louisiana is still too rural for people to be nice to people who ride bicycles (because noone really uses a bike as main form of transportation). most people who bike for exercise will get into groups like that and go roam the long country roads where they dont see much traffic.

[Epinephrine]

Yikes that's crazy...

BTW that's not Brazil, I see trees.

[TagMor]

I like the way the dude with the camera is running around screaming and then when the blonde girl walks past he lowers his voice.
edit: i meant in this clip.

Hopefully some good will come of this and Critical Mass is put to an end.

[Squeezer]

Oh God.

Did anyone else laugh and feel terrible afterward?

[Galleleo]

Is it wrong that I find their use of "runned" in the translation just irritating?

Also, even if I wanted to do that, I'm not fucking up my car just so I can run over some annoying people.

(although, like Bram I'm Dutch so I'm used to cyclists and don't find them annoying at all. Also you rarely see them actually on the same road as we have biking paths everywhere)

[Ilya]

[Crescent Seal]

Oh God.

Did anyone else laugh and feel terrible afterward?

+1, wonder what happened to the driver....

[Ilya]

i hope he wasn't late to his date!

[Soup du Jour]

pregnant wife to the hospital.

I hope there's more than one road to the hospital and that it doesn't have to go thought downtown.

I know I'm a pussy for not riding in the cold Sometimes I just want to sleep on the bus.

Ilya, would you ever fall asleep on a public bus?

[Zeebu]

next time protest in one lane

[Zeebu]

THANKS ASSHOLE

now im at work and i keep wasting time looking at videos of jerkoffs on bikes. there is no way this can help relations between bikers and motorists. if i actually rode at all i would be pissed off at these people.

[Edify]

Wow that was tragic..