Hyper-vocal, aggressive, rebellious, hairy, unwashed, unloved, Neanderthal, fellow pedalers.
I have dithered over replying to this for half a day and now decided to chip in my pennies-worth.
I am in complete agreement with those who deprecate this ludicrous, counterproductive, moronic, activity. It is a death wish for those of us who enjoy cycling as a healthy, gentle, pastime. It winds up other perfectly decent road users who will, in future, be less inclined to treat us with the courtesy that they might have previously been inclined to.
I first encountered a critical mass style demo driving to work in a van one morning, outside the Palace of Westminster, many years ago. The first I new of it, as I inched forward in a queue of traffic was when some snarling, abusive, twerp on a bike, amongst a throng of snarling, abusive, twerps on bikes, was screaming through my open window about how I was personally ruining the planet and his right to be on it. He and they then turned right, illegally, and headed off up Whitehall yelling and screaming at anyone else they could get close to. This was years before the days of the current CM movement but clearly had the same sort of aims and was filled by the same sort of people.
Can you imagine a situation where your aging mother is innocently riding down to her local shop to pick up some groceries completely oblivious to a local CM event when she is confronted by a motorist who has been delayed, insulted and abused by some of our hyper-vocal, aggressive, rebellious, hairy, unwashed, unloved, Neanderthal, fellow pedalers. Not a very pleasant thought really?
The combustion engine cannot be un-invented and mankind has to learn to live with it, but this will not be advanced by gangs of sweaty, smelly, lathered-up, cyclists, beetling around urban centres making a nuisance of themselves. Without the combustion engine how are our shops going to be filled with produce vital for day to day survival? How will we be able to clothe ourselves? How are our bikes going to be designed, developed, built, delivered, distributed etc? These are major political problems which need to be resolved and with some urgency. But is anyone really advocating that we should return to a life-style that would recognisable by cavemen? The population of the planet has increased exponentially and somehow we have tap into the world resources to enable ourselves to co-exist. Governments and industries are applying themselves to climate change and the other major problems which confront mankind. But they aint going to be sorted in a day. Get real boys and girls motorised transport is essential in this day and age. We are an interest group amongst many other interest groups and a pretty small one at that. We are not, nor should be, big enough or important enough to bring about the sort of change that I believe underlies the CM agenda – highly political and far to the left and nor should we wish to.
Cautious political engagement by those amongst us who are bright, clever and charismatic is far more likely to have a productive outcome than by making life unbearable for our fellow road users.
I know that most of you who are perfectly decent, law abiding, members of society who have joined these rides for perfectly innocent reasons will feel highly insulted by my observations. But you, IMHO, are being abused for a political end which is nowhere near where you true political alliances lie.
