A Personal Message to Critical Mass.

[bottombracket]

A-Whoooosh... exhales at last...

Just read all 93(?) posts - tried not to skip (skimmed the digression into suitable commuting clobber!)

I have been on a few CMs years ago and also demo'd about things I cared about...

Participants then were predominantly crusty trustafarians on bikes which did not look often used (where can I buy one of those rust-coloured chains).
A demo on a bike it certainly was...

In this city, it fizzled out after a while. (restarted recently)

quote from earlier post "what can and will you do to create that change?"

Some years later I was asked to re-start CM here ("I see you on your bike every day...")
When I declined, gave my reasons and suggested my alternative, I just got a blank look...
I explained that I felt that for every supportive toot-toot, another 4 hated us just that bit more for acting like tw4ts and others who did not care either way became prejudiced against us.
Some of whom would badly treat the next cyclist they came across.

My alternative;
Everybody using their bikes at the same time while sticking to the rules of the road. In a group, if you so choose...

Critical mass yes, critical mess no!

P.S. I'm not anti-car, I just don't think it is an appropriate inner city mass-transit technology.

 

[andyfromotley]

i have read this with interest as i have never been on a CM but always fancied it, they're our roads as much as the motorists after all. I then had a look on you tube and saw (what appears to be) some really boorish, bullying behaviour from some cyclists...... not for me.

So i got to thinking how do we interact with motorists and begin a debate about our needs i thought something like this, when you have something to celebrate, a year or a month, without a cycling fatality for example, we stand at really chocker rush hour junctions, in our cycling kit, with huge signs saying '

thanks for your safe driving, zero fatalities in 2009!

Wave at the drivers, hand out sweets? along with little notes saying thanks a funny little lists of cyclists top wishes, more room, understanding and the odd hello perhaps

It would enable us to engage with drivers in a positive, non confrontational and constructive manner. It may not be the answer but it couldnt harm could it?

 

[MacB]

i have read this with interest as i have never been on a CM but always fancied it, they're our roads as much as the motorists after all. I then had a look on you tube and saw (what appears to be) some really boorish, bullying behaviour from some cyclists...... not for me.

So i got to thinking how do we interact with motorists and begin a debate about our needs i thought something like this, when you have something to celebrate, a year or a month, without a cycling fatality for example, we stand at really chocker rush hour junctions, in our cycling kit, with huge signs saying '

thanks for your safe driving, zero fatalities in 2009!

Wave at the drivers, hand out sweets? along with little notes saying thanks a funny little lists of cyclists top wishes, more room, understanding and the odd hello perhaps

It would enable us to engage with drivers in a positive, non confrontational and constructive manner. It may not be the answer but it couldnt harm could it?

What a ridiculous idea, getting people on side by being friendly, you know that screaming confrontation is far more effective. The 'motons' deserve it because it's quite valid to extrapolate out our experiences, one poor driver in every 1000, to include all drivers.

At the very least you should be handing out little notes saying 'you're an unfit fat bastard who's wrecking the world', rather than sweets.

 

[bottombracket]

Andy, that's a crazy idea - I love it!!

 

[CopperBrompton]

I've been on a few London CM rides. In the days when it was policed (albeit mostly unofficially), it was a good-natured celebration of cycling.

Since the police stopped attending (after their abortive attempt to ban it), it was taken over by the thugs. Deliberate and aggressive confrontations with car drivers for no reason at all. I peeled off and don't go any more.

It's a great shame. I used to do motorcycle toy runs, and those were much like Andy suggested. Yes, we corked junctions, but we always went and spoke to the drivers held up, explained what was happening, reassured them the delay would be 2-3 mins and gave them a leaflet inviting them to contribute to Great Ormond Street. All extremely friendly, and lots of smiles and thumbs-up from drivers.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

And of course the more reasonable people are put off attending, the more CM comes to be dominated by aggressive idiots waving their bikes around and snarling at motorists. Although I'm far from convinced by the underlying message of CM anyway, whatever the makeup of the attendees. Maybe it's because I don't live in a town, but even when I was commuting 150-200 miles a week in the West Midlands, I didn't feel the need to attend a CM ride.

 

[chap]

i have read this with interest as i have never been on a CM but always fancied it, they're our roads as much as the motorists after all. I then had a look on you tube and saw (what appears to be) some really boorish, bullying behaviour from some cyclists...... not for me.

So i got to thinking how do we interact with motorists and begin a debate about our needs i thought something like this, when you have something to celebrate, a year or a month, without a cycling fatality for example, we stand at really chocker rush hour junctions, in our cycling kit, with huge signs saying '

thanks for your safe driving, zero fatalities in 2009!

Wave at the drivers, hand out sweets? along with little notes saying thanks a funny little lists of cyclists top wishes, more room, understanding and the odd hello perhaps

It would enable us to engage with drivers in a positive, non confrontational and constructive manner. It may not be the answer but it couldnt harm could it?

That would go down especially well, if you also slipped mini biographies of the women killed by HGV drivers in the captial last year, to the Londons truck/van drivers.

• MET video to educate cyclists
• Know your enemy article
• BBC's take on events
• LCC

 

[Debian]

It's a great shame. I used to do motorcycle toy runs, and those were much like Andy suggested. Yes, we corked junctions, but we always went and spoke to the drivers held up, explained what was happening, reassured them the delay would be 2-3 mins and gave them a leaflet inviting them to contribute to Great Ormond Street. All extremely friendly, and lots of smiles and thumbs-up from drivers.

You see, this is one of the things I hate about the whole concept. Why does anyone feel they have the right to run contrary to the rules of the road?

If it was a properly organised event, with plenty of advance warning notices a week or two in advance and specific times between which the event would be run and with stewards controlling things then fine but to just do it out of the blue with no regard for anyone else is unacceptable. How do you know you're not holding up someone taking their sick child to the hospital, or going to visit a seriously ill relative in hospital or, on a more mundane level, someone trying to get to a vital job interview on time? You don't, and you don't care so long as you get your way! It's just selfishness.

 

[Tim Bennet.]

It's just like one of those damn suffragettes throwing themselves under a race horse the other day: It's just completely selfish! Just seeing the terrible incident caused my wife to have an attack of the vapours, I lost out on a certain 10:1 winner and the poor horse twisted its ankle.

And all for what? What are they ever going to achieve? There's as much chance of there being an International Women's Day as men landing on the moon.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

However humerous in intent, any comparison between the members of the campaign for women's suffrage and CM-ers is an insult, imo, to the memory of those brave women.

 

[BentMikey]

Not in my opinion.

The blocking of junctions is necessary for safety. It's definitely preferable to having vehicles enter the mass, and it's what the police themselves advise in the situation.

 

[theclaud]

It's just like one of those damn suffragettes throwing themselves under a race horse the other day: It's just completely selfish! Just seeing the terrible incident caused my wife to have an attack of the vapours, I lost out on a certain 10:1 winner and the poor horse twisted its ankle.

And all for what? What are they ever going to achieve? There's as much chance of there being an International Women's Day as men landing on the moon.

Drivers moan a lot about a few hours inconvenience, but the car culture inconveniences all of us, all the time - and worse. I must say, and it relates to a recent thread about a different type of protest, there seems to me to be a lot of prejudice about "crusty hippies" and suchlike. Of course unprovoked aggression towards motorists is unacceptable, but a lot of the objection to CM looks to me as if it's based not on any actual bad behaviour, but on assumptions about the kind of people the participants are...

 

[CopperBrompton]

It has nothing to do with 'the kind of people participants are'. I suspect that 95%+ of them are there for the right reasons. It has everything to do with the actions of a small minority who spoil it for everyone else.

When that small minority deliberately set out to anger, annoy and insult people just because they're in a car, they don't just spoil the CM ride, they do a disservice to all cyclists. Creating a view of cyclists as aggressive thugs makes life worse for all of us.

 

[theclaud]

It has nothing to do with 'the kind of people participants are'. I suspect that 95%+ of them are there for the right reasons. It has everything to do with the actions of a small minority who spoil it for everyone else.

When that small minority deliberately set out to anger, annoy and insult people just because they're in a car, they don't just spoil the CM ride, they do a disservice to all cyclists. Creating a view of cyclists as aggressive thugs makes life worse for all of us.

My problem with that is it's a cliche that I've heard used to describe all kinds of events where nothing was spoiled at all. Stands to reason that in any very large gathering some people will behave like twats - been to any weddings lately? It doesn't invalidate the whole affair.

 

[CopperBrompton]

My problem with that is it's a cliche that I've heard used to describe all kinds of events where nothing was spoiled at all.

I can't speak for those unnamed events, but I can tell you first-hand that a small number of twats did indeed spoil the CM ride I was on, and not just for me.

Stands to reason that in any very large gathering some people will behave like twats

I've done a number of very much larger organised rides (London to Brighton, Southend, Cambridge, etc) and never seen twattish behaviour beyond standing in rather silly places.

Come and do the London CM sometime and then tell me I'm wrong.