A Personal Message to Critical Mass.

[GrumpyGregry]

Probably time to pick it up again, then . It's not about the nature of your personhood - it's about the nature of your mode of transport.

I might give it a go though I tend not to read books by Catholic clergy much any more. I hear quite enough from them of a Sunday. Perhaps it might count as a penance to do so.

Illich put the critical speed at around 15mph. Dellzeqq has agitated for 20 - but then he does have Dura Ace bearings...

Ball bearings are where the trouble started. I suspect that most bike fetishists put the speed just above the level they cruise at. Illich's arguments (which I've just spent a little time re-reading whilst waiting for some software to install) are provocative, and perhaps more designed to get people to see, or think about, cars differently rather than to be taken as literal conclusions to be acted upon. His anti-car rhetoric is startling but full of holes and somewhat simplistic. What is the average speed of my bike over its lifetime? What is the average speed of a 747 over its lifetime? Which is the most efficient form of transport? His arguments might well apply to trains, and he applied them to lifts!

I guess nowadays I'd just rather be pro- some things rather than anti- other things and for me CM is very much an anti-something activity.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

CM. There's one twice a day in UK towns and cities. It's called 'The Rush Hour' except that it lasts longer than one hour and most of the participants clogging up the roads are motorised ones. And it's accepted as normal. Yet when cyclists do it once a month in London, it's all about them being anti-social, law-breaking, don't pay road tax.. etc., etc.. (cont. pg 96 Ed.)

Where in your rush hour do motorists collaborate with each other, park up and deliberately cork junctions to let their fellows through? When do they circle roundabouts over and over again purely to prevent others from joining the traffic on the roundabout? Where do hundreds of them deliberately and en masse drive through red lights? Or travel the wrong way down one way streets as a group.

Much of what happens on a London CM is illegal and only sheer weight of numbers allows people to get away with it. Because motorists break the law, even frequently doing so, during rush hour, that is no justification for cyclists to do so, imo.

 

[theclaud]

Ball bearings are where the trouble started. I suspect that most bike fetishists put the speed just above the level they cruise at. Illich's arguments (which I've just spent a little time re-reading whilst waiting for some software to install) are provocative, and perhaps more designed to get people to see, or think about, cars differently rather than to be taken as literal conclusions to be acted upon. His anti-car rhetoric is startling but full of holes and somewhat simplistic. What is the average speed of my bike over its lifetime? What is the average speed of a 747 over its lifetime? Which is the most efficient form of transport? His arguments might well apply to trains, and he applied them to lifts!

I guess nowadays I'd just rather be pro- some things rather than anti- other things and for me CM is very much an anti-something activity.

You might be right about that - like I said, the threshold is arguable, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. And the argument does apply to trains, but of course these are both physically and politically easier to constrain than private cars. There could be an argument for a rational sacrifice of space to faster traffic in certain circumstances, but that is most emphatically not what we have at the moment. I think the problem CM addresses is simply too important and too urgent to distract ourselves with criticism of its methods. Whether it achieves anything is arguable, but it most certainly doesn't make anything worse.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

You might be right about that - like I said, the threshold is arguable, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. And the argument does apply to trains, but of course these are both physically and politically easier to constrain than private cars. There could be an argument for a rational sacrifice of space to faster traffic in certain circumstances, but that is most emphatically not what we have at the moment. I think the problem CM addresses is simply too important and too urgent to distract ourselves with criticism of its methods. Whether it achieves anything is arguable, but it most certainly doesn't make anything worse.

Dang! I was with you all the way until that last sentence or so. I worked in London for many years. I would sometimes meet colleagues down the pub after taking part in a CM, or in more recent times after CM's had taken place. At best CM's appear to rub people, a lot of people, up the wrong way, and harden their attitudes to all cyclists as a result. The end does not justify the means. Anecdotal I know, but based on actual direct experience. ymmv.

My take; the most effective way to make the point that CM attempts, and imo fails, to make is simply "get on your bike and ride". Legally, ideally prettily and with a certain degree of elan, and with an obvious degree of enjoyment and pleasure in doing so. Just ride, wherever you judge it safe, and within the law, to do so, be it the Wolverhampton Ring Road or my local country lanes, just as often as you can, just because you can.

 

[wafflycat]

Where in your rush hour do motorists collaborate with each other, park up and deliberately cork junctions to let their fellows through? When do they circle roundabouts over and over again purely to prevent others from joining the traffic on the roundabout? Where do hundreds of them deliberately and en masse drive through red lights? Or travel the wrong way down one way streets as a group.

Pretty much loads of junctions, roundabouts, traffic lights, jumping red lights... it's exceedingly frustratiing and it does happen. Seen it loads.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Pretty much loads of junctions, roundabouts, traffic lights, jumping red lights... it's exceedingly frustratiing and it does happen. Seen it loads.

My mileage varies.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

anyway an interesting article related to the debate here

Now please forgive me while I DRIVE home.

 

[wafflycat]

Now please forgive me while I DRIVE home.

Nothing wrong with driving, I thoroughly enjoy driving - just do it courteously, legally and with patience. Oh and... "Give Cyclists Room"

 

[Rhythm Thief]

CM. There's one twice a day in UK towns and cities. It's called 'The Rush Hour' except that it lasts longer than one hour and most of the participants clogging up the roads are motorised ones. And it's accepted as normal. Yet when cyclists do it once a month in London, it's all about them being anti-social, law-breaking, don't pay road tax.. etc., etc.. (cont. pg 96 Ed.)

And do the actions of a few thoughtless motorists within this group, clogging up town and city centres every morning and evening, make you think "wow, that looks like fun"? Or do you think "tsk, look at that peanut"? Now apply a little reverse thinking and you might see what it is that some of us don't like about CM.

 

[BentMikey]

No, lots of youngsters see that rush hour, and go, ooh, look, I wanna drive. They ignore the nasty folk just like we do.

 

[chap]

CM. There's one twice a day in UK towns and cities. It's called 'The Rush Hour' except that it lasts longer than one hour and most of the participants clogging up the roads are motorised ones. And it's accepted as normal. Yet when cyclists do it once a month in London, it's all about them being anti-social, law-breaking, don't pay road tax.. etc., etc.. (cont. pg 96 Ed.)

Road Congestion by car is due to constrained paths, lack of manoeuvrability and a continuous feed of new inflexible cars passing through the same route. One or 2 idiots may let the frustration of the stop-start erode their patience thus ignore the signalling momentarily, although they will usually find their-selves at the mercy of others betwixt a procession of beeps.

Critical Mass ignore the traffic control measures, thus further disrupt the flow. They claim they have no purpose, no fixed route, thus for the sake of sporadic thrills contribute nothing but aggravation to those trying to get to their destination.

I understand that our politics, and culture is saturated with it but victimhood will get you nowhere and shall always fail to progress the debate.

Nothing wrong with driving, I thoroughly enjoy driving - just do it courteously, legally and with patience. Oh and... "Give Cyclists Room"

Couldn't agree with you more.

 

[ed_o_brain]

Adding my two penneth... without reading the entire thread.. so please do excuse me.

It seems motorists have a critical mass every morning and evening. I've even noticed some using the practice of 'corking' at major junctions, blocking them as to maintain priority. I'm actually not exaggerating here - observation upon reaching the A56/M60 interchange between Sale and Stretford in Manchester on a weekday morning at approx 8:30 am - traffic flows continuously off the M60 until that junction is full and traffic on the A56 cannot proceed even when the lights change to give them priority.

If motorists can have a CM everday, then why don't we have one once a month?

 

[BentMikey]

Chap, you might have missed this:

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.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Adding my two penneth... without reading the entire thread.. so please do excuse me.

It seems motorists have a critical mass every morning and evening. I've even noticed some using the practice of 'corking' at major junctions, blocking them as to maintain priority. I'm actually not exaggerating here - observation upon reaching the A56/M60 interchange between Sale and Stretford in Manchester on a weekday morning at approx 8:30 am - traffic flows continuously off the M60 until that junction is full and traffic on the A56 cannot proceed even when the lights change to give them priority.

If motorists can have a CM everday, then why don't we have one once a month?

It's not about whether we can or can't have a CM every month, it's about what impression it gives of cyclists. And I'd suggest that if you take your impression of the car drivers you see blocking up the box junction every morning, you'll have a pretty good idea of how the average car driver sees those CM riders who do much the same thing. "Because car drivers do it" is not a good enough reason for cyclists to behave anti socially once a month.

 

[chap]

Chap, you might have missed this:

Thank you. Likewise, I'd advise you to read the 2nd paragraph of my last post:

Critical Mass ignore the traffic control measures, thus further disrupt the flow. They claim they have no purpose, no fixed route, thus for the sake of sporadic thrills contribute nothing but aggravation to those trying to get to their destination.