Critical Mass Cyclists Assaulted by Road Rage Driver…

I have an even better idea — how about everyone (drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians) follow the traffic laws?

I understand CM’s logic about traffic overall moving faster if you just let the entire group go by. HOWEVER, that logic does not, in fact, give bikers the right to break any law at any time, EVER. This includes having NO right to keep drivers from pulling out of parking spaces, crossing when they have a green light, or getting their chance to proceed at a four way stop.

As a pedestrian who has walked downtown (Seattle) on a daily basis for the past ten years I have seen bicyclists ignore traffic laws hundreds of times. The most common thing I see is bicyclists that don’t stop at red lights, and usually when they do so they end up endangering themselves and others. Indeed, I have nearly been hit by speeding cyclists at least a dozen times over the last 10 years while I was crossing, legally, at a pedestrian crossing. I have also seen others pedestrians nearly get hit on dozen’s of other occasions. These MANY incidents have caused me to lose all respect for Seattle cyclists. So when I read a story like this I have an automatic tendency to believe the driver more than the riders.

The bicyclists of Seattle are now reaping what they have sown. They regularly disobey traffic laws and illegally block drivers on these bigger rides. Their lack of respect for others has made it impossible for anyone to believe them when things like this happen. This issue is further compounded in this case by their assault on the driver and his car. Had the assault and destruction of property not taken place, and instead the license plate number of a person who has left the scene of an accident been turned over to the police, then the driver would likely be in jail right now. However, it should be no surprise that the assault, when combined with past behavior, has made the drivers story seem the more believable one to the police.

My advice is that next time a driver is getting upset get the fark out of the way, stop the bikes, and let the driver go. By being nice to others you will find that others will be nicer to you. You will reap what you sow.

I’m all for cyclist safety (I commute from Kirkland, riding most dry days) but blocking off traffic whenever you feel it is in your best interest is not legal, and I while I probably wouldn’t have tried to move you kids out of the way with my car, I know I’d be pissed if you were expecting me to wait for more than a few seconds.

1. You had no right to block him in because you were concerned for your safety. Learn to ride safely or stop. Oddly enough, I’ve been riding around Downtown for three years and I’ve never had to “cork” anyone.

2. You refused to move when asked. He didn’t immediately put the car into drive and plow you over, he said he couldn’t wait, and had to go. What if you were going to take 30 minutes? Should he have just sat on his thumbs and smiled? I’m sure if he called the police about forcing him to wait, you folks would have stuck around… right.

3. You asssaulted the man and damaged his property.

“So he wouldn’t get away”

So who stopped the person who disappeared after punching the driver in the back of the head? You guys sound like upright citizens, perhaps you shouldn’t run away from a scene of a crime then complain after you get blamed for causing trouble.

You fail.

No – they are riding to share some geek’d out form of protest and intimidation. Clearly you bikers have something you need to prove and being a retarded vigilante seems to be your effective method? Bunch of fucking pansys, seriously.

The bicycle community has once again lost credibility due to the arrogance of some riders.

Obey the traffic laws on the streets paid for with fuel and vehicle taxes. Realize every non rider considers you a childish ass for continuing to play with the toys of childhood.

The spirit in which Critical Mass is ridden may or may not be a little bit extreme, but it’s the methodology of this particular group I find offensive.

As a long-distance cyclist, it is in my, and really every cyclist’s interest to encourage cars to share the road with us. Like it or not, most roads are built without bikers in mind, and there’s always going to be an element of danger – as the common wisdom goes, bikes will always lose out in an accident with a car.

One of the hardest lessons of the road (and really of life) is to be curteous to those who make us really, really angry. Dangerous or careless drivers are the epitome of people it’s easy to be angry at for a biker – but if I flick them off or throw things at their vehicles in a rage, who suffers? The next biker that guy comes across. And you know what? That injury or even death would be on my head, whether I ever knew about it or not.

That said, the manner in which Critical Mass is ridden is, whether by carelessness or intent, perfectly designed to piss drivers off to the maximum degree. I’ve seen this group in Austin, Texas, and at least there it is definitely ridden with a “take the streets back”, rather than a “share the road” mentality.

Riding in one long, solid mass is simply neither safe nor feasible without a police escort – and stationing bikers to bodily block traffic in only compounds the potential for driver frustration and road rage. I would be annoyed at this riding style if I were driving and late to work, and I love to bike more than almost anything. To further put a person in front of a car with the purpose of “corking” it in flouts every rule of the road we, as cyclists who share the road, are supposed to obey.

As bikers, we rightfully expect drivers to share the road with us. Refusing to share in return is childish, foolhardy and dangerous. I suggest Critical Mass either revise its ride policies to be more road-and-driver-friendly, procure a police escort for their activities, or to quit biking altogether until they mature enough to do so with proper care for the safety of themselves and others on the road.

It really seems there is a whole lot of pecker-waving going on, and no one (either biker or impatient motorist) is taking responsibility for their crappy reactions to what should be a non-issue.

a. I don’t live in Seattle, but I used to… and all I can say to demonstrators (in general) is: get a job where you have to work for a living and stop getting in peoples’ way… we really don’t care.

b. Dude in the car… chill. You don’t need to get anywhere that friggin’ bad you need to run people over. No excuse for being that big a douche.

And all y’all, put yer wee-wees back in your shorts.

Let me get this straight. You block a road illegally, get mad at a driver who asserts his RIGHT to use the road (the same RIGHT you have, btw) and then assault him. And it’s his fault?

It’s incidents like this that make me ashamed to admit to people that I ride my bike daily.

Way to go CM! You idiots once again make normal people trying to ride bikes look like jerks. Maybe if YOU shared the road with cars instead of taking them over, people wouldn’t get hurt. I left my Chapter of CM for this reason. SHARE the road. You know this is causing way more problems than it is solving! My advice to the rest of you with a car: “cork” a CM rally at the first intersection and see what happens. I have been hit 5 times by bikers as a pedestrian. On my bike, I have never been hit by a car. I have been yelled at and so forth but I think most of that comes from egomaniacs messing with the public like most of the CM stunts. SHARE the road. Don’t commandeer it. In the future, I suggest putting up a sign letting the public know well in advance that you will be using said street for your protest that way people wouldn’t be in your way but no, most of you are looking for confrontation in the first place which is why you ride around with video cameras reading off people’s license plate numbers like you are some kind of cop. Screw CM.

Meh!

Wow. You CM terrorists act like you dont have to follow laws. Pathetic. Who the f*ck are you to not have to follow the laws????
Try that sh*t here and youll be roadkill.

Try that corking and mobbing sh*t here aswell and youll see why conceal and carry law passed.

I have to agree with the majority of replies here. “Corking” is tantamount to kidnapping (restraining someone to a certain place or position) the bicyclists should be arrested for it. Your little monthly ride isn’t actually to promote equal rights awareness for bicyclists, it’s to try and promote superiority and your own egos. If you had tried that with me, I would have killed you in self-defense.

Here, this sums it up…..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAOHhV1EFe4

“I would have killed you in self-defense.”

“Try that sh*t here and youll be roadkill.”

Wow…it’s a bold move to come out and openly say you would kill because you got pissed off at an intersection. What a pair of douchebags. I am not advocating that by CM not following traffic laws is right, but clearly you clowns should not even be on the road.

Both sides are unfortunate. Look, you know where I fall, I have to deal with fucking jerk cagers daily, cuz I ride my bike daily. If I didn’t have kids, I’d probably be car-free. I don’t just preach it, I live the life.

That being said, I always have had and always will have a objection to CM’s tactics. This, right here, is why. Many old school folk feel the same way, the whole “we’re taking the streets back” mentality has fostered in some groups, and that’s unfortunate. I would LOVE CM, and I would start the damn thing up here if it festered SHARING of the streets. Why not show up as a group, then on these “blocking” things help show drivers how to merge into cycle traffic while both sides obey traffic laws?

Traffic laws suck for bikes, period. We both know that one. Incidents like this, though, aren’t going to get us anywhere. If the guy wanted to run over bikes – let him. Get the hell out of the way, let him commit a crime, THEN CALL THE POLICE with his license number. I’ve done it before here, and they are dealt with. Maybe SPD sucks in comparison to my local PD, but here they are dealt with very seriously.

Seriously, I know what you guys are trying to accomplish and I applaud it. The problem is the only thing that’s happening is further division. Non-cyclists who have heard of CM have only heard of it in negative connotations. I really hate to say that, but it’s true. I work with a couple folks who experienced it as a non-cyclist in Minneapolis, and were NOT fans of it.

Why don’t we stop trying to take the road, and act like police, instead take the time to educate them? Say “you want to merge? Sure! Let me stop the flow of bikes, and here’s how you should interact with the group once in there.” Dude may nod and smile, but nobody’s going to end up in jail.

Again, my .02. I’m, on days (today being one) as anti-car as anybody, but I just want everyone to take a pill, and start working on education. Protest isn’t working anymore.

See, events like this, and behaviors that these bikers display, are the reasons i look down on Seattle bicyclists, even though i am one myself. i’m courteous. i stop for cars(even the ones that stop to let me by, if they’re blocking the flow of traffic), i yield for pedestrians. i follow traffic signals.

it’s not hard. just requires that you think of others. something that doesn’t happen here much in this town, but well, that’s just the product of the hippies who gave us most of our residents. maybe it’s because i wasn’t born here that i feel this way.

it’s things like this that make me ride on the sidewalks whenever i can. okay yeah, sure, i have the right to ride on the road. that doesn’t give me any protection if i get sideswiped(250 pounds of bike, rider and backpack WILL NOT win when challenged by 3000 pounds or more of car), either by accident(actually happened. those mirrors on buses come out of nowhere), or because other riders have given us all a bad name and some driver has finally reached his ‘critical mass’, because of the lousy riders out there.

they’re out there trying to raise awareness. of what? that bicyclists are selfish, and feel they’re more entitled and better because they’re wearing spandex? if they’re trying to demonstrate road sharing, then SHARE THE DAMN ROAD.

you know what i want to see?

these dickwads from critical mass try to cork in a bunch of 1%er guys on their hogs.

i don’t see it happening more than once. kind of like the way peta won’t tell a 1%er in his leathers that what he’s wearing is murder-they’re smarter than these guys, and won’t pick a fight they can’t win.

I really don’t buy this “were angels and the driver is the devil” thing.

I have seen the types of people who now ride in critical mass. Many are young angry men with a chip on their shoulders obviously looking for a problem. They figure they can flaunt the laws of the road, and are very aggressive towards cars.

I believe the driver became panicked after being in a dangerous situation with a bunch of these type of ‘men’ (boys) blocking him and becoming increasingly aggressive.

At some point when a person feels for their safety they have the right to protect themselves. I think the driver showed a huge amount of restraint after being struck with a deadly weapon, and clearly surrounded by punks out for blood.

I for one would have kept driving forward and whomever chose to stay in the way would either choose to move or be run over.

Critical Mass should be renamed Crazy Mob!

Scott
Just because your riding in a large group does not give you the right to “cork” cars.

Comparing your corking procedure to the military stopping traffic to keep a convoy together doesn’t fly either.

What it boils down to is you think you can do whatever you want to do as a group. Then when you piss some one off and get hurt as a result you cry like a little bitch. When you saw the guy had an attitude the smart move would have been to let him go. Then no one would have been hurt. But since you ride a bicycle your better than everyone els

Honestly all CM and moreover a lot of cyclist are doing is getting everyone against them. Eventually they will run into a someone(s) and it will end ever worse for them and none will come to there aid.

I just love paying for CM’s douchebaggery every time some drunk redneck yells or honks at me. You see, to those people, we’re all the same. I can ride defensively and obey all the traffic laws I want, but I’m still a ‘spandex-clad fag’ to some guy in a car who was cut off by a meth-addled bike messenger or corked by a bunch of Critical Masshats the week before.

Good jorb, guys. Keep up the good work.

I ride a bike and I drive a car and I am a pedestrian in Seattle, so I see it from all sides. No one is blameless. There are enough idiots to go around. But of the three groups, there are more birdbrained bicyclists than any other group.

The big issue with cyclists is running stop signs and red lights. Which is interesting, given that so many cyclists are constantly demanding props for all the exercise they get. Well, if the exercise is so great why can’t you stop the fucking bike like I do?

Critical Mass, fuck off and go home. Really. You piss me off. All you do is give more ammunition to the minority of car drivers with a grudge. Face it, Critical Mass, it’s not about “the community” or “bicycle awareness” for you. It’s about daredevil stunts and your own pin-dicked egos. You remind me of those dorks who go mountain climbing in a snowstorm and then expect the fucking National Guard to come fetch them off of Mt. Rainier when you call from your cellphone.

The guy in the car probably regrets everything he did, but I can feel for him. Why the fuck should he have to sit there and be blocked in by a bunch of assholes on bicycles who refuse to share the road and who didn’t get a parade permit? Who the hell to these people think they are?

p.s.: Critical Mass, even though I’m a cyclist if you people ever “cork” my car you’d better watch the fuck out.

Yeah, when I lived in the bay area we had to deal with our happy weed smoking critical assholes too. NO sympathy whatsoever.

You upNorth critical ass jokers make me ashamed to be a cyclist. You were UNLAWFULLY DETAINING the guy. I’m with ‘Seattle Resident’. If you’re not yielding to the front or rear of the car you are UNLAWFULLY DETAINING the guy and you deserve what you get.

If you did that to me, first I would call 911, and then I would start telling you to yield. Then I would start taking pictures. Finally I would start moving. If you’re in the way, and I’m going a safe speed YOU NEED TO GET OUT OF THE WAY. Most folks would understand this.

The fact that the your local media has ‘bumping’ in their vocabulary tells me that the majority thinks that you’re the nutjobs.

You’re no better than your so called ‘enemies’ with 2 extra wheels. I also recommend that you quit smoking dope and stop equating the rest of the world to your warped version of _Animal Farm_. But I know you won’t. And soon, the critical asses will be riding with 4 wheels, and that will be okay.

This is bad, very very bad. This article has reached all of North America and into Europe but not in support of cyclists.

It has enraged millions of drivers who will now take to the streets as if they are threatened by cyclists and act as so.

I don’t ride a bicycle and I always try to watch out for the cyclists but if I am ever “corked” on a public road you all are getting a mace bath then a pit bull will be let out of the car.

That is incorrect as all can be. There is more than just sitting and waiting until they cross. I had to sit through a ‘die-in’ one time that lasted 30 frickin minutes.

It’s ok though, they can make a stand like that kid in Tiananmen Square did before he was flattened. Not much of a stand when you dead as hell.

I have mixed opinions of this entire Critical Rage phenomenon and have some perspective to add to it.

I rode in last June’s Seattle CM. I’ve rode in a few previously and thought it was an empowering experience. But this one was different.

We were downtown heading North on 1st Ave around Madison. I was in the last third of the pack. There were a few bicyclists that had blocked off the traffic on the east side of the street. One car started throwing their sodas at a biker and shouting for them to move out of the way. The biker simply stood his ground. Then, a minivan in the left-hand lane started inching towards two other bikers and revving its engine. The driver was yelling for them to get out of the way. I circled back and watched as the minivan driver started to actually crush two bikes with riders still on them. Everyone was shouting for him to stop and some of us started beating on the car because what else could we do? The bikers were pinned by the bumper for a while. Somehow they jumped free. Someone mentioned slashing tires, but I dont think this occurred. I left the scene and encouraged others to after the bikers were safe. It seemed that things could have easily turned into a riot.

If the driver continued to run over the bikers, I would not have hesitated to do anything I could to stop the driver. Its ridiculous to suggest that you should simply call 911 and get plates. If I see someone being assaulted with a deadly weapon, I am going to do anything I can to stop the assailant. Call this vigilantism if you want, but I call it being a decent human being.

I understand that “corking” helped precipitate this, but I would also like to point out that the bikers were not being rude to the driver from what I observed (until he started crushing bikes).

I can understand the reaction of the bikers during last Friday’s ride since the driver was actively assaulting others. I really don’t think that the riders would have threatened the guy or damaged his vehicle until after he began mowing people down.

But it has made me reflect on the corking practice itself. Maybe next ride, everyone should stop at a red light. It will likely back up traffic even more because it will take a longer time for the bikes in the back to begin moving again after the ones in the front do.

There definitely does seem to be a certain element within CM that is making things worse for all cyclists. There was one guy in particular:

There was some guy riding in the event (I seem to remember that he was wearing a sign on his back that had something to do with enjoying anal sex, but cant remember for sure) who kept dismounting from his bike at corked intersections, drop his pants to his ankles and proceed to walk on his hands waving his ass crack at motorists.

This made me want to shove my u-lock up his ass. Guys like this are the ones that convince motorists that all bikers are assholes and should not be respected. I think if we act worthy of respect (by obeying traffic laws) we may get a little.

Critical Mass started out as a great idea, but we need to collectively look at the results of our actions and decide if we are accomplishing our goal of sharing the road or not. Maybe its time to change some things.