This was a Critical Mass event, which is why the bicyclists are taking up all of the street as a way to reclaim the streets and protest the lack of safety for riders under usual conditions. It’s not legal, but protests are never useful if they’re fully legal now, are they.
Ride your bike in the park or stay on the sidewalk. Streets are made and paid for by motor vehicle’s.
This is how cyclists feel when they are surrounded by cars on busy roads because the cycling infrastructure is shit.
Except, cyclists can’t kill people in cars with their bike.
So, lady, imagine our frustration.
Edit: spelling 🤦♂️
This gives me an idea. How about every bike gets retrofitted with a large titanium hook. The idea is that if you hit my bike, your car is pretty much totaled. Not just that but if you really hit me, the hook passes thru the radiator, thru the firewall and into the drivers asshole.
Put a little LED light on it as a warning beacon.
A tactical pool noodle with a very abrasive end should do the trick.
“Dangerous to drivers”
Because you’re going to give yourself an aneurysm over a minor inconvenience? You’re in a giant suit of armor. You could hit every single one of those cyclists without sustaining even a scratch.
If the cyclists were actually dangerous to drivers, do you think the diver would be accelerating aggressively towards them?
Whenever I’ve been on a Critical Mass ride, we’ve always had designated “corkers”, people whose job it was to block traffic with blockading/dancing/whatever while the others continued onward. Without people doing that, you run the risk of this sort of carbrained nonsense.
Something else that happened on mine was that as soon as we hear sirens, we drop the mass protest and prioritize making a path for emergency vehicles to get through.
A critical mass to be massively critical of the critical masses. I’m certain folks who see or hear of such protests are going to become very sympathetic to the cyclist cause. Am I doing the mass criticism thing right?
It’s a nice way to blow off steam and feel important, but I suspect it polarises against rather than towards the desired cause. Shame really since it looks fun!
The point of a critical mass ride is to demonstrate that the cyclists are going to assert their right to the street whether car drivers like it or not, so drivers’ choices are to either support cycling infrastructure or stay stuck behind them forever. Not having cyclists use the road isn’t an option.
It doesn’t matter whether the drivers like the cyclists; the drivers must be made to realize that it’s in their own best interest to capitulate and demand bike infrastructure in order to get the cyclists out of their way.
Confused Portlander here. Why are these bikers fully clothed?
And ignoring a lot of traffic laws?
It’s a protest. Showing how dangerous the streets are to cyclists (and how many cyclists use the roads) is the message. A protest that challenges law and inconveniences people peacefully is how they garner attention (hopefully as a prelude to change and improvements).
So yeah, ignoring a lot of traffic laws.
Thank you. It was an honest question, downvotes are fuckin hilarious lol
I agree that more bike lanes are needed and also cyclists need to be treated with the respect any life demands.
But flipping off a driver or generally blaming people who drive is fighting the wrong fight. I drive a car, I also cycle, being in a car doesn’t make me anti-bike.
Fight the government - flip off the government - that is refusing to put in safe infrastructure for the bikes (with protests like this, of course. But don’t flip off the driver, at best it does nothing, at worst it widens the gap between both groups and makes it easier to dehumanize and villianize the cyclists).
This isn’t about flipping off a driver. This is flipping off a bad driver who doesn’t understand that what they’re doing is unsafe. They’re flipping off bad behaviour.
bicyclists are taking up all of the street
It’s not legal
It is absolutely legal. The driver’s manual for my state:
Bicycles are considered vehicles when on roadways. Bicyclists are required and expected to follow the same rules of the road as motorized vehicles. As a motorist, you should know that a bicyclist has the same rights, privileges, and responsibilities as you. Respect for each other will aid in the smooth flow of traffic.
Unless there’s a bicycle lane, bicycles get the full lane of regular streets like any other vehicle. On highways, they stay close to the right boundary. Bicycles are passed with abundant clearance.
Edit: Full street? Nevermind.
Bicyclists are required and expected to follow the same rules of the road as motorized vehicles.
Do you also live somewhere that cars can legally cross a double yellow and travel in the wrong direction down the roadway?
Read the last line.
Misled by crappy title & description that didn’t mention cyclists riding the wrong way against opposing traffic, and a picture that didn’t clearly show cyclists doing that.
Fair enough.
Idk about the usa but here in europe its EXPLICITLY written into the drivers code that even if someone is driving illegaly if its in your power to stop an accident you have to. So if a person steps in front of you randomly and you have half a second to react thats usually not your fault BUT if you for example saw that there was a school bus dropping kids off and then you hit a child running across the road theres a large chance that theyre gonna charge you. Of course in europe you have to put like 30 hours into theory and then a lot of driving lessons to get a license while in the usa you basically get a drivers license instantly and nobody gives a fuck so thats why people dont know the rules…
To add, in the Netherlands, known for it’s stellar bike infrastructure it’s exactly with actions like this that they reclaimed their cities from being purely car oriented.
“Everyone except me is crazy.”
Car brains are incapable of realizing that they’re the deadly threat.
I said it elsewhere but it’s worth repeating here that fighting drivers is fighting the wrong fight. Fight the government.
Even if you convince the drivers that you’re right, nothing changes.
If you don’t change driver attitudes, fighting the government is pointless. We’re getting bike lanes TORN OUT right now, because it’s popular politics.
NGL, you’re fighting the drivers for this, just in a different medium. You think the government is just doing shit for kicks and giggles? Nah, they don’t put in bike lanes because too many residents complain when they lose their parking lanes to bike lanes, or the road gets widened solely to add a bike lane.
Sure there are some cases where the govt is making a bad decision, but don’t think that you don’t need to argue with those same people, just in a Public Information Session instead of on the road.
The drivers are the ones pushing the government to not expand bike infrastructure. There are massive complaints anytime bike Lanes or other protection is installed in major cities and anytime it’s put up to a vote it’s the car drivers out there voting no
Seriously, like has that dude never heard of a NIMBY?
Drivers fight tooth and nail to prevent anything from being implemented if it means they incur even the most mild of inconvenience.
ITT: confounded folks who live in areas where Critical Mass events don’t take place.
ITT people not understanding that new and confusing situations are confusing.
ITV: a driver just hitting the gas pedal when confused
I’m referring to people in the thread acting like eveyone knows what a critical mass event is or that people should always be expected to know that a mass number of cyclists taking over the road is to promote better infrastructure. They are baffled that anyone would be confused.
She definitely should have either stopped or gone a different route, but it is incredibly dangerous to cycle head onto incoming motor traffic. Not really a great look for the cyclists.
Better off staying in the correct lane but hogging it so vehicles had no choice but to stay behind.
It’s functionally identical. The lane is occupied. Motorists cannot enter it, whether the cyclists are facing them or not.
Yes the bicycleist are wrong and are only hurting the cause. What if the lady had to get to work with no orher way, or what the hell they do if there was emergency that ambulance needed access. Riding bike on wrong side of the road just makes them assholes. If you don’t know its a protest it ineffective. Besides protesting late at night is also dumb. This isn’t a protest, just bicycles wanting to be dicks.
or what the hell they do if there was emergency that ambulance needed access
I’m guessing they would get out of the way?
Then she would have to pull over and wait 10-15 minutes for them to pass. Geez.
In an emergency there would be lights and ee-oo-ee-oo and the bikers would definitely part to let the emergency vehicle.
Protests need to make sure that no one is ever inconvenienced or made uncomfortable. That way people can just ignore it and we can all feel better about ourselves
That’s why the best protests are done by leaving a very mildly offensive joke on mastodon.
Can you explain?
what the hell they do if there was emergency that ambulance needed access
So the neat thing about ambulances, and other emergency vehicles, is they have flashing lights AND sierns to let people know they are there.
And bikes are more agile and capable of getting out of the way than cars are
And protesters always swiftly move to let emergency vehicles through, because they know not to block actually useful vehicles like ambulances and fire engines
I agree, crowds of protesters are far more observant than drivers. I’ve seen ambulances stuck in new York traffic before
What a spectacular photo.
That’s been my experience, bikes also clear out way faster than cars.
Pretty much, more or less, yah.
It’s a protest not a rally.
Be glad they’re not carrying bricks.
While she is clearly a dumbass for not just parking and waiting, why is the bike ride taking up all of the lanes in both directions? Was the street blocked off and this lady ignored it?
Why was there an oncoming car in her lane?
This really needs context.
The OP has some context but Lemmy is bad about showing the text included with a media post so it’s easy to miss. The OP states it’s a “critical mass” protest where large numbers of cyclists reclaim the street to demand better bicycle infrastructure
I figured that was happening, which is why I updated the title to explicitly state it’s a Critical Mass event
I have no official context. If I had to guess this was some kind of organized night bike event. There were multiple cars on the road so likely not a closed course thing, probably organized only on social media. The car on the wrong side of the road was probably trying to go around the cyclists. The cyclist were likely in the wrong, but as a driver she definitely should have turned off of that street and gone around.
Not sure how she could turn off and go around when she has no idea why there is a massive amount of bikes, where they are coming from, or where they are going. Going around requires more information than someone surprised by a massive number of surprise bikes would have.
I’m not opposed to the idea, and I do think just stopping and waiting it out is the best option. She was wrong to just drive forward through the crowd of bikes, but maybe she hoped she would get past the mass of bikes faster?
But expecting someone to ‘just go around’ is pretty dismissive of someone’s confusion when completely surrounded in a situation they don’t understand. Like what if she just needed to turn left and go two blocks?
Pretty easy to just turn the keys and wait… What they did is risking injuring someone. And if you want to take the selfish route, she’s putting herself at risk of a large group of now angry people. Turn off the multi ton vehicle and wait. It’s not that hard.
Yes, stopping and waiting it out is what I said she should have done. Someone else said she should have ‘just gone around’.
Sure, fuck cars and all that, but jesus that is a stupid way to protest. Being very squishy and in low visibility (because it’s night), riding slowly while blocking all lanes. Sure, I support their cause, they probably DO need better bicycle infrastructure, but ffs, don’t put your fucking life on the line like this. All it takes is 1 lunatic who roadrages, and you’re dead.
Removed by mod
very well i’m sorry for calling their face a stupid way to protest
Isn’t this true for all protests? My understanding is that people who do them font agree to live in the constrains drawn by small number of raging lunatics with oppression tools. That’s why they organize. Into masses.
Nobody wants logic here
Of course not. The people applauding the cyclists here and deriding the motorist would be the same ones upset if it was a video of a cyclist encountering a bunch of cars driving illegally on bike paths/lanes.
Huh, it’s almost as if cars aren’t the same thing as bicycles, differing greatly in aspects like vulnerability, respect from drivers, and existence of suitable infrastructure. Or said another way, it’s almost as if punching up isn’t the same thing as punching down. Who’da thunk it?
Never said they were. I posited that reversing the roles would upset people (like you clearly) who applaud the cyclists and deride the motorist.
If you’d be upset by people driving their cars on a bike path in protest of losing road space due to cycling infrastructure they’d be idiots but they’d be the same kind of idiots as these cyclists.
I think treating others as you wish to be treated is generally the simplest, safest rule to live by.
