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As the Dead Kennedys said: “Trash a bank if you’ve got REAL balls.”

While I agree with the general gist of what your argument’s trying to get at, it’s got some pretty fallacious support.

“We happen to all show up to ride home together once a month.”
- What are you talking about? In my experience, people (including me) show up just for the ride, not because it’s on the way home. And then it weaves all throughout downtown and the city, wherever the “leaders” feel like – I have trouble believing this is the route some 1,000 people are taking home. Were it true, wouldn’t bike commutes every day be at the numbers of a Critical Mass? (Though, I don’t know those numbers.)

“I haven’t heard any plans to charge motorists who clog the streets EVERY DAY for a permit to fill the streets with their cars!”
- First of all, congestion pricing has been discussed by the city.
- Second, as much as I agree on raising taxes & fees for motorists, mattymatt pointed out the costs which bicyclists do not have to pay (as you must know, one of the main benefits of cycling).
- Third, it’s not accurate to equivalate CM with regulated automobile traffic which is following the (albeit car-dominated) traffic rules. Again, as much as I am with you on the anti-car agenda and agree that CM shouldn’t be charged, this is just inaccurate.

“I assume the $500 for “required portable bathrooms” would go to the private company that sells that service?”
- I’m not familiar with these porta-potties, but if the private company does (undoubtedly) indeed charge the city, and it is a service used by CM riders (I’d imagine probably in the plaza), then does this really support your argument rather than hurt it?

“We’re NOT protected by the police! We’re being POLICED by the police!”
“As far as I can tell, after riding in well over 100 Critical Mass rides since 1992, the police LOVE this duty.”
- While I agree they may be unnecessary, are we not being protected by the police when they enforce traffic blocking to ensure safety? I see them do it. And what does whether or not they enjoy it have to do with them being assigned and paid with taxpayer money?

J -

While those 5% of obnoxious riders may stick out, the other 95% are not without responsibility. By not saying or doing anything to discourage this behavior, all the other riders are reinforcing its acceptability as normal. There isn’t a “neutrality” to hide behind – as a group, everyone’s behavior is as representative as anyone else’s. So when the outsider sees the “isolated” 5% harassing and the 95% allowing it, it gives a different picture. Given that the idea of Critical Mass is based in social change, this concept is pretty important regarding how CM members behave and how they are perceived.

The 50 jerks effectively come across as the public relations representatives of the ride and for all appearances the rest of the group of 950 might as well have actively hired them (since no one is reigning them in.)

Look at it another way. Ten people are walking down the sidewalk together. You can tell they’re together because they wear t-shirts proclaiming “Lorem ipsum.” One of them is running in front of the group and blocking intersections until the rest get there, and is also yelling at people, kicking bikers and cars trying to squeeze through before the group arrives, pounding on hoods, chest-pushing peds out of the way, and generally being a jackass. The other 9 continue almost as if that one wasn’t there and wasn’t behaving like an infant. This happens once a month. The Lorem Ipsum group, whomever they are and whatever they stand for, if anything, are presenting themselves as a group who tolerate and encourage infantile and abusive behavior. And the percentage of those who see their march whom they actually encourage to learn more about the Lorem Ipsem’s issue and care about it is probably in the negative.

I’m well aware that car drivers are often self-entitled jerks themselves – anybody who uses the streets for anything knows that; but that’s not a good justification for bad behavior of some CM riders. If CM is just about pursuing “an eye for an eye” then it has fallen to dismal depths and will achieve nothing beyond of gratifying that 5% who show up to it for a fight. I would venture to say that most CM riders, personally, don’t advocate this sort of eye and eye approach, but since they generally don’t seem to do anything to curtail that sort of behavior from others that their “just riding home with” then they’re passively letting the jerks run a (deeply negative) PR campaign on their behalf.

** – self-entitled F-you-no-matter-who-you-are,-what-you-do,-where-you’re-going-or-why,-if-you’re-not-on-a-bike-then-you’re-to-blame-for-all-my-problems jerks who are so eager to be part of an angry confrontation that they’ll create one if one doesn’t present itself.

http://criticalmass.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_rides#United_States

Included – Dublin, Walnut Creek, San Jose, Sacramento, Petaluma

Parades are great, but CM isn’t a parade. A parade has an announced route (so those who don’t want to get caught up in it can avoid it), it applies for permits, pays for any additional security that’s needed, etc… essentially all the things the article in question is suggesting CM pay for.

But CM isn’t a parade. While it may have once served some political purpose, that’s been lost for a long time. And you’re right, 10 minutes isn’t a long time, but remember that the cyclists who block off the crosswalk are the ones breaking traffic laws and endangering everyone else. I take exception more to the self-righteous nature of the event than the random chance that my commute might be disrupted.

CM is just one facet of the uglier side to the cycling community. This is the side that blazes through stop signs and red lights without even so much as a pause and then flips you off when you protest. It’s the side that when you DO protest the blatant disregard for your safety slams on its brakes, drags their bike over to the sidewalk and points out a sticker on their bike that says “one less pedestrian” while insinuating that they’d like a fight.

Like it or not, from an outsider’s perspective CM has been hijacked by that side of the community.

Back in 2007, I went to a CM in Seattle before I moved to San Francisco, then went to the SF CM the next month. The difference was huge. In Seattle, every time there was a person in a car yelling or angry, at least three different people would roll up to calmly tell them what was happening, say it will only be like 5 minutes please be patient, and then invite them to join the next month. We also went on the freeway.

In San Francisco, it was people driving up the wrong side of the street individually to provoke cars, yelling at people that were sitting in their cars calmly and just being general retards. It is mostly just scene-tourists that do it here now.

There’s nothing shocking about it any more, it gets cops to escort them through the streets, and has protection from many establishment people and institutions.

I’d be more impressed if CM tried this somewhere outside the liberal bubble where it might make more impact now. Like maybe the Peninsula, or Marin County, or anywhere where you can’t count on a liberal establishment to give the OK.

Revolutionary acts aren’t staged on a regular basis like the civil war re-enactments. And they also aren’t owed a damn thing by the governments and institutions they hassle. You want to act out, fine, but just because you’re all free spirits doesn’t mean the rest of us aren’t paying.

Then things slowly started to change. It started with the car kickers. People kicking car doors as they road by. The smiles and waives gave way to middle fingers. Blocking the intersection was not about safety anymore it was about entitlement. I remember looking at the woman next to me as we watched a cyclist scream at an elderly driver who was clearly confused but stuck in the middle of the group who passed her from behind. We both said “thats it, I’m done.”

Since then I have thought of riding with them again but sure enough, CM road through the Castro last year. I watched as a driver attempted to back up to clear the crosswalk. Two straight frat boys on bikes scream “where you going?” and blocked him in. Who were they trying to win over?

Kit, if I could ride with people like you, which I know are the majority, I would be back in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, it only takes 5% to make a critical mass of jerks to drown out the good people like you. On Fridays, if I am heading home from work and I see CM. I turn my bike the other way.

I’d also like to see the ride depart from the east side of Justin Herman Plaza, since Market street is not a hospitable place to bicycle, with its railroads, vent grates, and other hazards.

Out there people would still view it as a novelty, rather than a nuisance.

That being said, if Mr. Carlsson really thinks that Critical Mass is one of the “few authentically free uses of public space in this city, one that is not reduced to instrumental purposes that suit the needs of business.” he needs to get out more. Critical mass is a fun diversion but, as I think the generally favorable Chronicle article points out, it has long ago lost its political edge.

In any case, the real story in this article is the SFPD’s continuing attempt to shakedown everybody from MUNI to law-abiding nightclubs and citizen-organized public celebrations. Of late, the SFPD is more “extort and harass” than “protect and serve.”

Also, can critical mass please not linger on Market Street as much? It’s a corridor that impacts public transit far more than it impacts motorists – if you want to be really revolutionary, ride down Mission Street or 19th ave or better yet, build a critical mass to bike down 101 or 280. . .

I get where you’re coming from, I really do. I recognize that pedestrians should be treated as our greatest allies. We want much of the same things out of our city. And I do find the behavior of many cyclists towards peds both in Critical Mass and outside of it totally unacceptable. I can’t count how many times I’ve seen pedestrians in crosswalks flinch when they see me coming on a bicycle.

All that said, Critical Mass takes over the street on any given corner for 5-10 minutes on a Friday evening. The mass has to stay together–when it breaks up, cars get into the mix and the danger increases. Peds who try to run in the middle of the mass are risking their safety and that’s something nobody wants.

Next time, why don’t you smile and wave at the bubble bike girl, let out a “wahoo,” or stand between parked cars and reach out a hand for some high-fives. You might be surprised how quickly cyclists in Critical Mass warm up to you when you indicate your support for their cause.

If waiting for 10 minutes to watch a parade of S.F. oddballs on a Friday evening really puts you out that much, perhaps you’re living in the wrong city.

Rolling through on safe, clean machines as a group: illigitimate.

- You have to pay for a driver’s license
- You have to pay to register your car
- You have to pay taxes when you buy a new car
- You have to pay tax on gas, repairs, and insurance
- You have to pay for city parking
- You have to pay to cross bridges

There are probably more; those are just the ones that I, as a non-car-owner, have heard about.

It just seems like you’re pissing off the wrong people and making enemies where you should be making allies.

ps LOVE the spam protection here!

Writing off all of Critical Mass due to the behavior of a few rage-filled fixie kids is like writing off the meaning behind a protest because of the anarchists in attendance.

CM has its own challenges with loud, obnoxious, confrontational individuals, but any time you get a big group of people together you find these types are always in attendance. That doesn’t mean it’s what the event is about, but if you’re only willing to look at the surface, it’s probably all you’ll see.

Streetsblog made a joke awhile back about “Drive to Work Day,” but in all honesty I’m starting to think of it more and more as a good idea. If every cyclist got up and clogged commutes in pollution spewing vehicles with a sign on every car reading “I am a cyclist.” “I am a pedestrian.” and “I take public transit.” I think the impact might actually make drivers put up with us taking over the street for one day.

The two times I have been unlucky enough to get caught amidst CM was as a pedestrian and both times cyclists intentionally blocked the crosswalk so that no one could cross.

You’d probably get more respect if you obeyed traffic laws while using the roads. Just because cars endanger lives doesn’t give cyclists any more of a right to.