Re: tunnel. What are you suggesting? I don’t own a car, and I’ve both walked and transit-ed through it. Cars are obviously a problem, and bicycles are one part of the solution.

I’m just of the opinion that CM is a smug circle-jerk for cyclists. Just because they’re on two wheels doesn’t make the participants any less of an ass.

Bottom line — I don’t know anyone who was at one point opposed to enhancing cycling infrastructure who upon seeing CM suddenly reversed their opinion.

Accidents and MUNI delays are completely unpredictable. Critical Mass happens at 6 PM on the last Friday of every month. To say you have the capability of planning for something completely unpredictable and not be able to handle something completely predictable, means you are either a liar or incompetent. Do you try to cross the city N->S during Bay to Breakers? Plan for quiet reading at Crissy Field during the Blue Angels? Take your dog for a serene walk at 9:30 PM on July 4?

Um, yeah. You actually did. I would’ve been pretty gung-ho about more bicycles on the road but it’s attitudes like yours that have put me off to the degree of being stubbornly anti-bicycle. Even before I had the pleasure of experiencing this pain-in-the-Mass I can honestly say I’ve had more problems with bicyclists in this City than I have with cars. Cars, for the most part, stop at stop signs and adhere to established rules. Not everyone, sure, but most. Being someone who walks almost everywhere (don’t know how to drive) I find many of you lot to be quite dangerous. And not just dangerous, but indignant in your dangerousness.

“You never were on our side. And we’re not interested in having you on our side.”

That point has been made obvious on the last Friday of every month for I don’t know how long. It’s always about YOU and what YOU WANT. YOU don’t care about what anyone else is trying to do. This is why I don’t care about what YOU want.

“CM is about growing our movement, not watering it down so that people who never ride a bike can feel comfortable supporting it.”

CM is not about growing a movement. It’s about you. It’s about you being smug and self-righteous and you thinking you know what’s best for everyone. And I thought CM was not “organized.” How are you planning on fixing all the problems of the road without having organization?

“…I’m not sure that accidents and traffic “just happen.” Accidents and traffic are actively created through bad transportation infrastructure combined with bad urban planning.”

My point is that those things exist and have existed for some time. Is it annoying? Sure. But I don’t see how creating more trouble is the solution. I can build accidents and Muni lags into my day. I’ve learned to live with that. What I take issue with is dealing with more lags because of a monthly party that seems to contradict itself with every public posting. One person says I can get anywhere in the City in 45 minutes on my bike. Another says they can’t get anywhere on their bike because of traffic. Which one is it? You pushing bike rights while alienating countless numbers of people. You push for environmental changes while creating environmentally damaging traffic jams. You say it’s not organized yet it’s called “our movement” with “sides.”

“Probably 80% of the delays that slow down my muni or caltrain rides would be prevented if our streets were designed to prioritize mass-transit. Traffic wouldn’t be much of a problem if our cities and highways were designed to facilitate comprehensive multimodal transportation.”

Totally. But, once again, what does a traffic causing bike party do about this? Fuck. All.

I think one of the things that makes people especially pissed-off about CM is that it’s not programmed into our daily routines. We transit riders and pedestrians should start getting as angry about everyday our everyday delays as some are about CM delays – the systemic delays are the ones that really take away our time, harm the environment, and make our commutes difficult.

@zsolt – Your comments illustrate exactly why, despite being very passionate about transportation justice and working towards car-free cities, I don’t care much for the CM “movement.” I also strongly suspect that CM does very little to “grow your movement” unless the aims of your “movement” are strictly confined to the last Friday of every month.

To me the whole idea of CM is exactly that we don’t try to court people. It is not a political let’s all get along BS fiesta. It is a celebration and parade of bikers, a time when we take back the streets and let others get a taste what it feels when one mode of transport dominates and suffocates everything else.

For indeed, every statement you or everyone say about bikes during CM, can be said about cars during 99.999% of the time. Except, for people like you, that “just happens”.

Accidents happen. Traffic happens to. They just happen. What doesn’t need to happen is a Friday night in a busy city when an organized minority group decides what they think is best and shove it down the throats of the majority of the City’s citizens at the expense of traffic and City services. To compare an organized (and it is, whether you feel like admitting it or not) “demonstration” to an unfortunate train crash is frankly ridiculous.

“FYI – you can ride a bike from anywhere to anywhere in SF in 45 minutes no matter what the traffic or what MUNI has decided to do to itself on that given day.”

There you go again with the CM mantra: saying what you think we should do with our time. What if I don’t feel like riding a god damn bike?! If I think it’s best for me to ride Muni to work and ride the Muni unimpeded to work I think I should be able to. I don’t think that’s out of line at all. I don’t ever remember standing in front of some biker on his/her fixie stopping them from doing what they do. Who the eff do you think you are to do that to me? Once again, it’s this attitude which will impede you lot from accomplishing anything as the more you vocalize it through words and action the more you’re going to alienate. But you all can’t help yourselves, can you?

“We’d like to do so without having a target on our back – the 353 days a year that are NOT critical mass.

If you can’t see that CM has creating a larger target on your bike/back I’m not sure what to say. I try to never excuse violence, but one of these days some guy with a right to the road, trying to get home to see his sick kid, is going to snap. It can’t be excused nor justified, but it can certainly be explained.

“What’a my point? Instead of bitching about Critical Mass feel free to help address the cause…Until then, there will be plenty of cyclists who don’t give a shit if they go out and make some noise.”

I don’t even know what the cause is! It just seems like some silly party! Biker rights? Environmentalism? Personally I think if these are you causes you are doing far more damage than advocacy. Even if I knew the cause, it’s not my cause. I picked my cause and that’s why I work where I work (as mentioned in my prior post). I don’t take that cause and shove it down people’s throats like you lot. I don’t prevent people from being able to engage in their cause by holding up their ability to get to their cause like you lot. You don’t give a shit about causing problems? Yeah? Really? Well, I guess I shouldn’t care about yours either. It seems like you want it both ways – the fuck you with the sympathy.

Funnily enough, I don’t even know how to drive. 29 years old and never been behind the wheel. If my girl was in labor, I’d have to call an ambulance or something (hopefully it won’t be on a CM night as I’d like her to get to the hospital). I never thought about “bicyclist rights” until you made those assumed rights, through CM, adversarial and obnoxious. Once again, congrats.

FYI – you can ride a bike from anywhere to anywhere in SF in 45 minutes no matter what the traffic or what MUNI has decided to do to itself on that given day. This is something that has become abundantly clear to those of us who want to “do the socially responsible thing” without worrying if we are going to be late. We’d like to do so without having a target on our back – the 353 days a year that are NOT critical mass.

What’a my point? Instead of bitching about Critical Mass feel free to help address the cause. At the point where cycling is accepted, CM will probably just fade away. Until then, there will be plenty of cyclists who don’t give a shit if they go out and make some noise.

The Massholes on Halloween made me a good 45 minutes late for work (at a bar, after working all day at the 9-5). 45 minutes is not 2 minutes. I was doing the socially responsible thing (riding Muni) but the bus was stuck in a logjam at Franklin and Post because this collection of idiot advocates decided to make some self-righteous point.

I’ll add that I work in the bar so I can afford to live in SF while working at a CBO in the Tenderloin that pays pennies on the dollar. Don’t tell me about “corporate fascism.” Don’t tell me about “patience.” You smug first year college student prick.

If you’re not going to care about those of us trying to get to work and trying to make a living, I’m not going to care about your assumed “biker rights.” Congratulations. You lot have alienated another voter in San Francisco.

“Live your life without inflicting it on other people. Your impact on this world is more than just your carbon footprint, you know.”

This is perhaps even more hypocritical than anything I’ve even seen on SFGate. If I am riding my bike because I have crafted a life where I can, and someone who cannot stomach being 2 minutes late to work (and cannot get their ass out of bed early enough to do so without endandgering me) buzzes me because he believes I am inflicting an inconvenice on him – then I’ve lost all sympathy for him.

But when you engage in CM, you force your lifestyle on other people, much to their detriment. And you do it driven by ideology, by your smug certainty that you know what’s best not just for yourself but for everyone else too. That kind of thinking has led to great tragedies and millions of deaths when combined with power.

Live your life without inflicting it on other people. Your impact on this world is more than just your carbon footprint, you know.

Is there such a thing, though. Walking is simply pointless in most suburbs so few ever do it apart from “exercise”. That’s different from thousands of bikers trying to use streets not built for them, for the actualy purpose of transportation.

Nonsense. Pedestrians in the suburbs and rural areas do it *constantly*, walking down 55mph all-for-cars roads with no sidewalks. You’re just an urbanite so you’ve never noticed.

These days I’m much more mellow: a helmet/mirror/lights wearing, backpack toting, geared biking, slow riding, stoically cool commuter who rides home on Friday evenings to be with his wife. I still do not feel the least bit bad that CM ties up car traffic or transit once a month. I *hate* car traffic and the entitlement and ignorance of drivers and how much I subsidize this insane enterprise, and how much the city accommodates cars. So as far as I’m concerned, this is just a tiny way to show the middle finger and to empower bikers.

So I don’t ride CM anymore. However, I will say this: the moment the city or any other entity tries to crack down on it, you will know where to find me at six o’clock on the last Friday of the month. With helmet and lights and gears and all.

The only thing that bothers me more than critical mass riders* are people who bitch and complain about critical mass as if its some sort of serious problem. If getting stuck in traffic for a few minutes once a month is really so bothersome that you’d give up driving why the hell do you drive anywhere? I get delayed by accidents and traffic jams for worse than CM almost every time I drive.

*There are actually a lot of things that bother me more than critical mass. A whole lot. But that doesn’t mean I care much for the “movement.”

Niche rides – Kidical Mass, Tweed Rides, etc. – are the future.