Convoluted Mass
Critical Mass has been a lot of fun for me this summer. I've made friends and hanging out with other bikers is always a good thing. Matt was gone all summer so I had been going by myself and was just starting to go full time on the bike in May. After 100 days of riding in the city, and getting to know the weakness of Atlanta's cycling infrastructure I get very frustrated with the RED LIGHT RUNNERS whom all converge the last Friday of every month. And the rest of us are there too...
I won't go into much detail, but it is the age old story of us vs. them in the bike world - those that stop at red lights vs. those that don't. I used to think it was a fixed vs. geared, but I have seen full kits and top of the line derailleurs fly through red lights with heads down.
In order for there to be a push for bicycle friendliness amongst drivers, and city officials who can put in better infrastructure, following the rules (also known as laws) of the road goes a long way. In my humble opinion anyways.
When cyclists blaze through red lights, squeeze through traffic, take over the road in sporadic fashion and then turn and scream or flip off drivers who didn't see their hairball moves that came out of no where. That doesn't make a good argument that drivers and infrastructure needs to be improved. Instead it makes the argument that the cyclists need improvement since they can't seem to follow basic rules. If the cyclists aren't willing to follow the rules of the road, then whey do they want the 'right' to the road? I've met these types of people on my way to Critical Mass (in addition to my daily commutes) and have exchanged viewpoints several times. In the end we end up riding in a big group and having fun.
I can't help but think that perhaps by riding in Critical Mass it is supporting this group of rouge-cyclists. Also the 'corking' of intersections for the Mass to pass through the red lights seems to make the RED LIGHT RUNNERS think that this is acceptable behavior when they are riding alone.
I also can't help but think that this isn't the premise of Critical Mass and that it is for all cyclists, and promoting cycling in general, safely I hope. The 'corking' allows the riders to pass in a big mass, safely AND brings awareness to the drivers that LOOK there is a lot of bicyclists in this town- maybe I should watch out, maybe they should have a right to the road too.
I also hope that the more cyclists that follow the rules of the road it rubs off on the lawless ones and sets a good example. Lead by example right? So I've been struggling with do I go to CM tonight or not?
Comments
I've come to understand much of Critical Mass's attraction comes from riding bikes outside of the establishment. And, if you've ridden in a large group and gotten a car stuck in the middle of the group because they followed the rules of the road, then you understand why effort is made to prevent this.
I've only ridden once and was impressed that it was much less contentious than I expected -- even though I rode the June CM when the police were ticketing cyclists -- and yes, CM is a lot of fun.
At the same time, I think 1) there are better ways to foster goodwill toward cyclists, 2) even though riding a bike by itself is outside of the establishment, we can find some deviant behavior that remains safe while fostering that goodwill.
Separate note: on our group ride this morning, we found many more examples of polite motorist behavior than poor motorist behavior. And this was even happening outside of the perimeter!