You are hereCritical Responses - Craigslist DRAMA!!! - Update
Critical Responses - Craigslist DRAMA!!! - Update
Yesterday some whackjob put up an ad about today's Critical Mass ride on craigslist:
http://austin.craigslist.org/bik/817176013.html
This morning I woke up and did my usual craigslist trolling to find that several people had responded to it in the bike section. Unfortunately several of the responses had been flagged, but I think I captured most of the content with the two I grabbed:
http://austin.craigslist.org/bik/817974286.html
Re:"Critical Mass"? STAY AWAY (home)
Reply to: see below
Date: 2008-08-29, 8:22AM CDTi second your stance. they really give an even further bad name to cyclists (yes, there is a difference) who don't need the attention. and i, too, am a commuter cyclist.
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I agree with the OP on this. CM is just an excuse for scofflaw 'bike riders' (note that I didn't call them 'cyclists') to act a fool and show their selfish disdain for the rule of law and order and of polite, considerate humanity.
BTW, I am a commuter CYCLIST.
http://austin.craigslist.org/bik/818002056.html
RE: "Critical Mass"? STAY AWAY (thanks for the warning!) (please stop) (...please don't stop!)
Reply to: sale-818002056@craigslist.org [?]
Date: 2008-08-29, 8:48AM CDTHi,
In your CL post you said:
"Critical Mass"? STAY AWAY (thanks for the warning!) (please stop)
Reply to: see below
Date: 2008-08-29, 7:23AM CDTLeaders and organizers of "CM", including the bozo who put the notice on CL: Please stop having "critical mass" rides which do nothing but promote bad PR for all cyclists in Austin!
512 555-1212 <~~~end post.
XXX - I'm okay with your thought process as I have been on many CM rides when several individuals did act like jackasses. However, the majority of CM participants (especially the organizers/big-hearted bike riders) always did their very best to step lightly while at the same time representing all of us who ride bikes for fun, health and transportation. IMHO CM has a lot of positive aspects, a lot of great participants and a lot of potential as an event that every city in the world and its citizens can benefit from... jackasses aside. $.02cg;)
Any press is good press, but I can't help but agree with the people who don't like it to a limited extent. Some of the jackassery that goes on during the rides pisses me off too. I don't like cops. I'm sure there are a few decent ones, but a lot of the ones I've encountered have been self-righteous pricks. I REALLY don't want them getting called on us. I think that if everybody kept more to the right, didn't spit on cars (I know it's rare but I've seen it), didn't mouth off when the people in the cars were yelling at us, then maybe the cops wouldn't get that first call. This ride is a sum of its parts. There are no organizers, no leaders, no set destinations, it's all up to y'all. The way to make it better is by having better people show up or showing better behavior. The way to make it worse is by not showing up and leaving it to the anti-car dicks. I dunno, maybe I'm just talking out of my ass as is usually the case. Thoughts?
Bottom line: I FUCKING LOVE THE RIDE! I'll be there with angry metal music, jackasses or no, come hell or high water. See y'all in a few hours!
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UPDATE - There have been even more responses! Love it!
Here's a particularly well-written response that I wanted to highlight:
http://austin.craigslist.org/bik/818059718.html
Critical Mess (PBRville)
Reply to: sale-818059718@craigslist.org [?]
Date: 2008-08-29, 9:36AM CDTThe original intent and purpose of Critical Mass was solid, but it has out-lived its usefulness. It promotes an us Vs. them mentality that doesn't get us anywhere and needs to come to a graceful end before it creates any serious issues here in Austin like it has in other cities.
If you REALLY want to make a difference instead of just causing trouble, join ACA and support its education programs that help to get more people on bikes.
In addition, become a "bike ambassador" to your family, friends, and neighbors. Be the "bike guy". Help other people get out on the road or trails and enjoy what cycling is about.
The more time people spend on bikes, the more they will become accepting of cycling in general and understand how important it is for them to look out for other cyclists when they're driving.
If your goal is to ride around town drinking PBRs on the bike and creating chaos, that's cool too. Just don't do it under the guise of "making the world a better place for cycling", cause buddy it doesn't do it.
...and the response:
http://austin.craigslist.org/bik/818235414.html
RE: Critical Mess (PBRville)
Reply to: sale-818235414@craigslist.org [?]
Date: 2008-08-29, 11:31AM CDTI just wanted to respond to this post... sorry if I'm beating a dead horse.
my reply:i just wanted to say that the 4 times i've participated in CM rides the organizers handed out spoke cards with 'be-nice-to-others', 'ride safe together' type of rules to follow [that] lead me to believe they [the leaders] were doing their very best to promote a safe, mass ride which everyone could enjoy and admire.
still you are right about the PBR's: they are out there, next to me, maybe next to you, too, and I'm afraid this always will be... but should the rest of us allow them to have others bash CM and choose not participate because of them? i think not.
if something else, perhaps you will encourage members of the ACA to participate during CM and lead by example with an overall goal of educating participants on how to behave like civilized, mass riders EVEN if the end result could never possibly become anything other than adult supervised, semi-controlled chaos on wheels. ???
Then again, the current CM leaders are already doing this exactly.
Here's another one, where Michael Bluejay takes the rap for "organizing" Critical Mass. WAT? I don't think he's even in the country right now...
http://austin.craigslist.org/bik/818114616.html
Don't Mess Up (Austin)
Reply to: sale-818114616@craigslist.org [?]
Date: 2008-08-29, 10:22AM CDTMichael Bluejay, and others:
Step forward and take credit for organizing and promoting "critical mass", instead of being cowards and hiding behind lies and disclaimers.
Demonstrate lawful bike riding. Demonstrate a superior moral stance.
"Fun" is when everyone has a good time, in this case not just some of the "cyclists".
Get it?
Have your "ride". Fine, but don't tie up traffic and provoke confrontations between cm riders and motorists.
Not to mention terrorizing little old ladies in crosswalks.
Deny that one and I'll post links to at least two video clips where "cm"' riders are doing exactly that.
ACA better than CM? I just want to say that I have ridden both CM and ACA rides and the ONLY thing I do not like about CM is when we break the law. You cannot have a peaceful resistance when you give the law an excuse to arrest you. And make no mistake, CM is a protest, it is protesting those who would ravage the earth and pollute her waters.
I enjoyed ACA rides, but what I liked more about CM is the people I ride with are more REAL.
I wish I could have made this CM, but I got sick and am recovering at home. If I go on another one, I will be the guy RIDING IN THE RIDE, and OBEYING the law. You can do BOTH. It is not a simple yes/no choice.
It needs to be clearly established that bicyclists on ACA rides follow the law better than bicyclists on CM rides. My experience is limited on ACA rides, and my Austin CM experience over the last year is limited to 1-2 rides.
I rode on the ACA Ride of Silence a couple of years ago and found that a sizeable portion of the riders broke laws similar to the law breaking attributed to CM riders.
On the ACA ride, a sizeable portion of the riders, 10%-70%:
* Used all lanes of traffic, with questionable legality.
* Failed to yield to other traffic when required, notably motor vehicles.
* Followed the bicycle crowd through red lights, easily 20 seconds after the light had turned red.
* Failed to use hand turn signals.
* Turned from a lane from which turning was not legal.
* Failed to come to a complete stop at stop signs.
Many riders rode more than two abreast.
At least 95% of the bicyclists on the ride were wearing helmets. That leads me to believe that there were few people who just "showed up" without knowing what the ride was about and what the ACA rules/recommendations were. In any case, if the excuse for that ride was that the "scofflaws" weren't wise to the purported law-abiding ACA habits, then essentially the same argument could be made for CM rides, as Jason already has: the worst of the CM riders are the small minority.
CM rides in Austin have seen far more delinquent days than these. Critics of CM in Austin should go out and see what's happening _now_.
1) The ride of silence isn't a `ACA ride'. Yes, it was mentioned in their calendar ... and lots of other calendars that listed cycling events. Perhaps they endorsed it, but they didn't run it.
2) (Expanding on what Tom said) CM isn't about breaking laws. It's about riding your bike. As for running red lights, that's mostly about a desire to keep the ride together, and with 250 people they're not all going to be able to get through one green light. Lots of smaller masses would be more disruptive than one big one. Turn signals, many cyclists don't use them, and many do, even in the CM rides. Riding more than two abreast, well, if you get 250 people, that's going to happen. Taking all the lanes, well, I wish they wouldn't do that.
There are some that are there to cause trouble, heckle motorists, etc. but they're the minority. As suggested, CM in Austin seems reasonably tame, and most of the problems are simply due to the large size.
Well, I say it's not about breaking laws. But with 250 people, there's possibly 250 opinions about what it's about.
3) The real ACA rides are smaller than CM and they don't all stay together, and they're pretty good about obeying the laws. They will occasionally treat stop signs as yield signs, and will sometimes ride three abreast, but I don't recall ever seeing them ride through red lights or anything like that.
About one of the CL posts, Bluejay is probably getting blamed for CM in Austin due to pages like these --
http://critical-mass.info/
http://bicycleaustin.info/newsletter/2001-10-31.html
http://books.google.com/books?id=iVpHsLMgiCcC&pg=PA212&lpg=PA212&dq=blue...
... though I don't think he's been on a ride in a while. Considering that the rides don't really have leaders or organizers (well, some people have a lot more influence than others, but you can't point at somebody and say `he's in charge'), he's probably the closest thing that somebody could find.