I witnessed a Critical Mass bike ride last night
 

We were sitting around in our hotel room on the 20th floor of the Sir Francis Drake last night waiting for one of my kids to come into town for dinner and suddenly we could hear a lot of noise from down on the street. We proceed to watch over 2000 on bicycles riding down the road (Sutter perhaps). They were wall to wall and most had bike tail lights which flashed red and made a great visual. We saw one group of about 300 do a Cyclone where they just start circling in a busy intersection and bring all traffic to a halt, even the street cars. I went on for what seemed like 5-6 minutes and when it all passed we could see them as they went west and the trail of bikes covered at least 7 blocks.

I'm all for promoting bike riding and less use of cars but I don't know if I like their method

Crazy. After a short google search it seems like they have been doing that in SF for quite a while now.

I left my bike in San Francisco.

Bet I won't do that again.

Chris, did you grab any pics. There are few on the web.
http://www.findfamilyfun.com/critica...ke-ride-4a.jpg

My policy is: if you engage in repeated acts of civil disobedience, and it doesn't change anything one iota, then it's just masturbation.

Actually, I'd be willing to bet that each time they do it, they inspire a bunch of converts. Not that my husband witnessed this, but two years ago he started riding his bike to work and several people in his area have picked up the habit because of him.

I dunno, each time they do it here they inspire a bunch of road rage and occasionally some violence.

I would fall under this category. The sidewalk is there for a reason, for things other than cars and trucks.

Here it's illegal to ride a bike on the sidewalk, for pedestrian safety.

It's a silly stunt. But if people are roused to violence over it, it probably best that the rest of the world knows they are unstable and can avoid them in future....

:lol:

It's legal in Ohio where Bullitt is from. But the article also explains why this is a really bad idea. If you want to stay alive on a bike, do not use the sidewalk.

Cars should learn to share with bikes. Bicyclists should learn to be considerate of cars.

From Dar's link:

Yeah, critical mass is a thumb in the eye of law-abiding people and an excuse maker for idiots. I want to see more bikes out there, but the way to do it is by being polite and letting people see the advantages.

I used to live directly over the Broadway tunnel entrance and made it a point to NOT be in town on critical mass nights. Notwithstanding the fact that they created massive roadblocks wherever they went, the odd penchant people have for making noise in tunnels was rampant among that bunch. The air horns and yelling and bell-ringing as they went through the tunnel was enough to give every neighbor within earshot a migraine, and of course there were miles of these jokers traveling through the tunnel. *sigh*

Now, I live out in the woods at the end of a dirt road that's at the end of a dirt road. No bikes. No bells. No traffic of any kind.

Aaahhhhhhhh! Blessed silence! :cool: