[*BCM*] Re: All This Rubbish

[rogerbwinn at letterboxes.org]

On Tue, 8 Mar 2005 15:08:24 -0500 (EST), "Matthew Arcidy"
<marcidy at cs.bu.edu> said:
> On Tue, 8 Mar 2005 contraelolvido at riseup.net wrote:
> 
> > Yes, at critical mass lanes are indeed blocked as bikes drive by. Similiar
> > to how when a car takes up space, it blocks bikes from being on that spot.
> > It is neither courteous nor not courteous. It is simply transportation and
> > traffic.
> 
> Not when it breaks traffic laws, which drivers, when caught, are punished
> for as well.


matt, have you ridden through central square on mass ave?  have you
noticed the numerous double-parked cars (in the bike lanes)?  have you
noticed the cops sitting there eating donuts not enforcing the law? 
i've never seen a car ticketed for this infraction that directly affects
cycling.  that's because there is a sense of "lawlessness" that dictates
traffic patterns in boston.  and critical mass is a"lawless" bike
response (at least as i see it).  ever since i've done critical mass in
boston, that's the way it's been.  



> 
> > 
> > Critical mass is the expression of the desires of the city's bikers for a
> > both a more bike friendly city, as well as a the long term elimination of
> > personal and excessive car use and other such pollutents. Critical mass is
> > people actively living out and creating the type of transportation system
> > that they want. How will we create a city with widespread bike use in the
> > future if we're afraid to even ride two-fold today?
> 
> Ideally yes, however, CM presents the city's bikers as unworthy of such
> considerations, because they are crass, crude, obnoxious, etc.  For the
> most part, bike riders are not like this.  Unfortunately, the vocal
> minority is speaking for the majority.  I thought you anarchists hated
> that?  SYC anyone?

thanks for your take on CM.  seems like maybe it's not the type of
bicycle advocacy for you.  CM is the one time a month, when i get to
ride without stressing about cars cutting me off, squeezing by too
close, dooring me, etc.  if you think that's crass, crude, and obnoxious
i'm fine with that.  find another ride.  and, yes, i commute to work
across boston 5-6 times a week. i just don't ride for critical mass. 
and when did any of us say we were speaking for anyone else.  if CM
claimed to be the voice of ALL cyclists in the city, then maybe you have
a point.  but actually us anarchists are into free association, like
meeting up the last friday of every month and riding together.  if you
like the style of ride CM does, then come, if not, don't.  it's not like
the rides have drastically changed in the past year or two.  you know
what you're getting yourself into.  hope that helps clarify why us
anarchists are into CM




> 
> > 
> > And once again, critical mass is neither a procession, a protest, or a
> > parade nor any other of those silly garabage. CM is a direct manifestation
> > of the type of transportation system we want. It's a place where we can
> > both live out our dreams, as well as actively promote them. It's also a
> > place where bikers empower themselves to keep on biking.
> 
> Well, it was originally set up to be.  So I guess someone twisted it's
> meaning.  Empower is a funny word coming from an anarchist.  With no
> tiers, how can there be power structions to move around in?  Abstract
> ideas are hard.  Regardless, it may be your dream to break laws and piss
> people off.  My dream is that people will start presenting themselves as
> human beings instead of beasts, so that we can all live in this wonderful
> dream world more than a few hours a month.

once again, i don't know where you're getting all of your ideas about
anarchism.  empower is not a funny word coming from an anarchist.  and
you don't need a power structure to be empowered.  if you don't have
control over your transportation surroundings and you organize, let's
say, a critical mass of people to bike with, so you don't have to dodge
cars for your life every second, i would say that's empowered.  and
there's not power structures involved with it, are there?  so that's why
anarchists are fine with using the word, empower.

my experience riding here, is that there's a bunch of aggro drivers,
hell bent on getting to the light before you, even if you slowly glide
past them before it changes.  it's not like the drivers of this city are
innocent saints that if approached a different way would give us all the
space we need for a transportation utopia.  there's a lot more of
external shit going on here (ie. capitalism, a city designed primarily
for cars, etc.) that has to be dealt with before shit is really going to
change.  and critical mass isn't going to be able to affect those
things.  let's not delude ourselves that if we all just wore more smiles
that all of the sudden things would get better.  

and, you know, the times i've done critical mass, it's been pretty
jovial.  that cyclists do have fun when they don't have to fret for
their lives.  it always seems to be the drivers that are crude,
obnoxious, etc.  but maybe the 6-12 times i've done CM are exceptions...



> 
> > 
> > Parades, protests and other such wastes of time are where bikers
> > disempower themselves by begging the state or appealing to the kindness of
> > drivers (who will somehow go against their status qou if you're nice
> > enough) to make biking better for us. If this is what you want, feel free
> > to hold a little placard as we bike by you.
> 
> The point is to make everyone happy.  The cars lose very little road
> space
> to bikes.  The PEOPLE in the cars, should they choose biking, benefit
> more.  "status quo" is a term thrown around a lot by people who are
> against it.  Generally anarchists are against the *idea* of a status
> quo.  This isn't a bad thing, but lets be realistic when we talk about
> the
> status quo.  "They" change to "Us" if the municipality becomes more bike
> friendly.  "Us" needs more "They" to make the municipality change, since
> the municiplaity is made up of "Us" plus "They", and "They" have more
> people.  If negative behavior is directed at "They" by "Us", why would
> "They" like "Us"?  This is called a "positively reinforcing system" in
> which an increase in the input increases the output.  It's also called
> positive feedback.  Positive here only means "increasing".  You're not
> going to have a situation where if you act negatively towards someone,
> you
> will get a positive(happy) reaction from them.  That's an opposing
> reaction or "negative feedback".

i don't really understand what you expect to come out of CM.  there are
plenty of times to try and convince people to use bikes more as
transportation.  but for some reason, i doubt you're going to find a lot
of people on friday at rush hour, who are willing to listen to that. 
maybe, i'm wrong.  and if you want to go out there and prove me wrong,
then by all means do so.  CM for me is more about asserting our space. 
putting it in people's faces.  so that they have to think about it when
they see other cyclists at other times than the last friday of the
month.  sure, maybe it's negative feedback, but i'm fine with that. 
sometimes negative feedback works.  i don't think positive feedback
works in all situations.  look at the campaign against huntingdon life
sciences.  based primarily on a negative feedback approach and quite
successful.  i'm not looking for a smile from all the cars that get
irritated.  i'm looking more for them to realize that we're out there,
and if they treat us wrong, they'll have a whole mess of cyclists to
answer to.  


> 
> Bikes also just aren't practical in every situation.  There is a maximum
> distance that can be reasonibly covered in a time frame.  In the extreme
> where cars are outlawed, the population of cities increases, other kinds
> of polution increase, and there are STILL traffic laws to follow, because
> 300,000 people commuting to work are going to need some order to do it
> efficiently.
> 

who said they were?  and who said that there was no need for order?  i
missed that part of the original email.


> Your arguments are so weak that it is so easy to think of general
> situtions where they fall apart, and not just edge cases.  CM can attract
> the general population, however, the fringe edge case looneys are taking
> it off a deep end fast.  I would like to see it continue and am making a
> stab at voicing how to correct it.

his arguments don't seem that weak.  CM isn't going to attract the
"general population" until a) for some reasons more people have to turn
to cycling or b) it starts doing more than just once a month rides. 
right now i feel like CM is just trying to attract other cyclists who
want to stick up for themselves, enjoy the company of other cyclists who
feel the same, and like to take a few hours a month to ride without
having to stress about cars.  but us smiling more at cars and being more
"courteous" as far as i can tell won't get anyone else to show up, so
what's the point?  


> 
> This is how the "anarchist" non-system corrects itself.  Consider an
> anrchist system that is completely random.  Some order randomly arises
> that pushes it a certain way, so some other order must arise in equal to
> slightly greater proportion to push back, lest it dissolve into order.  

i'm been an anarchist for 5 years or so and have done a decent bit of
reading about it.  i have no idea what you're talking about here.  if
you want to talk more about anarchism off list, i'll be glad to, but i
feel like you're using anarchism as some sort of strawman to discredit
the original post.  there's anarchist theory out there to deal with city
planning.  if you want me to point you in that direction, i will.

love,
roger




> 
> -Matt
> 
> > 
> > -- 
> > "The only advice I can give is, if [anarchism]'s allowed to continue, hang
> > on. Once they get a foothold, they won't go away." - Capt. Thad Buchanan,
> > Eugene PD
> > 
> > Capitalism, in effect, constitutes the point of absolute negativity for
> > society and the natural world. One cannot improve this social order,
> > reform it, or remake it on its own terms... The only choice one has is to
> > destroy it. - Murray Bookchin
> > 
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> > 
> 
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  rogerbwinn at letterboxes.org