[*BCM*] re Halloween ride

[jb fentner]

"to unnecessarily cross over to the left side of a double yellow, or take up all lanes of traffic, or otherwise create mayhem"

i don't know about you, but that's how i ride on a daily basis. it does have the effect of pissing off or confusing drivers but ultimately i care about my own safety a lot more than i care about how someone in a car feels while they're sipping at their mocha latte, listening to talk radio, and barely paying attention to what is happening around their motorized box on wheels. point being that be it negative attention or positive attention, it's still attention most drivers aren't usually clued in to. 

it was also nice to ride on storrow.. and to notice how much easier it is for a group of cyclists to make way for emergency vehicles than it is for automobiles. =]


                        




From: applebutter at hotmail.com
To: list at bostoncriticalmass.org
Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2008 23:53:36 -0500
Subject: [*BCM*] re Halloween ride








I'm late to this conversation about the Halloween ride, but wanted to say that I think Turtle has a great point below, but one thing that always troubles me is how the Mass doesn't share the road.
I would have felt safer, and enjoyed myself, if we were sharing the road with the motorists on Storrow.  As it was, I couldn't relax because I felt we were creating a situation that would cause more anger and aggression towards ourselves and any other cyclists out on the roads, CM participants or otherwise. 
People always take advantage of the group (mob mentality perhaps) to unnecessarily cross over to the left side of a double yellow, or take up all lanes of traffic, or otherwise create mayhem, when staying en masse in one or some of the lanes would give us plenty of room and also allow us to lead by example in sharing the road.

Some of the choices made in the name of raising awareness of dangerous conditions for cyclists just gives motorists a reason to pick fights with us and see us as annoyances. And I'd rather not worry negatively primed drivers.  
And I agree with whomever talked about conversations: we should be talking to each other about these issues when they come up on the rides.

Sarah
Date: Sat, 1 Nov 2008 09:27:27 -0400
From: turtle <thewiseturtle at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [*BCM*] tonight's ride
To: "Boston Critical Mass" <list at bostoncriticalmass.org>
Message-ID:
<ab5d2c20811010627k3528bef1u5d4dc2370c998453 at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

One of the most important goals of Cm is to raise awareness of
dangerous conditions for cyclists, thus, driving on Storrow (where
most drivers are exceeding the speed limit and treating what was
designed as a leisurely and enjoyable parkway like some kind of
superhighway) is exactly the sort of thing CM should be doing. At
least if you want CM to make a difference...

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