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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>In the congestion of the city, what’s to
prevent a cyclist at a red light from hopping off the saddle and BECOMING A
PEDESTRIAN??? I’ve done it many times to pass efficiently, if not as quickly,
through an intersection. As for stop signs, the legal (in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State
w:st="on">Mass.</st1:State></st1:place>, anyway) duration of a complete stop
is 1/100 second, emphasis on COMPLETE, I.E., 0 MPH. OOOOHH, what an
inconvenience!!<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Your perceived rights to special treatment
over automobiles are in direct conflict with my perceived rights to demonstrate,
by example, the legitimacy of road-sharing, solar-powered electric-assist
micro-vehicles such as my electric-assist bicycle. The conflict comes, not
because you have the ability to dictate my riding behavior, but because
motorists angered (unjustly, I recognize) at your behavior, take it out on me
the next time.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Like it or not, the act of bicycling has
become political. Hummer drivers (perhaps the same one, twice) have pulled up
beside me (at a stop sign), and told me I’m a supporter of terrorism because I
don’t suck down petroleum like a “Patriotic American”. Bicyclists didn’t
define themselves as political, but I EMBRACE THAT HUMMER DRIVER’S DEFINITION
OF ME! I hope my Sustainable Energy orientation strikes true terror into the
hearts of the global corporate energy cartel that directs the Bush Regime. I
hope my chosen lifestyle and anti-violent activist orientation scares the
living poop out of the incipient one-party dictatorship. This is why I so
fiercely advocate for the rules that will keep solar-powered electric-assist
micro-vehicles from suffering a total ban from the public ways of <st1:State
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Massachusetts</st1:place></st1:State>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Trotsky said, “If you mean to defeat your
enemy, and not merely make one last, grand gesture of defiance, you will not
let your enemy dictate your strategy, tactics, weaponry, rules of engagement,
or battlefield.” The Bush regime is the world’s master of violence, powerful
weaponry, diabolical strategy and inhuman tactics. The Eco-Millennium movement
rejects all these, but we MUST win. Stealth co-option of the public ways by
sustainable energy vehicles is one way to realize one of our most important tactical
goals.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>You said, “</span></font>In other words,
the bully has more chance of changing the system than the bullied. <font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'>“ To paraphrase, (in a way that will
undoubtedly rile anarchists) “The organized have more chance of changing the
system than the unorganized.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>In order for me to deflect potentially
distracting discourse, let me say this: I’m not a socialist – in my view, there’s
not a dime’s worth of difference between socialism and capitalism in their
ultimate goals: to keep the wealthy and powerful, wealthy and powerful. I
support and advocate consensus-rooted, biome/ecosystem-oriented communitarianism,
supported by a strong and sound foundation of local democratic workers’
cooperatives. There should be no States and no Nations.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>Oooops now, not only am I in trouble with
the Ministry of Homeland Security, so is anybody who reads this.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>Deal with it, yo….<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>Dave Hammond<br>
</span></font><br>
<br>
<font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Arial;color:navy'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>From:</span></font></b><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>
bostoncriticalmass-bounces@bostoncriticalmass.org
[mailto:bostoncriticalmass-bounces@bostoncriticalmass.org] <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>On Behalf Of </span></b>Pete Stidman<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Monday, June 05, 2006 11:42
AM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> <st1:PersonName w:st="on">Boston
Critical Mass</st1:PersonName><br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> Re: [*BCM*] The movement
that divides us </span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><br>
<font color=navy><span style='color:navy'>”</span></font>What a cyclist is,
regardless of what some lawbook says, is an undecided, unanswered question in
the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
There obviously is no universally accepted norm about when to cross a red light
or stop sign, and I would say the bigger tendency is to not act like a vehicle,
but to act like a pedestrian when crossing the road. <br>
<br>
BUT none of this is important at all right now. I think the whole argument is a
huge distraction from the real problem, which is cars. Compare pedestrian
deaths by car to pedestrian deaths by bicycle and you'll quickly see what I
mean. <br>
<br>
These ideas in the biking community come as a result of car drivers in
positions of power saying to bike advocacy groups, "Well hey, if you
expect to get us to teach drivers about cyclists, cyclists better get their act
together." and then activists parroting that back to others and blaming
cyclists for the fact that the streets aren't safe. <br>
<br>
IT"S A FALSE ARGUMENT. And it's divisive. I have to hand it to the powers
that be, it's a neat trick. <font color=navy><span style='color:navy'>“</span></font><br>
<br>
How it really happens:<br>
<br>
Any place you go that has laws that protect cyclists, bike lanes etcetera,
Bicyclists stop at the stop lights. Like <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Boulder</st1:City>
<st1:State w:st="on">Colorado</st1:State></st1:place> for instance. Bikes stop
at all stop signs and lights, even 4-ways, BUT, in those cities, when a cyclist
pulls up to a full up four way stop, 3 cars and them, the three car drivers
immediately look to the bike to go, regardless of which order they arrived in,
an automatic bike right-of-way. <br>
<br>
In that situation, a cyclist doesn't mind following every law. The law and the
norms respect them. Bicyclists are recognized as having a stronger right of way
than cars. <br>
<br>
It's not the weak one (bicyclist) who has to give first, it's the strong one
(car). It is a rule of nature that the weak one does not have as large an
effect on the system. If you want systemic change, you go for changes that are
strong, not weak. In other words, the bully has more chance of changing the
system than the bullied. <br>
<br>
As long as I'm getting honked at, told to get off the road, doored,
barnstormed, flipped off, and whatever, I'm going to run those goddamned
lights. And that is something that is so deep in me and hundreds of other
cyclists who have grown to hate cars, police, and road planners that no cycling
advocacy group in the world could ever change it without getting at the root
cause behind it—cars. <br>
<br>
Getting pissed at cyclists who run reds is like telling people who are poor to
quit complaining about it and work for minimum wage, if they do they'll get
rich. Yeah fucking right. <br>
<br>
-Pete<br>
<br>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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