San Francisco CM slideshow

Please go to

http://chromoly.net/CM

See you on the 27th!

z-m

 

ze-monsta <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> Please go to
>
> http://chromoly.net/CM

I can not, for the life of me, see that this is doing anything to encourage people to use their
bikes to get to work or run errands. It is only going to cause the people you pissed off to contact
the local politicians and get you legislated off the roads.

I am much more impressed with the the folks I know who have learned to peacefully coexist with cars
while not abrogating their right to a safe road.

Dick Durbin Tallahassee

 

So DICK, Why do you think cars even have a right to the road? They don't. They are a burden to
society, a danger to themselves and others ... I could go on and on, but I can't. If someone were to
bring lawsuit against all drivers, they'd win in 1850 and not a single car would be let on the road.
We can thank legal changes regarding environmental damage to the public good that occured after the
industrial revolution for the fact that such a lawsuit wouldn't get a hearing today. Go CM! I'm
through with simply encouraging bicycling. What we need to do is punish the people who still think
it's ok to drive through our public space.

Some resources: "Asphalt Nation" by Jane Holtz Kay : "Divorce your Car" by Katie Alvord :
"CarToons" by Andy Singer ... any works by Wolfgang Sachs or Ivan Illich. Check out Carbusters.org
or the magazine.

-jef

"Dick Durbin" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> ze-monsta <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> > Please go to
> >
> > http://chromoly.net/CM
>
> I can not, for the life of me, see that this is doing anything to encourage people to use their
> bikes to get to work or run errands. It is only going to cause the people you pissed off to
> contact the local politicians and get you legislated off the roads.
>
> I am much more impressed with the the folks I know who have learned to peacefully coexist with
> cars while not abrogating their right to a safe road.
>
> Dick Durbin Tallahassee

 

Jef <[email protected]> wrote:
> Why do you think cars even have a right to the road? They don't.

The CVC <http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/vc/vc.htm> seems to indicate otherwise. (Assuming the car
in question meets basic requirements for registration, safety, emissions, etc.)
--
Darin McGrew, [email protected], http://www.rahul.net/mcgrew/ Web Design Group,
[email protected], http://www.HTMLHelp.com/

"The handwriting on the wall may mean you need a notepad by the phone."

 

In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] (Dick Durbin) wrote:

> ze-monsta <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:<[email protected]>...
> > Please go to
> >
> > http://chromoly.net/CM
>
> I can not, for the life of me, see that this is doing anything to encourage people to use their
> bikes to get to work or run errands. It is only going to cause the people you pissed off to
> contact the local politicians and get you legislated off the roads.
>
> I am much more impressed with the the folks I know who have learned to peacefully coexist with
> cars while not abrogating their right to a safe road.
>
> Dick Durbin Tallahassee

Dick,

Hope you liked my slideshow!

CM is a monthly gathering of urban cyclists who take a nice ride together to show our numbers to our
other citizens and our many visitors, some from all over the world. There's nothing like seeing 5 or
6 blocks of solid cyclists moving joyfully through our city. We are all about encouraging people to
ride their bicycles! Without Mass, we're isolated, outnumbered and outhorsepowered. Alone. With
Mass, we show the world what hundreds of cyclists actually looks like when they are united. Each
rider represents dozens more who didn't make it this month. We know we're not isolated or alone.
Many of the working poor don't need to be "encouraged" to ride our bikes, they're our basic
transporation. That's why we say: "We ARE traffic."

What if there was no CM? Would ANYBODY but cyclists accept the reality of cyclists as ANY kind of
political force? The mainstream always dislikes being disturbed by the powerless - or the
horsepowerless in this case. You can write your letters to the editor or call your elected
officials, whatever. It's not gonna do anything. You have to stand up in the pedals if you wanna
climb a hill.

We get lots more love than hate from the people whose paths we cross. It's only a few minutes' wait
and then it's gone.

Guess what the number one reason that more people don't ride bicycles in the city. Critical Mass?
Hardly. Or the hills? Hah! Our hills kick ass!!

No, the number one reason, year after year is the CARS! THE TRAFFIC! THE DRIVERS! THE ROAD RAGE!
Cancelling the Mass won't do anything to stop THAT groove.

Here's a cool new site: www.talkfastrideslow.org

BTW, how many miles do you put in every week? How many errands do you run?

Ze-M http://chromoly.net/CM

 

"Jef" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> So DICK, Why do you think cars even have a right to the road? They don't. They are a burden to
> society, a danger to themselves and others ... I could go on and on, but I can't. If someone were
> to bring lawsuit against all drivers, they'd win in 1850 and not a single car would be let on the
> road. We can thank legal changes regarding environmental damage to the public good that occured
> after the industrial revolution for the fact that such a lawsuit wouldn't get a hearing today. Go
> CM! I'm through with simply encouraging bicycling. What we need to do is punish the people who
> still think it's ok to drive through our public space.

Knock yourself out there, Don Quixote.

 

In article <[email protected]>, ze-monsta
<[email protected]> wrote:
> Without Mass, we're isolated, outnumbered and outhorsepowered. Alone.

No we're not. At least I'm not; I don't know where you're riding. There are usually tons of people
around me. Most of them seem to be driving cars, for whatever reason, but they're people, so I'm not
exactly "alone".

>Guess what the number one reason that more people don't ride bicycles in the city. Critical Mass?
>Hardly. Or the hills? Hah! Our hills kick ass!!
>
>No, the number one reason, year after year is the CARS! THE TRAFFIC! THE DRIVERS! THE ROAD RAGE!

Yes, I agree that that's the reason the people always give for not riding in cities. The fact that
it's so commonly given as an excuse does not, however, mean that it's true.

In my experience, the other folks on the road are predominately polite and considerate regardless
of vehicle.

--Bruce Fields

 

J. Bruce Fields wrote:
> In my experience, the other folks on the road are predominately polite and considerate regardless
> of vehicle.
>
> --Bruce Fields

Despite occasional Stupid Driver Tricks, I've ridden my bike safely on roads for nearly 30 years.
I've struck two stopped cars, and got lightly tagged once (a very close call that could have been
awful give or take a couple millimeters). I've got approx 30000 miles injury-free.

--
--
Lynn Wallace http://www.xmission.com/~lawall "I'm not proud. We really haven't done everything we
could to protect our customers. Our products just aren't engineered for security." --Microsoft VP in
charge of Windows OS Development, Brian Valentine.

 

> J. Bruce Fields wrote:
>> In my experience, the other folks on the road are predominately polite and considerate regardless
>> of vehicle.
>>
>> --Bruce Fields
>
Lynn Wallace Raptor <[email protected]> replied:
> Despite occasional Stupid Driver Tricks, I've ridden my bike safely on roads for nearly 30 years.
> I've struck two stopped cars, and got lightly tagged once (a very close call that could have been
> awful give or take a couple millimeters). I've got approx 30000 miles injury-free.

Me, too. No doubt bad things happen once in a while, but you can either extrapolate to a fantasy
world of fear and danger or realize that most fellow travellers are just trying to get where they
are going without incident, too. Motorists are not predators and my bike isn't a prey item. I guess
a raptor on a bike is evidence of that, eh, Lynn?

Time to go visit a tele-commuting employee, stop at the bank, drop off a few bill payments and go
home for lunch, all on my bike, of course.

--
Bob Bayn http://cc.usu.edu/~bob/ o AUS/N&CS I just can't picture having \__^\=* Utah State Univ fun
by burning gasoline. (O)""""o

 

"ze-monsta" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] (Dick Durbin) wrote:
>
> > ze-monsta <[email protected]> wrote in message
> > news:<[email protected]>...
> > > Please go to
> > >
> > > http://chromoly.net/CM
> >
> > I can not, for the life of me, see that this is doing anything to encourage people to use their
> > bikes to get to work or run errands. It is only going to cause the people you pissed off to
> > contact the local politicians and get you legislated off the roads.
> >
> > I am much more impressed with the the folks I know who have learned to peacefully coexist with
> > cars while not abrogating their right to a safe road.
> >
> > Dick Durbin Tallahassee
>
>
> Dick,
>
> Hope you liked my slideshow!

Your slide show sucked just like you and you Critical Mass sideshow group!
<g>

Dashii

 

> Some resources: "Asphalt Nation" by Jane Holtz Kay : "Divorce your Car" by Katie Alvord :
> "CarToons" by Andy Singer ... any works by Wolfgang Sachs or Ivan Illich. Check out Carbusters.org
> or the magazine.

=v= Add _Critical_Mass:_Bicycling's_Defiant_Celebration_, ed. by Chris Carlsson, to the list.

Publisher Site: http://www.akpress.com/dosearch.php?itemid=3459

Your Local Independent Bookseller:
http://www.booksense.com/product/info.jsp?isbn=1902593596&affiliateId=faultline

=v= (Full Disclosure: I have two contributions in there, and the appendix is based on
www.critical-mass.org ... but I haven't made any money from this book.)

=v= BTW, BikeSummer is in New York City this year, and this book will be subjected to dramatic
readings and autographs, for those who are into that sort of thing:

http://www.bikesummer.org/2003/calendar/detail.php?CalendarID=11

(I read and signed books on the West Coast last summer. Folks seemed to enjoy it.) <_Jym_>

Jym Dyer ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: __Q ::: [email protected] ::::::::::::::::: "My
other car is :: ==`\(x :: http://www.critical-mass.org/ :: also a bicycle." :: O-/ `O ::

Cycling in the city, and particularly in midtown, is anarchy without malice. -- The New
Yorker, "Talk of the Town" section

 

In article <[email protected]>, the robotic servitors of [email protected] (J.
Bruce Fields) rose up with the following chant:

>In my experience, the other folks on the road are predominately polite and considerate regardless
>of vehicle.

I'm not sure that's true, but I get your point. In *my* experience, I get *better* treatment from
motorists when I'm on a bike than when I'm in a car.

In a car, I'm either a big obstacle that they have to fight hard to pass, or they're the obstacle
and I'm just being unreasonable when I want to pass them. But when I'm on a bike, I'm a small
obstacle that they can pass in a few seconds, and the drivers are usually willing to take the extra
second or two to do it safely.

-------- Scott Eiler B{D> -------- http://www.eilertech.com/ --------

"We have more than enough people in this world, so adding children to it is about as much of a
contribution as donating a box of cereal to the Kellogg's company!" -- Bill, from the Cyber-Church
of Jesus Christ Childfree.