In aus.bicycle on Thu, 29 Jun 2006 22:58:44 +1000
scotty72 <
[email protected]> wrote:
>
> For all of you guys who may be reluctant to ride with C-Mass because you
> see them as a rabble without a cause....
>
> Friday's ride has a very good cause... the saving of the William Street
> bike lanes. An action that all the BUGs support.
>
Problem is... will it be a carefully done protest with very clear aims
and giving a clear message?
Or will it be a bunch of cyclists without any obvious aim or reason
for their behaviour causing drivers to focus on "cyclist as nuisance"
and not make the connection between bikes on the road and bikes
without bike lanes?
The protest ride I went to on Sunday needed, I realised later alas, some
signs and some organisation. IT needed signs on rider's backs saying
"get used to it - they are taking the bike lanes away". It needed people
organised to take lanes, others to explain to motorists what's going on.
Leaflets, petitions, signs, ways to get the message across.
I'm annoyed with myself that I didn't really think about this before
I went, I could have done something. Because it was someone elses's
protest I had this "make up numbers" mindset and thought they'd have
done it, and looks like no one did
I don't like protests where what you are doing isn't clear to those
outside the group. CM seems to be a prime example of those. They claim
to be "the traffic" but keep tightly together, cork intersections, and
generally behave unlike traffic. And the general public has no clue
what they are on about or why, and put another tick in the "cyclist -
useless annoyance" box.
Zebee