By Paul Weiser
Incredible but true: illegal mass bicycle riots terrorize American cities monthly. These fools are so wrong analysis would require volumes.. but let's take a short look.
Massed bicyclists under the banner of "Critical Mass" ride through downtown San Francisco, Chicago, and other cities on the "Last Friday" of each month. Their trademarks: ignoring traffic signals ("Critical Mass" denotes the Red Chinese practice of waiting until enough bike-riders accumulate at an intersection, then crossing together), carrying and brandishing their bicycles across intersections to halt traffic, and beating drivers trying to navigate "their" streets in a motor vehicle.
As it happens, I've been bicycling around my home town this past month. I've found that with a little effort it's perfectly possible to obey all traffic laws and still get around: the biggest difficulties are traffic lights whose sensors ignore bicycles (you have to dismount and push pedestrian walk buttons) and drivers who don't signal right turns. Critically important is maintaining a sense of shame for inconveniencing motorists, reciprocating the care they expend and delays they suffer to avoid hurting you. Respect the driver's needs.
"Critical Mass" loons mentally resemble Internet flamers: convinced they're right, shameless, they wave bikes and bodies in everyone's face. Their extreme vulnerability heightens, perhaps partly generates this hysteria - they demand not proper but excessive care from others yet return only blows, prancing obstruction and derision.
This is not the American way. More than other nations, we obey laws voluntarily, including those we disapprove - even those that inconvenience us. We respect each other because (among other things) we rightly fear each other and avoid confrontation. "Critical Mass" is one massive confrontation, heightened to the point of mental disorder by participants' repressed knowledge that they place themselves suicidally at risk. With these loons, it's time for nets and jail buses.
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