Comments on: Mob Of Bicyclists Injure Motorist In Seattle

By: Dees

Dees — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 06:57:30 +0000

cruising + tucsonBicyclists Injure Motorist In Seattle | Drunkcyclist.com

By: frank accardo

frank accardo — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 16:19:29 +0000

I’m a bicyclist, and I must admit that the fault almost always falls on the motorists when it comes to traffic altercations. I cannot begin to count how many times I have been cut off in traffic. These idiots are coming from behind me and then turn in front of me. How can they not see me? I recently had a chance to confront a motorist that cut me off as I was riding on the right shoulder going with traffic and I nearly smashed into the passenger side of his car. I followed him to his house and once he exited the car I asked him why he cut me off. At first he said he wasn’t aware he did that, as I was about to accept that explanation and ride off he then said that he used his turn signal so that made things okay. I told him that when you come up from behind, how am I supposed to see you signal? He then apologised and I was going to wish him a good weekend and ride away. Then he adds that he had the right turn lane and that I should have stopped. I then reminded him that the road was not a turn lane and that he cut me off and that he should, by law, treat bicycles like other vehicles and that you wouldn’t dare do what you did with a car. He apologised again and again I was going to ride way, but then he comes back with the excuse that had he stopped to let me go ahead then other people would have smashed into him. I then said that I guess it’s better for you to kill a cyclist then to let that happen, and I road away as he was trying to mumble another utterly stupid excuse.
You see, motorist do what they do because they think they can just drive away from any responsibility. I didn’t let this one get away, and now you see the mind set of a motorist. He simply cut me off because he could, and he didn’t give a damn. I’m glad his neighbors were out and his teenage son was listening to the exchange.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 02:12:38 +0000

Fuck CM.
They show up once a month, to do what?
Fucking nothing.
I have never seen this very vocal group do anything more then ride around illegally and act completely justified in doing it with a total list of pompous bullshit.

By: Mikey

Mikey — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 02:03:23 +0000

elbowspeak–

Interesting link, pure “Stranger” all the way. It’s pretty funny when a wackjob gay singles paper gets it more truthily that the “mainstream media.”

It all boils down to this: asshole A, meet asshole B. It sounds like there was bad acting enough to go around. The SPD should have arrested everyone. Advice to cyclists: keep your helmet on. Alleged perps sometimes fall down and bruise their faces while riding up the elevator in the King County building to the jail. Know what I mean?

Mikey

By: Seoul Brother

Seoul Brother — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:09:46 +0000

So I guess that a “Warriors 2″ movie would have to be in Seattle then?

By: bikesgonewild

bikesgonewild — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:34:38 +0000

…just to give you a taste of the “sound” minds weighing in on this issue up in seattle, here is a direct quote from the comments section of an online source called “the stranger”…

…“Cars are nothing more than modern day gas chambers and Critical Mass are the Jews being forced inside to die a horrible death.

Thus, the bicyclists were well within their rights to beat the driver to death as he was a Nazi.”…

…nice to know that sane & sensible opinions are being formed by our fellow brother & sister cyclists in the “great northwest”…ok, ok, this is perhaps a tad extreme but i thought it worth noting…

…hopefully saner minds will prevail…

By: elbowspeak

elbowspeak — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:21:25 +0000

Here’s a roundup, including an interview with eyewitnesses, a guy who got run over, the driver of the vehicle and the status of the arrested cyclists. Enjoy, kids!

http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/07/critical_mass_roundup

By: Seoul Brother

Seoul Brother — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:42:37 +0000

There is a similar group to CM in NYC for inline skaters that zips through the city in large groups on Wednesday Nights. I used to skate with them, but I stopped because the better part of the regulars are pompous bastards. Life is too fucking short to surround yourself with assclowns no matter their preferred method of transportation.

I don’t give a dry fuck if you’re on a cellphone or performing a bris while on a bike, skates, or a board – if you’re so self-absorbed that you’re a pain in the ass to others, I hope you get called on it, and I’d be happier than Larry Flynt in a chicken coop to see you do a face plant. If I have to move more than 2 asshairs out of my way because you’re wandering while you finish off that snarky email on your blackberry, I will do my damnedest to make sure that everyone within earshot will know what I think of you, and if I’m lucky, I will plow through you.

As angry as all that sounds, all I ask is that other people treat me with as much respect as I would treat them. I have great sympathy for bike messengers as well as anybody who is willing to play in traffic not just because they have to, but because they love it. People often see bike messengers as reckless speed junkies with little regard for public safety, but how much of the business world would be fucked up if bike messengers obeyed traffic laws to the letter?

And under any context, if you are willing to use anything as a weapon, be goddamned sure you are willing to finish the fight. If not, then think about how good food tastes when you chew it instead of getting it through a drip.

By: sumadis

sumadis — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 05:11:19 +0000

bottom line is, CNN sez cyclists at fault. you can preach specifics and nit pick details about what ‘really happened’ all you want, ain’t nobody in mainstream America is gonna listen or care. and that’s the crux. get a bunch of non-conformists together in a hippie city, mob-psych 101 gives’m the extra strength they need to take on something status quo – like a car, or ‘the man’ – and let the pundit feeding frenzy begin. do you really think we stand a chance of rational dialog against editorialized infotainment? I think not. heck a few weeks ago, even good ol’ liberal NPR got all high and mighty about ‘riding on sidewalks’ as the solution to LA cyclists being on the wrong end of the fender. get real. critical mass ain’t helpin’ change the way folks think. all respect to the folks who were injured in this situation up in Sea-Tac, but it’s not shocking at all that the group-think actions against the motorist would be played back against the cyclists in the court of American living rooms.

By: Anon

Anon — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 04:51:12 +0000

The Seattle Times released a much more even article today. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008075512_reading27.html The big problem with earlier reports is that they're quoting Jamieson from the Seattle Police Department.

By: Mikey

Mikey — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 21:49:28 +0000

My opinion is that “critical mass” rides do more harm than good for cycling advocacy. I am inclined to agree with the commenters who bemoan the presence of an element who just wants to create a bad scene, and who don’t really give a fuck about cycling advocacy. I don’t care to have fuckwads like that “represent” me.

Mikey

By: dentext

dentext — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 19:52:09 +0000

crazy idealists