The Bicycle Brief, Chapter 3: Friday Night Mass
On Friday night after work I dragged my tired ass to Critical Mass, my first experience riding in non-formation with other bikers for blocks and blocks. When I lived in San Francisco, I would get wistful when Critical Mass rolled around, since my mountain bike was stolen from a second-floor balcony by some soulless spider-man and I didn’t bother to replace it. So I finally went to check it out, arriving at the Wilshire & Western Metro stop slightly after the designated “show up” time and well before the thing got rolling.
We rode north, which was nice because I had plans later and they were to (a) scarf a Skooby’s dog and (b) meet a friend in North Hollywood to catch a ride to Spaceland. So heading up Western, cutting over to Cahuenga, continuing north to Hollywood Boulevard … all good. Very, very good. I split off from the group at Hollywood and also managed to lose track of two friends around dusk, about 8:15. So I got a half-hour communal ride in, and it was a lot of fun. But I have two questions:
(1) Is there a better way to corral bikes at intersections? I heard later that a corker (one who stops traffic on perpendicular streets to allow bikes to go through) got a ticket that night. If L.A. had countdown traffic lights, perhaps 150+ bikes could come to a stop, thus obeying the law. Hell, even Phnom Penh has these lights — though Cambodian drivers hit the gas when the light is 10 seconds away from “go.”
(2) What is this going to achieve? Yes, drivers were honking, but only a couple of times did I witness with my own eyes that it was a positive rather than “fuck you guys” honk. One of the supporters was even an ambulance driver (see video for proof). But it would be naive to think that none of those sounds came from angry people stuck in traffic. Yes, a lot of drivers seemed to agree that bikers belong on the road. But then what?
I’m divided. The people riding Friday night were unaggressive on a personal level, but running red lights as part of a chain of bikers amounts to an act of aggression — in a city plagued by road rage and high-speed chases. Bikers have to share the road, not dominate it. That said, it’s liberating being seemingly insulated by other riders. Emphasis on seemingly. I’m going to let fear creep in for just one moment because the next time I’m part of any group ride, this probably won’t be far from my mind. Just the act of one drunken driver; it could happen to any one biker, one pedestrian, another car or even a telephone pole — but it’s not unfathomable that some enraged person who has encountered a group ride like Critical Mass could gun it and do similar damage.
Wow but this is a complex issue with any group bike rides. Philosophically at least, Critical Mass is about aggressive domination by bikes. Maybe not so much in the various L.A. incarnations, but certainly in SF and NYC there is a much more militant/anarchistic mindset embraced.
Other rides such as RIDE-Arc (First friday of the month) and Midnight Ridazz (second Friday) are also prone to rolling through red lights but are notably more laidback in nature.
On a minor note, sometimes it can be really hard to decipher the intent of a horn honk. I actually have disdain for all horn honking be it supportive or deragatory because it can be jarring and distracting. But then I’m a “when in doubt just STFU” type.
Back to the corking issue. In my early participation with Midnight Ridazz I took great pride and joy in corking my share of intersections because it was my way of giving something back to the ride and my fellow riders. But I’ve long since stopped except for rare occasions because the rides can be so large and because of several tickets that have been issued to other riders who’ve been caught corking.
So to cut a long comment short, with group rides that exceed a certain number and get strung out along the route, there’s no real solution to handling intersections other than to do so individually. I run some and I stop at some always trying to ride with space around me so that if I decide to stop or if someone does something squirrely in front of me I won’t run them over or get rammed by a cyclist too close beside or behind me.
Anyway, letting the fear creep in on you isn’t a bad thing. Just don’t let it control you. You can’t do anything about the horrible shit like you linked to, but being ever aware of the bad that can happen is what will make you a safer and stronger cyclist.
Come check out an upcoming RIDE-Arc or Midnight Ridazz one of these days and I hope to see you out there on the streets.
i was there, and yes, there were a few angry drivers, but when isn’t there any other time on the streets of LA? but on the most part we receive a pretty postive reaction.
its not really meant to achieve anything more than just awareness and bicycle advocacy. if this ride gets at least one person out of their car and on a bike, thats a win.
its also a brief time where we are the dominate presence on the road.
next time stick around and do more than a couple miles, you’ll see some different reactions.
“If L.A. had…”
I think getting people to make that statement more often and more emphatically is one of the best achievements of rides like this. What if LA had more and better bike paths? What if LA had bike lanes out of the door zone? What if LA had some cross-town streets that favored bikes? What if LA had equal enforcement of traffic laws (harrass overweight SUVs as much as bikes)?
You’re pointing out specific things that could make biking a safer option, and you only went out for half an hour. Imagine what you might come up with if you went on a whole ride?
We saw you guys as we were swinging into taco bell before hitting the wiltern. Thanks for riding in the opposite direction of us.
I’ll do a whole ride some Friday. I just had other plans. I’ve also been wanting to do Midnight Ridazz for some time, but I guess I’m a little iffy.
Will, I hear you on the honking. I was reminded of how much it sucks on my ride home tonight when a woman blasted her horn at me from behind instead of doing what should be done — drivers, take fucking NOTE — and simply gone around me. (She had ample room. I was passing a parked car, and no one was coming in the opposite direction.) But instead I got a nice long honk that scared the shit out of me. Oh, and then her well-manicured hand flipped me off. Classy.
So, this is one of my concerns when I ask what rides like CM will achieve. There are still going to be these entitled, impatient ass faces who think bikers have no business being on the road. How do we teach those people? Can we do mandatory Return to Driver Ed for them every five years?
zota, you are absolutely right. And if getting lots of bikers on the road (whether in daily commutes or group rides) will inspire more people to bike, too, that will bring more voices to the cause and more weight to the arguments for better safety measures.
I love my bike and am all for people getting together and riding, but I find it kinda odd to watch the last part of that video where tons of bikers are running the stop lights and not only keeping the opposite traffic from going but narrowly missing pedestrians that have the right of way and aren’t expecting some bikes to come out of the middle of the stopped cars.
Aggressive biking is just as dangerous and annoying as aggressive driving.