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There’s nothing like a good protest ride. And while the Urban Advocate can’t condone any breaking of traffic laws, I though you might find the following interesting. From a recent posting on a listserve dedicated to bicycle and pedestrian professionals:
Last Friday a group of some 30 bicyclists protested cars and rode their bikes on the Santa Monica and San Diego Freeways in Los Angeles. A couple clips were posted on You Tube. Look how much faster they’re going than the cars!
There are times when events such as Critical Mass can be effective- when they’re done in a CELEBRATORY spirit and bicyclists are riding to PROMOTE rather than to PROTEST. However, once Critical Mass, and more particularly- these “Crimanimals” start moving toward protest, 2 things:
1. Seems like these guys are more into getting a kick out of breaking the law and being a pain to car drivers. I have a lot of pent up frustration towards cars- I would certainly be tempted to unleash it!
2. More importantly, a protest such as this is counter productive- since if you just go around pissing off car drivers.. they’re more likely to drive around being pissed off cyclists and brushing our shoulders with their 2-ton weapons called motor vehicles. They are much LESS likely to ride a bike after such a demonstration, than if some POSITIVE outreach had been done.
Also- I’ve posted one of their videos on my blog before (out of amusement, really- it made me crack up) and had a good Comments debate that lead to the above conclusions.
My thoughts-
RJ
*my blog is currently down at the moment, but should be back up soon.
Agreed RJ. I too have posted to my blog and had a healthy little comment-chat with apparently some organizers of this ride.
Seems like a lot of energy was expended to explain how this ‘action’ has a positive message. That energy could be better spent trying to find ways for cars and bikes to share the roads. Civil disobedience as a means of raising cycling awareness has begun to have too much ambiguity; it does more harm than good if the purpose isn’t clear. When you have to constantly tell people what the positive message is, the public’s take-away from the ‘action’ is more negative than beneficial. Sure, these group rides can be fun and it’s empowering to join in mobthink and ‘take back the streets’, but tacking political messages to something that has more validity as an anarchistic joyride strikes me as being a wee bit disingenuous.
i don’t know if it was necessarily the most productive way of going about things but at the same time i don’t see what it hurt. i understand they broke the law, yada yada.. but at the same time they essentially only rode their bikes past parked cars. i don’t see how it would have upset the drivers. a driver in that sort of situation is either used to it or frustrated about the commute not about cyclists passing them on the freeway, which is all they did.
i’m a huge fan of these freeway rides they (crimanimalz) do and think they are totally productive. imagine sitting in your car and you’ve got 30+ people blowing by you on bikes. i think that is a fairly good eye opener. “ride a bike. you’d be home by now” couldn’t be expressed in a more effective way.
why should i or any other rider obey traffic “laws” that were set in place with zero relevance to my mode of transportation.
Some drivers may love seeing something new on the freeway. Atleast they get a show with their parking. Others are indifferent and they look down to change the radio station. A few are angry because perhaps they worry that these cyclists can get hurt or they’re jealous. (I’d be jealous.) Furthermore, the news about the purpose of the ride to the masses does not always have to happen over night. It can occur gradually. At the least, this “joyride” has raised questions and excitement. People are taking risks, and may make a mistake, but hopefully the fun and protest can remain — the structure we have set up at the moment can’t sustain itself. A few crimanimalz may be what’s necessary to take us a wee bit closer to a democratic discussion of change in our society. These people can regroup and continue if mistaken. But if they do nothing, they’re no better off than being parked on the 405N on a Friday.
eeeeehhhwwww, we otta ride the parkway east during rush hour! that shit would be fun. my mom called me one day telling me she saw two kids getting pulled over by the sq. hill tunnel on the parkway. but there was only two, what if we had 22 people?
Not much negative confrontation evident in these videos, primarily contrast. Quite vivid to see frustrated commuters in semi-parked cars being passed by happy riders on their bikes. I struggle for a protest analogy, but lets try the hippie girl putting a flower in the gunbarrel of the soldier. The more confrontational Critical Mass rides I’ve been in (where we made people late to pick up their kids at daycare – shame) felt like stonethrowing and tire burning. Other than the admittedly shocking setting on six lanes of freeway, how is this really different than any one of us blowing by cars creeping through city traffic?
i passed about a dozen cars and trucks on 5th this morning on my commute. you might think i was just commuting, but that was my dangerous confrontational anti-car protest of the day.
also i broke the speed limit a few times.
in that whole video the only thing that seemed to approach “stupid dangerous” was the triple tallbike.