4/4     Stated purpose of the Critical Mass: To increase bicycle awareness
        and to convince people that biking is good.
        Actual effect of the Critical Mass: To piss off drivers and people
        who are dependent on cars and hope they move away.
        Kudos to everyone involved last week. Let's hope keep up the
        pressure and hope more drivers move out.                -biker
        \_ This if fucking retarded.  Try going outside the Bay Area to
           someplace that's actually bike friendly.  Places like that are the
           way they are because people built bike underpasses, overpasses
           paved trails, wide bike lanes on frontage roads and residential
           streets where cars go slowly, and a public transit system that
           actually works which allows bikes on all the time.  When this stuff
           is in place, it really doesn't matter how much traffic there is on
           the main car roads.  Do you think bikers in nicer parts of the
           country got these things by being childish hooligans and pissing
           everyone off?  Now, it may be that the people who run Berkeley are
           such a bunch of evil fucks that you're all doomed no matter what, but\
           in that case the target of all childish harassment should be the city\
           council trolls, not J. Random Commuter.
        \_ This if fucking retarded.  Try going outside the Bay Area
           to someplace that's actually bike friendly.  Places like
           that are the way they are because people built bike
           underpasses, overpasses paved trails, wide bike lanes on
           frontage roads and residential streets where cars go
           slowly, and a public transit system that actually works
           which allows bikes on all the time.  When this stuff is in
           place, it really doesn't matter how much traffic there is
           on the main car roads.  Do you think bikers in nicer parts
           of the country got these things by being childish hooligans
           and pissing everyone off?  Now, it may be that the people
           who run Berkeley are such a bunch of evil fucks that you're
           all doomed no matter what, but in that case the target of
           all childish harassment should be the city council trolls,
           not J. Random Commuter.
           \_ Generally, separate bike facilities are bike-unfriendly.
              For example, bike commuting on residential streets is almost
              certainly both slower and more dangerous than using using
              thoroughfares, due to poorer intersections.  -tom
           \_ And what is one example of such a city in the US?
        \_ Critical Mass doesn't have a stated purpose.  -tom
           \_ Critical Mass doesn't have a purpose.
              \_ It certainly doesn't have a purpose in the sense that the
                 SF Bike Coalition has a purpose.  I think the participants
                 do have a purpose for their participation, but it varies
                 from person to person.   -tom
                 \_ I assume you've been on more than one CM ride.  What was
                    your personal reason for participating?
                    \_ I've been on two.  One was because a friend of mine
                       wanted to do it for her birthday celebration.  One
                       was because I happened to run into Berkeley CM on
                       my way home and it was fun to ride in the pack with
                       the music.  -tom
        \_ Critical Mass is 5 percent jerks, 95 percent non jerks,
           it sucks that the 5 percenters ruin it for everyone.
           \_ Did the 95% show up to help the minivan woman and her kids to
              save her from being assaulted?
        \_ IMO an aspect of critical mass is an effort to get back some power
           through numbers, where ordinarily cyclists are a vast minority on
           the road and generally at a severe disadvantage vs. cars.
           \_ How about bikes follow the same laws as everyone else?  Like
              stopping at red lights and stop signs for starters.  If I drove
              like a lot of people bike I'd be arrested and my car impounded.