This is how cyclists feel when they are surrounded be cars on busy roads because the cycling infrastructure is shit.
Except, cyclists can't kill people in cars with their bike.
So, lady, imagine our frustration.
this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2025
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"Dangerous to drivers"
Because you're going to give yourself an aneurysm over a minor inconvenience? You're in a giant suit of armor. You could hit every single one of those cyclists without sustaining even a scratch.
If the cyclists were actually dangerous to drivers, do you think the diver would be accelerating aggressively towards them?
Whenever I've been on a Critical Mass ride, we've always had designated "corkers", people whose job it was to block traffic with blockading/dancing/whatever while the others continued onward. Without people doing that, you run the risk of this sort of carbrained nonsense.
I agree that more bike lanes are needed and also cyclists need to be treated with the respect any life demands.
But flipping off a driver or generally blaming people who drive is fighting the wrong fight. I drive a car, I also cycle, being in a car doesn't make me anti-bike.
Fight the government - flip off the government - that is refusing to put in safe infrastructure for the bikes (with protests like this, of course. But don't flip off the driver, at best it does nothing, at worst it widens the gap between both groups and makes it easier to dehumanize and villianize the cyclists).
This isn't about flipping off a driver. This is flipping off a bad driver who doesn't understand that what they're doing is unsafe. They're flipping off bad behaviour.
Confused Portlander here. Why are these bikers fully clothed?
Idk about the usa but here in europe its EXPLICITLY written into the drivers code that even if someone is driving illegaly if its in your power to stop an accident you have to. So if a person steps in front of you randomly and you have half a second to react thats usually not your fault BUT if you for example saw that there was a school bus dropping kids off and then you hit a child running across the road theres a large chance that theyre gonna charge you. Of course in europe you have to put like 30 hours into theory and then a lot of driving lessons to get a license while in the usa you basically get a drivers license instantly and nobody gives a fuck so thats why people dont know the rules...
"Everyone except me is crazy."
ITT: confounded folks who live in areas where Critical Mass events don't take place.
ITT people not understanding that new and confusing situations are confusing.
ITV: a driver just hitting the gas pedal when confused
I'm referring to people in the thread acting like eveyone knows what a critical mass event is or that people should always be expected to know that a mass number of cyclists taking over the road is to promote better infrastructure. They are baffled that anyone would be confused.
Car brains are incapable of realizing that they're the deadly threat.
I said it elsewhere but it's worth repeating here that fighting drivers is fighting the wrong fight. Fight the government.
Even if you convince the drivers that you're right, nothing changes.
NGL, you're fighting the drivers for this, just in a different medium. You think the government is just doing shit for kicks and giggles? Nah, they don't put in bike lanes because too many residents complain when they lose their parking lanes to bike lanes, or the road gets widened solely to add a bike lane.
Sure there are some cases where the govt is making a bad decision, but don't think that you don't need to argue with those same people, just in a Public Information Session instead of on the road.
The drivers are the ones pushing the government to not expand bike infrastructure. There are massive complaints anytime bike Lanes or other protection is installed in major cities and anytime it's put up to a vote it's the car drivers out there voting no
Seriously, like has that dude never heard of a NIMBY?
Drivers fight tooth and nail to prevent anything from being implemented if it means they incur even the most mild of inconvenience.
She definitely should have either stopped or gone a different route, but it is incredibly dangerous to cycle head onto incoming motor traffic. Not really a great look for the cyclists.
Better off staying in the correct lane but hogging it so vehicles had no choice but to stay behind.
While she is clearly a dumbass for not just parking and waiting, why is the bike ride taking up all of the lanes in both directions? Was the street blocked off and this lady ignored it?
Why was there an oncoming car in her lane?
This really needs context.
The OP has some context but Lemmy is bad about showing the text included with a media post so it's easy to miss. The OP states it's a "critical mass" protest where large numbers of cyclists reclaim the street to demand better bicycle infrastructure
I figured that was happening, which is why I updated the title to explicitly state it's a Critical Mass event
I have no official context. If I had to guess this was some kind of organized night bike event. There were multiple cars on the road so likely not a closed course thing, probably organized only on social media. The car on the wrong side of the road was probably trying to go around the cyclists. The cyclist were likely in the wrong, but as a driver she definitely should have turned off of that street and gone around.
Not sure how she could turn off and go around when she has no idea why there is a massive amount of bikes, where they are coming from, or where they are going. Going around requires more information than someone surprised by a massive number of surprise bikes would have.
I'm not opposed to the idea, and I do think just stopping and waiting it out is the best option. She was wrong to just drive forward through the crowd of bikes, but maybe she hoped she would get past the mass of bikes faster?
But expecting someone to 'just go around' is pretty dismissive of someone's confusion when completely surrounded in a situation they don't understand. Like what if she just needed to turn left and go two blocks?
Pretty easy to just turn the keys and wait... What they did is risking injuring someone. And if you want to take the selfish route, she's putting herself at risk of a large group of now angry people. Turn off the multi ton vehicle and wait. It's not that hard.
Yes, stopping and waiting it out is what I said she should have done. Someone else said she should have 'just gone around'.