June London Critical Mass ride pics.

Doug. | 27.06.2009 06:47 | Climate Chaos | Energy Crisis

Several hundred riders. Warm weather. Still no cycle police.

Start

Buckingham Palace

London Bridge

Usual confrontations with impatient drivers. Saw one cyclist rammed by a car but probably many more. They just can′t wait for the ride to pass and they sound their horns impatiently and try to nose in dangerously. At Piccadilly Circus two car cops gave a rider a fixed penalty notice for going through a red light. Haven′t they heard yet that CM is now a customarily held procession in law? At Hyde Park Corner a woman cop threatened a corker with arrest for obstructing the highway. There was a serious altercation in Oxford Street between some car occupants, who deliberately nosed into the ride, and riders. Allegedly a woman was punched. Anyway, this held up traffic for quite some time.

Several circuits of Parliament Square. A pleasant stop at Buckingham Palace where the ride with its loud music seems to be very well tolerated by the residents, unlike past experiences in the zone around Parliament. Finally a bike-high and sit-down on London Bridge.

Video to follow.

http://criticalmasslondon.org.uk/

Doug.

Comments

Hide the following 11 comments

Same old same old

27.06.2009 07:31

> Usual confrontations with impatient drivers.

Ever asked yourselves why they're impatient, or what part you lot play in provoking these confrontations?

All you lot are doing is alienating other road users and making them more aggressive towards the cyclists they encounter. I've asked before on here what CM hopes to achieve and the only answers I've received are along the lines of 'hey man, there's no leadership, it's not a movement so there's no plan'. Critical Mass achieves nothing, other than making the lot of the ordinary cyclist worse.

Cycling away from CM at 100mph

Why they are impatient and confrontational?

27.06.2009 08:57

Some drivers are impatient because there are far too many of them congesting each other with their frivolous and polluting journeys on our roads, plus their desire to get from A to B as quickly as possible regardless. Some drivers are confrontational because they think they can treat cyclists with utter contempt and endanger them in the process.

As for what CM hopes to achieve, "The broad aim is to celebrate cycling and sustainable transport, and to give cyclists safety in numbers", says Wikia.

Doug

Thanks

27.06.2009 10:12

to the cyclists who helped me by doing a magnificent job of straighting my mangled back wheel that a kindly cabbie not so lovingly rammed. I had a nice chilled out ride and felt very calm and relaxed,unlike aforementioned cabbie,stressed,high blood pressure.
Once again thanks guys,I appricate your show of unity.

Anon

Carlisle is car-sick

27.06.2009 10:35

Carlisle had its first ever critical mass last night. Between 20-30 of us cycled peacefully around the city for around an hour.
The vast majority of people smiled and cheered as we cycled past.

We achieved a solidarity between cyclist in our city, demonstrated a practical alternative
to car culture, entertained ourselves whilst calling for better facilities, and encouraged people to take direct action.

We'll be doing it every month from now on.

mark

why not post on london.indymedia.org ?

27.06.2009 11:11

it was a good ride, although a really stupid route, i thought: the bit by hyde park is just stupid to go down at any time unless you have a big enough group of riders to be able to cork the road. however, those at the front don't wait for those at the back (it's not a race), so it gets strung out and that's when disasters happen.

anyway, main point of this post was to ask why you don't post this on

http://london.indymedia.org - this is not national news, but is relevant to the region, so support your local indy collective! ;-)

londoner

Anon?

27.06.2009 12:19

Where did you get your wheel bent? Was it near Wellington Arch? If so I might have seen that confrontation. Also, I intend posting to London Indymedia when the video is finished.

Doug

bike fascism

27.06.2009 12:20

You bike fascists should give it a rest. CM isn't going to achieve anything apart from pissing off ordinary people who need their cars to get to and from work. Public transport is crap and expensive and not everyone can ride a bike - the disabled, the elderly, the overweight etc.

Anarcho-Clarkson

get real

27.06.2009 13:01

Sorry but this is London not the middle of nowhere, public transport is everywhere. Excuses like being overweight or needing to get to work are dont really fit.....the older get it for free anyway.

Good work. Why should us public walkers/cyclists have to put up with the noise and fumes these cars create not to mention like identified the lack of patience by so many drivers

Follow-up

29.06.2009 09:47

It was my first CM, I'm ashamed to say, although I've known about it on the fringe of my radar for a while. A friend dragged me a long and I am grateful. It's a celebration, statement and assertion.

I got home and googled and found the judgment from the House of Lords in Kay v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis ([2008] UKHL 69:

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldjudgmt/jd081126/metro-1.htm). A joy to read the judgment of Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, who lives in Hampstead and cycles to the House of Lords every day.

If anyone finds out what happens to the incidents later on, please post that. I'd really like to know if

- the fixed penalty notice gets withdrawn;
- the cabbie who rammed a bike gets his cabbie licence withdrawn or warned off etc.

As for obstruction, I cycled around the County Hall roundabout on Saturday and a bendy bus basically grid locked it. I got past it and the traffic lights were green on the other side, so if cars need to wait for cyclists once a month for 10 min, I cannot see a problem with that.

What I really don't get is that cabbies haven't clued on to the fact that this is at the same time each month and look out for it and try to avoid it. It's been going for 15 years after all.

Andrea

Well done..

30.06.2009 10:35

I was one of the drivers caught up in the event... I only had to wait 10 minutes or so, not a problem.

What I do have a problem with is cyclists who fail to obey the law, or even just ride without common courtesy. Recenly my wife was struck whilst crossing the road by a cyclist going the wrong way up a one-way street, she was knocked over; did the cyclist stop or appolgise? No, just rode off. This really anagonises other road users.

Also don't forget, we petrol heads, or in my case diesel head, pay a lot of tax for the privalage of driving on the roads of London, and I don't just mean CC.

Maybe the solution therefore is to tax all cyclists, this could easily be done by adding a surcharge to all tyres, repair kist and brake parts. Then motorists would have one less thing to complain about.

What do you think, good idea?

BTW, I also ride a bike.

Martin Wasley
mail e-mail: martin@queens-park.com

I pay my road tax .... blah blah blah

02.07.2009 20:24

Martin Wasley , NO , it's not a good idea. You pay 'taxes' , lets say VED (there is no such thing as road tax) as a privilege for using a motorised vehicle.

The government uses 'taxes' (in particular VED) to mould transport policy, therefore because cyclists cause NO damage to road surfaces, because they are environmentally sound, because they are social vehicles and enhance communities, because those that use them are often far fitter than the average 'cager' and don’t clog up the NHS ....... because of all this, the government doesn't want to dissuade the populous from taking up cycling .... therefore no direct 'taxes' ... except through VAT.

YES, there are some cyclists that should be more polite ... but lets face facts shall we, how many motorists stick to the speed limits ? NONE

How many motorists use mobile phones whilst driving ? MILLIONS

How many are on the roads, unlicensed, drunk/drugged , uninsured/untaxed ? MILLIONS

How many of all these people are driving a half ton + killing machine ? ALL OF THEM

If you really ‘rode’ a bike …. Then you would know all this …. Wouldn’t you ?

AndyManc