One night a while ago a huge group of bicyclists went riding past my window and they seemed to be endlessly coming. My friend told me it's Critical Mass and they do these kind of bike rides every so often to sort of say "we're here" to other vehicles on the road.
What I instinctively felt was a problem is the style in which they ride--taking up the whole lane on the only 2-lane Mississippi Ave., probably causing most drivers to be irritated and take another street to their destination.
I am a bicyclist! I'm not a ride-from-here-to-Tigard kind of cyclist but I rarely take the bus and I only ride in cars, I don't have my driver's license yet.
I can identify with the pains of both bikers and drivers and how we irritate one another. But basically if all of us follow traffic rules when we are use our vehicles, there shouldn't be problems. Bicyclists who ride in the road where cars do are expected to follow the same laws as drivers.
That being said, there's always going to be bad drivers, and bad bikers. And an even deeper theory is that stupid bicyclists are actually stupid drivers who have had their license taken away, haha! If you can't follow the rules when you drive your car, why would you be any better on a bike? (At least a bike isn't like 2 tons of metal...)
But getting back to the Critical Mass bike-ride I witnessed, my thoughts are this:
What is the point of making our presence on the road known if we are not going to do it in a way that shows we can co-exist on the road?
Why do these rides have to be a big mass of people, clogging the road?
Riding single file and being really organized would make more of an impact, in my opinion. A seemingly endless stream of bikers as you drive down a long stretch of road would still be noticeable and more safe.
Because of how they currently go about things, even with the best intentions, Critical Mass isn't a group that I would get involved with right now.
I welcome any comments or opinions others may have, even if you don't agree with me.
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