Critical Mass Dublin July 2010

HivemindXX

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Making people aware of cyclists is already being done on a daily basis by people who commute as part of the traffic, not people heading out to disrupt it a few times a month.

^
This sums it up.

A lot of the talk by CM supporters (we're just out for a cycle, not deliberately disrupting, we're TRAFFIC!!!, etc) is kind of insulting to our intelligence. If you want to go out for a social cycle and enjoy the camraderie there are plenty of places and times you can far, far better achieve that. CM riders are not TRAFFIC they are protestors. The purpose of CM is to disrupt, presumably to draw attention to something, but you guys are pretty vague on what. At least if you honest about that you'd have something.

I won't be attending except accidentally as part of my normal, day in, day out cycling around the city.

Now if someone wanted to organise a weekly mass cycle around the Doughiska cycling atrocity I'd be all for it (although it would be a bit far for me to attend!). The difference being that that would be drawing direct attention to one appallingly bad bit of infrastructure. One that the local authorities seem to think is a model for future infrastructure which is something they need to be corrected on.

niceonetom

Down with this sort of thing.

TinyExplosions

niceonetom wrote: »

Down with this sort of thing.

Careful now....

Mr. Presentable

CM in NY. Watch the cop!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32-ldyQ3fRE

-Chris-

Jesus, that's a pretty hardcore shove!

briano

One cyclist in Dublin wrote: »

Critical Mass Budapest, grown very quickly. Amazing video online.

http://vimeo.com/4251572

Not wanting to be pedantic or anything, but that CM ride was

1) On a Sunday
2) On Closed Roads
3) Had the approval of the City (you can see police blocking off side streets)
4) Had organizers/marshals (?) in high-vis along the route.


So, yes, CM budapest looks amazing. Inclusive, well organized and a great tool for getting Cyclists out and socializing. It also looks like it is the complete opposite of what you are doing.

SleepDoc

Hang on a second. The speed limit in the city is 30 kph, so how will motorists be unduly inconvenienced by bikes (whatever number of them) travelling at a reasonable pace??

Cabaal

This appears to send the wrong message to me, your only going to piss of motorists if you block streets. How about just a load of cyclists showing how much faster it can be to get around the city?

ROK ON

@Cabaal. Excellent idea.
A series of timed commutes covered by media may do more.
Get folk to drive/bus/cycle to work on alternate days and keep time.
Get a radio program to follow your progress.
A far more thoughtful and productive method of showing the utilityof the bike.

niceonetom

ROK ON wrote: »

@Cabaal. Excellent idea.
A series of timed commutes covered by media may do more.
Get folk to drive/bus/cycle to work on alternate days and keep time.
Get a radio program to follow your progress.
A far more thoughtful and productive method of showing the utilityof the bike.

I think RTE actually did something like that on Capital D. The wrap-up on it was something like "the bicycle was the fastest but, of course, you'd have to be totally insane to ride a bike in Dublin."

niceonetom

I think the OP should adopt better tactics when posting this stuff online. He/She is getting battered here.

CM supporters should agree to all converge on the forum at a designated time of high use and relentlessly bombard it with slow and pointless posts that don't actually go anywhere.

When other forum users get irritated by this they should be greeted with a to inform them that this is both a celebration and a protest. With this tactic hearts and minds will soon be changed, I have no doubt.

Cabaal

niceonetom wrote: »

I think RTE actually did something like that on Capital D. The wrap-up on it was something like "the bicycle was the fastest but, of course, you'd have to be totally insane to ride a bike in Dublin."

So its been done, all we need is to re-do it and this time actually put a positive spin on it instead.

blorg

nipplenuts wrote: »

CM in NY. Watch the cop!

There was quite a scandal over that; the officer, Patrick Pogan, also lied in his deposition when laying charges against the cyclist, basically made up a whole load of stuff that the cyclist had assaulted him and it was self defence. He lost his job and was convicted of filing false documents (barring him from ever working in law enforcement again) but acquitted of assault.

blorg

SleepDoc wrote: »

Hang on a second. The speed limit in the city is 30 kph, so how will motorists be unduly inconvenienced by bikes (whatever number of them) travelling at a reasonable pace??

They won't go a reasonable pace though, what would be the point of that, the point is to piss off motorists remember!

Nietzschean

SleepDoc wrote: »

Hang on a second. The speed limit in the city is 30 kph, so how will motorists be unduly inconvenienced by bikes (whatever number of them) travelling at a reasonable pace??

for one commuters tend to go far slower than 30km/hr, though in friday traffic not many will be going that speed in the city anyway. Regardless, these things are supposed to go at a slow pace for cyclists, which if your a driver is first gear territory and hugely frustrating. They should just go do it on a sunday and no one will care... or how about that giant park we have in the city...great place for them.....

Morgan

I think the Bike To Work scheme will do more to advance these aims than "Critical Mass" ever will.

Nietzschean

niceonetom wrote: »

I think RTE actually did something like that on Capital D. The wrap-up on it was something like "the bicycle was the fastest but, of course, you'd have to be totally insane to ride a bike in Dublin."

Didn't top gear do that in london too? car vs bike vs boat or something?

-Chris-

niceonetom wrote: »

I think the OP should adopt better tactics when posting this stuff online. He/She is getting battered here.

CM supporters should agree to all converge on the forum at a designated time of high use and relentlessly bombard it with slow and pointless posts that don't actually go anywhere.

When other forum users get irritated by this they should be greeted with a to inform them that this is both a celebration and a protest. With this tactic hearts and minds will soon be changed, I have no doubt.

I think you'd set a record for fastest locked thread in the history of Boards... :P:D

briano

blorg wrote: »

There was quite a scandal over that; the officer, Patrick Pogan, also lied in his deposition when laying charges against the cyclist, basically made up a whole load of stuff that the cyclist had assaulted him and it was self defence. He lost his job and was convicted of filing false documents (barring him from ever working in law enforcement again) but acquitted of assault.

IIRC the cyclist was no angel himself, he had been done for manslaughter a few years earlier or something to that effect?

edit: That is not to say that Rogan was anyway justified

Chips Lovell

Nietzschean wrote: »

Didn't top gear do that in london too? car vs bike vs boat or something?

Car, bike, speed boat and public transport. Bike won.

-K2-

To sum up: you are campaigning for rights which you already have and are doing this in a way which could only lead to people wishing to remove those rights from you.

penexpers

One cyclist in Dublin wrote: »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyGxlTmght8

Sigh. Is it possible to make a cycling related video without using that goddamn Queen song?

Cabaal

Nietzschean wrote: »

Didn't top gear do that in london too? car vs bike vs boat or something?

yep they did and the bike won, followed by the boat, followed by public transport and finally the car
Think it was something like 26miles of a route...though could be wrong

blorg

briano wrote: »

IIRC the cyclist was no angel himself, he had been done for manslaughter a few years earlier or something to that effect?

edit: That is not to say that Rogan was anyway justified

Long (the cyclist) struck and killed a pedestrian while driving a car in 2001 but wasn't charged with anything. Not quite "done for manslaughter" In any case his history isn't particularly relevant in that Pogan didn't have any knowledge of him before, he just lunged at a random cyclist. More serious though was the filing false charges; were it not for the video evidence Long was facing a charge of assault on a police officer and could well have been convicted and faced jail time- over something that was completely made up by the officer. Like many CM activists Long does come over as more than a bit of a twat but the main story here is the corrupt police.

mloc123

One cyclist in Dublin wrote: »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyGxlTmght8

ugh, ****ing hipters

Esroh

If you really want to raise awareness of cycling in Dublin why not follow the lead of Groups and clubs all over the country and Organise a Cycle like the Charity rides and Sportives that are on every week

Take for example the Sunday of the October Bank Holiday (the Day before the Dublin City Marathon) where the traffic plan is already in place and people are prepared for the disruption and ask can you have a mass cycle on the route. It would probably be a World First.
Think of it if 8thousand + people can prepare for running 26 miles how many people would turn up to ride around Dublin. You would get support from the whole city

DirkVoodoo

el tonto wrote: »

Car, bike, speed boat and public transport. Bike won.

Although Hammond made cyclists look like a bunch of sweaty and angry little men who argue with buses and break red lights.

We aren't all like that...

Rokko

Hi everyone

I'm looking for some kind person to let sit on his/her tandem a blind person friend of mine. We have no a tandem but we all want to come to this critical mass.

Anyone there so kind to bring my friend around?
She is strong and willed to do most of the work

Thanks

monument

One cyclist in Dublin wrote: »

Dublin is one of the most car dependent cities in Europe, and not very cycling friendly. Apart from the infrastructure deficiencies, driver awareness of cyclists is poor compared to most other European cites.

Dublin City Centre in general is far from "not very cycling friendly".

Maybe you missed the whole 30km/h thing? Or the increase in cycling related to Dublin Bikes and the bike-to-work tax break?

Cycling has become far nicer in the city in the last few years. If you don't agree I would suggest that you read up on how to cycle in traffic (read CycleCraft etc).

One cyclist in Dublin wrote: »

To drawing attention to how unfriendly some streets in the city are for cyclists. Not to mention cyclists are TRAFFIC as well.

Taking away motorized transport dominance for a few minutes is a physical world statement that cyclists are traffic as well.

That sounds more like cyclists as a protest, not as traffic. No more than any other protest is traffic.

If you want to make cycling normal you have to stop acting abnormally. The people who will cycle for fitness will mostly look into this them self, for others you should be selling how easy cycling is, not that's good for fitness.

Junior

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Although Hammond made cyclists look like a bunch of sweaty and angry little men who argue with buses and break red lights.

We aren't all like that...

Actually Hammond wasn't allowed to break any red lights.. They did show him stopping a number of times as other cyclists sailed past..