Well I just sent off a letter to the editor of the Post Gazette, about critical mass, I wrote because I think critical mass is a bad idea, and hurts cyclists in the long run.
Here is the letter I sent off to the editor
I would like to write about an “event” that will be happening on
Thursday of this week. It is call critical mass (they do it the last
Thursday of each month). I am writing to first make mention of it, and
to also state that not all cyclists are in support this “event” (I am
opposed to it). What is it you might ask, well it is a group of people,
that in a protest (thought they will claim it is not a protest) will
gather in large numbers and bike around the city (they start in Oakland
near the library) taking up all the lanes on the road, and blasting
though red lights, in an attempt to be annoying to people in cars, they
do this during rush hour to annoy as many people as possible, starting
at 5:30, you can see more info that they proclaimed at their site
http://www.pghcriticalmass.org/. I also want to state that there are
many cyclists that do not support this, and are against such actions as
we feel that they are not productive, and lowers the option that most
people that will be held up in the artificial traffic jam have of all
cyclists, and can set up a situation where people could very likely get
hurt. Lastly I would like to ask cyclists not to participate in this
“event” as it does not help the public’s image of cyclists, and there
are better ways of raising awareness about cyclists’ rights on the
roads.
Well there is the letter, I probably will generate some hateful responses to it from some in the biking community, but I don’t care, I rather not have them do it, since I feel it negatively affects me when I bike around, and I bike most places since I don’t have a car. I got in a debate about it over at a biking forum, there were all kind of opinions expressed there, but the majority of the people there are going to have a warped view of it since they feel breaking the law is ok for them but not for car, I say it is not ok for any one to break the law on a bike or in a car.
