This was a Critical Mass event, which is why the bicyclists are taking up all of the street as a way to reclaim the streets and protest the lack of safety for riders under usual conditions. It’s not legal, but protests are never useful if they’re fully legal now, are they.
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.
Yes the bicycleist are wrong and are only hurting the cause. What if the lady had to get to work with no orher way, or what the hell they do if there was emergency that ambulance needed access. Riding bike on wrong side of the road just makes them assholes. If you don’t know its a protest it ineffective. Besides protesting late at night is also dumb. This isn’t a protest, just bicycles wanting to be dicks.
Protests need to make sure that no one is ever inconvenienced or made uncomfortable. That way people can just ignore it and we can all feel better about ourselves
That’s why the best protests are done by leaving a very mildly offensive joke on mastodon.
Can you explain?
Sarcasm.
Oh, oops, thank you. I got stuck imagining that you were referring to something that actually worked 😂 hoo boy not my shining moment.
Be idealist all you want. If you try to convince someone to join or support your cause by angering them, it won’t work. You form enemies, not allies.
If the purpose of this was to make the bikers feel good while turning people against bikers, I’m sure it worked. This protest isn’t going to make someone in a car 30 minutes late and think “hey those cyclists just going through red lights, the wrong way, making me late, they got a real good point.”
People need to be realistic and realize that whimsical ideals don’t seamlessly translate to reality.
You are the white moderate MLK warned was worse the Klan members.
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No, it doesn’t make you racist. You’re just showing the same moral failings as the white moderates MLK warned us about. You prefer an unjust peace to any struggle for justice. If you were in 1940s Germany, and you were stopped at a train track watching cattle cars full of people being taken to death camps, your only complaint would be that the train was blocking your path.
It’s wild that you can claim to know exactly what I would do. A smart man would know better than to make such strong assumptions about someone’s character.
Your logic doesn’t hold up because this isn’t a struggle for justice. This is people driving head on into traffic through a red light. What are they accomplishing with this, what justice are they championing? Being able to ignore all traffic laws and put themselves in danger by doing so?
By your warped world view I can do anything I want and say it’s for a cause, and if you disagree you only want unjust peace. This is a blanket dumb stance you can take to literally justify anything. You can say ICE deporting everyone is right, and anyone saying it isn’t only wants the unjust peace of illegals being here. No nuance. That’s a dumb ass stance but your logic supports it.
This is paper thin logic hanging onto a concept you don’t fully understand.
So the neat thing about ambulances, and other emergency vehicles, is they have flashing lights AND sierns to let people know they are there.
And protesters always swiftly move to let emergency vehicles through, because they know not to block actually useful vehicles like ambulances and fire engines
I agree, crowds of protesters are far more observant than drivers. I’ve seen ambulances stuck in new York traffic before
This guy has a picture of it happening once, in another country, with people stationary on foot, it has to be true. Unless there is a picture floating around out there of people not moving… That would blow this whole thing up.
God, anecdotal evidence is such brain rot.
That’s been my experience, bikes also clear out way faster than cars.
Pretty much, more or less, yah.
And bikes are more agile and capable of getting out of the way than cars are
I’m guessing they would get out of the way?
Then she would have to pull over and wait 10-15 minutes for them to pass. Geez.
In an emergency there would be lights and ee-oo-ee-oo and the bikers would definitely part to let the emergency vehicle.
Literally about 30 seconds, not 10 minutes lol
It’s a protest not a rally.
Be glad they’re not carrying bricks.
I’m with you. I get this is a protest, but I don’t protest gun violence against kids by parading them down a firing range. Taking up the whole road can result in you getting hurt, it doesn’t matter what should be our what your ideals are. It’s a road for cars and behaving like this increases the chance that someone gets hurt.
On top of that this does what every protest that interrupts traffic does, makes people dislike you and your cause.
“I don’t protest racial injustice by going to a segregated lunch counter. That could get you hurt.”
-Lightor, c. 1960.
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Lightor, 1960:
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It’s a metaphor
A poor one that makes a ton of assumptions about my character and what I would do during Nazi Germany all because I said that this isn’t an effective way to gain supporters… Really?