Looks like there was a car-bike incident on Aloha tonight. From Seattle LJ:
There was a hit & run involving a car & a bunch of bicyclists (critical mass folks possibly?) on E Aloha in Capitol Hill about an hour ago – apparently a driver was either trying to back up into the street, go around the bikes, or was just irritated that he/she was stuck behind them and decided to drive straight through them and kept going. No one was killed, but at least one guy was bleeding. Apparently some of the bicyclists took off after the vehicle, but I don’t know if they caught him or her.
Seattle real-time 911 confirms a medic response on Aloha around the same time as the LJ report. The account above needs to be corroborated so no rush to judgment about the driver or the bicyclists.
Can judge Aloha, though. Relatively narrow Aloha is a bike/car traffic danger zone so seemed only a matter of time before something like this happened. With the tension between two-wheelers and four-wheelers, expect to hear more about this incident and more about bikes on streets like Aloha.
King 5 says the riders chased down the driver and smashed his windows and him. They said the passenger was “possibly” a pregnant woman.
I’ve been riding up Aloha (19th up to 15th and down to Broadway) a couple of times a week since Fred Hutch moved there in 1995. No accidents, no close calls, just a lot of considerate drivers! The uphill side is typically wide enough to allow cars to pass: I occasionally take to the sidewalk to allow traffic to pass.
Being an older person I generally obey all the traffic rules and expect motorists to do likewise. Cyclists and cars in general coexist fine in Seattle and I see little need for Critical Mass and its escapades.
I say this as one who was hit by a car while riding a bike (1980, Eugene, bike-town!) and nearly killed: got married on crutches as a result.
I’ve been riding daily in Seattle since 1982: worst thing that’s happened to me is being knocked off by an opening car-door (only once).
I agree that some areas may be hazardous but Miller area to First Hill or Lake Union is a breeze. U-DUB via Interlaken and Montlake is similarly safe. Ditto Fremont via Eastlake and Burke Gilman. CD via backstreets: easy. Queen Anne: no good answer!
http://www.king5.com/topstories/stories/NW_072508WAB_car_vs_
Link to the story and video as mentioned by john.
Took me too long to get to the scanner feed to find out what it was. Quite a commotion. Hope everyone’s all right.
http://arcanius.silverfir.net/blog/critical-mass-collision
Point of view from one of the cyclists involved.
Key phrase to me in this post:
“as you ride, you enter into a bit of a mob mentality”
From this guy’s description, this is even less about bicyclists’ right to the road and much more about lawlessness, entitlement and aggression (and I’m talking about the cyclists actions here).
Surrounding a person’s car to prevent them from driving is unreasonable, illegal and asking for trouble.
I think that the Critical Mass “events” need to be stopped by the police. Those who participate surely are breaking a number of laws, such as blocking an intersection, but the SPD just look the other way. There have been a number of incidents, not just the one yesterday. Does someone have to die before these “events” finally come to an end?
Critical Mass organizers claim to promote cycling, but they are doing just the opposite, i.e. pissing motorists off and making bicycles less acceptable on our streets. What they are all about is anger and passive-aggression.
The event yesterday was initiated when the driver of the car drove through a pack of bicyclists and OVER two of them. Imagine if something like this had happened at a parade, block party, in a parking lot, or outside of one of the stadiums as fans were pouring out after a game. Nobody would think twice about considering the driver of the car at fault – and a maniac.
Most critical mass demonstrations go off without a hitch. The fact that a driver can feel entitled to drive over people in their way says more about our culture as a whole than it does about critical mass.
Here’s what King5 didn’t mention…
“With two cyclists directly in front of him, two on the drivers side, and me and another guy on the passenger side of his car, the man at the wheel slammed on his accelerator and drove straight into two cyclists. One, a petite girl, got mostly out of the way. The second, a man, was not so fortunate. He fell to the ground and was pushed six feet across the pavement, his bicycle flattened, his hands on the car’s front bumper to avoid being pulled under, before the car turned left, ran over his right leg, and accelerated east on Aloha towards 15th.”
Blame both. Attacking car and driver was inexcusable. I’m sure there were enough people there with camera phones to document the heck out of the car/driver and provide all the evidence that the Police would need to identify and detain the suspect. Cars (unlike bikes) all have registration numbers: all you need is a pen and paper….
It’s obviously very difficult to detain a person in a vehicle, but resorting to violence is not justified and will do nothing to help the cause of cycling.
Let’s see…a pack of psychos surround my car in a threatening manner with me and my preggo wife in it. Seriously, can you blame the guy for freaking out and trying to gun his car out of there? I moved here from Portland and I often heard about the Critical Mass riders surrounding cars and screaming at motorists for simply driving their cars. Not normal acceptable behavior folks!
So basically you’re saying if you feel threatened by someone near your car, you have the right to run over them?
Yeah. I can blame the guy for freaking out. He ran over two people.
The psycho biker mob busted the car windows and flattened all four tires!!! The witness that was interviewed said she was scared to get out of her car because the bikers were THAT threatening, this was before he pulled away. Maybe just maybe the bikers are in fact to blame here. He’s innocent until proven guilty, no???
Everybody is innocent until proven guilty. The way the story sounds from the eyewitness + news reports, is that the driver is guilty of attempting to run over people, and some of the bicyclists are guilty of property damage. A window can be replaced for a couple hundred bucks. If someone is killed/crippled/seriously injured (which thankfully it sounds like nobody was) that is permanent. Not trying to excuse anybody, but lets keep in mind the scale of what was done on both sides.
Agreed, any bicyclists who engaged in property damage should be held accountable. But if the driver really did drive into & over bicyclists as the eyewitnesses say he did, then he should be held accountable for that as well. The latter sentiment is noticably absent from the King5 report.
I talked to witnesses and they all said that the man was going very fast through the bikers. The woman I spoke to said, “Maybe he didn’t mean to hit them, but I don’t understand why he didn’t stop!” Apparently, he continued driving with a man on his hood for almost an entire block.
I don’t care if you’re against these critical mass things – it isn’t acceptable for someone to hit a bunch of bikers. They weren’t threatening him, just stopping him.
I don’t really like the idea that critical mass bikers get to have the right of way in everything – stopping anyone that is also trying to get around. And their reactions afterwards weren’t entirely acceptable…but the King5 report wasn’t fairly reported.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008074874_w
Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2008 10:59:06 -0700
From: Ian Ith
To: [email protected]
Subject: Seattle Critical Mass
Hi. I am trying to find someone who can speak for Critical Mass today
so we can get the other, non-police side of what happened on Capitol Hill last night.
Ian Ith
Assistant Metro Editor
Seattle Times
206-464-2204.
*************************************
Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2008 12:53:34 -0700
From: Jonah Spangenthal-Lee
To: [email protected]
Subject: Last night’s incident
Hi folks,
My name is Jonah Spangenthal-Lee and I’m a reporter at The Stranger. I know some of you who were present curing last night’s unfortunate incident on Aloha haven’t been very happy with the press coverage thus far.
However, if anyone would like to talk to The Stranger what happened and respond to any of the coverage in the Times/King5, please shoot me an email with your contact info ASAP.
Thanks,
Jonah Spangenthal-Lee
Staff Writer
The Stranger
1535 11th Ave
Seattle, WA 98122
(206) 323-7101
This Times article takes a more open-minded approach to the story.
My original assessment was way off — this has very little to do with Aloha (though it’s interesting that it happened up here and not downtown or on Broadway) and everything to do with the ongoing tension between bikers and drivers. Silly to blame only Critical Mass or only clueless drivers for this mess.
Are you adults or just a bunch of entitled wanna-be punk kids? What does it take to be the bigger person? corking cars? sending people to the hospital? breaking two windows and slash four tires? sure, it makes you feel better, but what does it accomplish? if you’re looking for press like “rogue gang of bikers create gridlock, trash car and send driver to hospital”, then job well done.
sure sounds like the driver got the worst of this one.
trip to the hospital: ??, windshield: $350, rear window: $300, set of four tires: $600, collection of impounded car: $250, medical bills: ??, etc…
glad your homemade fixie needs a new front tire. good luck with that.
time to grow up kids.
– an ashamed cap hill resident in the non-fancy-pants side of the hill.
In San Francisco, an event known as “Critical Manners” was created as a response to Critical Mass. Critical Manners rides through the city on the second Friday of the month, with riders encouraged to obey all traffic laws such as stopping at red lights and signaling. (from Wikipeda)
The old retired motorcycle bikers are far more gentlemanly than the kritikal mass wannabes. This typifies the “alternative fascism” and “fake progressives reactionaries” that do nothing to help create a better society. It is simply egoism on the part of maleducated moronic poseurs that have not been anywhere and were likely jealous because the guy actually has a real girlfriend, a car and a life. Bring back the Guardian Angels chapter to Capitol Hill, they actually helped protect individuals on Broadway and 15th Avenue East and are Red Cross trained and Americorps funded.
Supposing you had just called a Medic One (dont bother with the badly run corporate versions,) ambulance and a hundred fake shipoopis decided that their drunken bicycle circus was jyst too special to let the Medic One through traffic. Lawsuits anyone!
This latest Critical Mass debacle shall likely fill the blogs of http://www.infowars.com global website as Seattle once again emerges at the nexus of the New World Order Megaspiracy run by Seattle Fake Hippies!!!!Ha Ha Ha! Let the fun commence!!!!
The one time I was on a critical mass ride and encountered an ambulance, all riders immediately let it through. I’d assume the same goes for fire trucks and (marked) police cars.
It’s not that Critical Mass Bicycle Club was not initially well intentioned whichever world league city it was concieved in; Paris, London, Berlin, Amsterdam or San Francisco. It’s just that by the time a fad reaches the Seattle area, local scenesters completely misinterpret the whole enchilada and turn it upside down. The same thing happened with the so called punkrock scene which initially began as a protest against differences between the various fashion cults by mixing fashion accesories from skinheads, bikers, teddy boys, mods, rockers and new wavers. although Seattle was not to blame as the progressive punks were rapidly eclipsed by rightwing cult orgs and corporado boutiques years before Seattle, by the time it got to town, it became a vehicle for immature egoists using fake satire to justify and celebrate a sociopathic fascistic behavior masquerading as some kind of liberation movement. The schlocksters invariably infest any fashion group groupie scenes in Seattle within a matter of weeks. Traveking bicycle shows are no exception for these grandstanders and their sheeple. Critical Manners out of San Francisco may be the next mutation for Seattle Critical Mass cyclists or perhaps a Skateboarders For Social Responsibility cult. The more fashion cults the merrier. It makes for a better circus. The Shipoopis need to educate themselves somehow.
C’mere, let me run over you with my car and see how much that’s worth to you.
Are you provoking me? (rhetorical)
I wouldn’t be the one standing in front of your car as you’re trying to leave. Don’t project your poor-constructed argument on me.
So if somebody is in your way then you consider yourself justified in running them over? Does your system of rules also apply if the person is a crossing guard, or a pedestrian crossing the street but jaywalking at a light?
Latest Times report includes interviews with eyewitnesses and tries to reconcile the disparities in stories.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008075512_r
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