The Aloha bike vs. car incident has blown into a big ugly thing. Reminds me, sadly, of how I felt about the coverage of the the Kyle Huff massacre. Amid all the questions about human beings, violence and hope, you also need to ask this:
Why did it happen on Capitol Hill?
The reductionist answer is because this neighborhood was on the way. Coincidence. Critical Mass was just passing through the core of the city.
You could also blame the neighborhood’s affluence — people so rich and entitled that they can’t be bothered by a cyclist on their bumper. Sure, the driver was from the University District, but he was the kind of person you see on this part of the Hill all the time, no?
Or, perhaps, blame the liberal politics of the area for creating a warped environment where people believe their cause justifies civil disobedience without consequences. Easier to stand in front of cars when you believe the drivers are really on your side.
So, why Capitol Hill? The answer is probably parts of all of the above. And what that really means is that if you’re taking an extreme view of the situation — the Critical Mass riders were 100% justified, the driver did the right thing, etc., you’re probably wrong.
“And what that really means is that if you’re taking an extreme view of the situation…you’re probably wrong”
What a reasonable voice in such unreasonable times.
I find the whole situation to be pretty ugly, on both sides. This isn’t the first time that a confrontation has come out of a critical mass ride. it is an unabashedly provocative event, and the danger is mob mentality (or the fear of mobs) can escalate situations beyond reason.
my hope is that everyone on both sides looks at these kinds of ugly encounters, and asks themselves if this is really the world that we want to live in. rather than blame of vilify, the real question is not whether the driver of the bicyclists are at fault. the real question is this: do we want to solve our problems through extremism (antagonistic and violent) or mutual understanding?
Personally i’d like to see more of the latter.
Capitol Hill Community Council Transportation Committee!
We made the home page of CNN last night. Our 15 minutes has finally arrived. Woo hoo.
with all due respect, more sharrows won’t help this kind of thing
I did learn a few things in all of the uproar. First, I had no idea the city actually recommends E Aloha as a bike route for getting across Capitol Hill (so says Golob over on Slog). That’s downright odd. Second, I had no idea so many people think it’s okay to (threaten to) run over a cyclist if they’re bothering you. Third, this reinforces my feeling that more and more drivers are using E Aloha as a thoroughfare to avoid congestion elsewhere, and it’s probably time to slow things down.
I have heard about and seen Critical Mass pass through Capitol Hill without much incident (although not necessarily creating good will either) in the past. This time, they rode on a part of Aloha (14th to 15th) that is particularly inconducive to traffic of any sort. Not only is the road narrow, dark and curving but it has the half-in-the-road half-on-the-curb parked cars (I’m mean – is that even really legal to park like that?). It is difficult enough for a car and anything larger than a small car to pass each other safely there and along most of Aloha. But this stretch of road seems like a less surprising site for an incident.
Perhaps CM has ridden on this part of Aloha without trouble in the past. But Aloha in general is an undersized road filled with cars and oversized vehicles that all barely fit as they speed through the area.
hmmm, maybe you would think differently if your loved one was getting their fucking leg run over. i would be pretty glad if there was a mob to protect her/him.
the (relative) tally still stands:
number of drivers critical mass riders have killed: zero
number of seattle bikers that negligent drivers have killed: many many many
@girlgerms
i might think differently if any of my loved ones were dumb enough to surround a 2 ton vehicle, taunting the driver nonetheless, while they were on their 15 pound bike. but then, my loved ones are smart enough to know not to antagonize someone who’s thoughts aren’t known, who is also driving a potential killing machine.
maybe the mob should never have been and nobody would have gotten their “fucking leg run over”.
“i would be pretty glad if there was a mob to protect her/him.”
I would prefer the police, because that is their function. Remember that story a year or two ago about the guy who got assaulted by a mob at a hardcore show in sodo? someone in the club got stabbed, and the mob thought the guy who tried to break it up did it. so they chased him into the street and almost beat him to death.
a mob mentality is the LAST thing I would want anyone to be “protected” by.
I’m all for events like CM if that’s what people wish to do. but there is no reason why these events can’t be better organized. get a parade permit from the city, with police to handle traffic control and crowd management. do it right, and these things wouldn’t happen.
I’ve been riding that stretch of Aloha without incident, couple of times a week, year-round, since ~ 1995. Traffic is generally light and always seems well-behaved and patient.
I was thinking of actual discourse, conversation, argument, that kind of stuff, between Critical Mass / other cyclists /residents. Then CHCC could suggest signage changes, bike route designations etc to S-DOT to get peoples’ ideas implemented.
CHCC has done that in the past: I won their competition years ago with my suggested addition of the “EXCEPT BICYCLES” sign to the “DO NOT ENTER” sign at 10th & Aloha. Not world shattering but it helps.
Agreed, no more stupid sharrows, which are (IMHO) just a waste of time and paint.
You are going to wait for the police while someone is getting run over? Keep in mind that the driver had no idea he ran someone (and his bike) over and if he had taken a right instead of a left the innocent bystander would likely be dead.
zeebleoop, the guy who got run over was not taunting or antagonizing anyone, even the driver said that. He was a 35 year old lawyer who hadn’t ridden critical mass in years. He was just riding his bike down the street.
There’s a difference between a mob chasing someone down to hurt them and a group of people actively stopping someone from killing people while they are in the act. The broken windows and the u-lock to the driver’s head were uncalled for and that is why the police are involved. I think they were a completely reasonable response to assault with a deadly weapon, though.
Gregor, how about you get a parade permit the next time you drive home? Bikes need a parade permit just as much as cars do (maybe even less so — since bikes have the rights/responsibilities of both cars and pedestrians). The only difference is the bikes don’t kill people or destroy the environment.
if there are fifty, sixty, one hundred, three hundred individuals on bikes stretching over multiple blocks taking up multiple lanes, then yes, they should have a permit. it would be the responsibility of the police to manage traffic and ensure the safety of both the riders and the general public.
if critical mass were to be responsible and partner with the police, then this situation could have been diffused before it reached the level it did. in that case, nobody would have to “wait” for the police. the police would already be there.
the reasonable thing would be to take the safety of everyone involved into account and take measures to ensure that the event is positive, uneventful, and most of all safe.
Also, you should read up on the facts of the incident and interviews before making judgments. Even the driver admits this was 100% his fault and issued an apology.
Is he a bicycle “extremist” too?
http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/07/critical_mass_roundup
Gregor, why don’t you get a permit when you are part of a “mob” of hundreds of cars taking up several lanes? The entire point of critical mass is to spread awareness that bicycles and cars need to share the road. Obviously they aren’t doing a good enough job and need to ramp up their efforts to be taken seriously.
i said in my original post that i thought the situation was ugly and that both sides are at fault. the driver should not have driven his vehicle in such close proximity to the bicyclists.
if 300 individuals in cars met up in a parking lot and drove through town, blocking intersections, running red lights, then they would need a permit too.
it is a false argument to make this a cars vs bicyclist issue, and I am not remotely interested in taking sides in that. i think that binary us-versus-them thinking is pretty unappealing.
the issue is safety and fairness, and I don’t think it’s too much to ask the police to participate to protect everyone. that would be the responsible thing to do. groups that are responsible and rational get taken seriously.
It was not critical mass’s fault whatsoever. It was 100% the driver’s fault. The driver admits it. The witnesses admit it. The critical mass participants admit it. The innocent bystander with the crushed bike and leg admit it. Why can’t you?
Having a police escort everywhere you go is not reasonable advice. Do you also believe the Shannon Harps murder was partially her fault because she didn’t have a bodyguard?
This is absolutely an “us vs. them” issue. “Them” are dangerous people. This is not a trivial philosophical issue. Hundreds of people have DIED because of behavior like this driver’s. Not in critical mass events where bicyclists have solidarity (or a “mob”), but in daily commutes and recreational rides. If you blame these bicyclists for taking part in some sort of radical act and dying, I certainly categorize you under “THEM.”
what do I know, i’m just a bug.
I saw the clan-o-bikes on their way up the hill and they were throwing things at cars, driving head on into unsuspecting traffic, yelling at cars and pedestrians, completely disregarding all sense of order and acting like children. That isn’t protesting, that’s assholism.
Andrew, although I’m not a bicyclist I agree that single bicyclists seem to be able to ride Aloha without incident and traffic is generally not heavy (unless you get caught in the daily 3pm school-year exodus of students and their crazy-driving parents at the private schools on 19th and 22nd).
My point was that the area around 13th-15th is the ultimate choke point along Aloha and that it likely contributed to the claustrophobic atmosphere surrounding the incident.
girlgerms, I *do* have a permit for traveling in a mob of hundreds of car drivers. It’s called a driver’s license. If I abuse my driving privilege by smashing into other drivers or bicyclists, that license gets taken away.
By contrast, any hooligan with an inflated sense of self-worth gets to call himself a vigilante. Maybe we should start licensing bicyclists to ensure they aren’t psychopaths and assault suspects.
It amazes me how much “stinkin’ thinking” is going on.
Critical Mass is not a random group of bicyclists who just happened to be riding on the same street at the same time, it is an organized event. The website promoting the event lists a specific time and date and start location. That means it is organized and intentional.
The attempts to present Critical Mass as the same thing as a bunch of cars driving on the road only with bicycles is just absurd. You don’t see a “Critical Drive” event every month where hundreds of motorists gather at Westlake and then drive around the city as a mob, “corking” side streets with their cars so all those drivers can stay together as a group and run red lights and stop signs in the process, do you now? No, you don’t.
So no, Critical Mass is not the same as the typical car traffic. The most similar thing with cars I can think of is a funeral procession, where a large group of cars gets together to all go as a group, and the larger versions of this do have a police escort and its the police who take control of intersections and countermand the traffic signals so that the group of cars can stay together, but its not the individual drivers who are part of the procession who take it on themselves to do this.
I think Critical Mass here should be shut down. I bike to work most days, and I think Critical Mass is creating more problems for me as a bicyclist, and I see them as an obstacle to a better biking environment in Seattle.
… but those who support vigilantism and mob action, under ANY circumstances, are part of the problem, not the solution. End of story.
Give all the skateboarders free ice cream and broadway dickburgers and have a thousand of em cork critical mass and pelt them with rotten eggs and surplus salmonella tomatoes donated by the department of agriculture….why those nazoviet cyclists and their made in china sweat shop bicycles painted with toxic chicomm chemicals….grrrrrrrrrrrrrr….yeah lets get em…….