Bicycle Austin forum

Chuck_McNeil

Member

Registered: 2008-06-05

Posts: 33

Austin Chronicle encourages violence against bicyclists (6/27/08)

from the Chronicle:

"Speaking of bikes, my heart began to turn to stone as I was stopped at Riverside and Lamar watching a parade of bikes indulging, presumably, in some form of civil disobedience. What that meant was that dozens of clowns on bicycles took up the entire street and brought most traffic to a standstill. After several minutes of obnoxious waving and smiling from the riders, I was ready to pull a Lizzie Grubman and plow right through them and be on my way. But I was hesitant to rack up a lot of hit-and-run charges against me ... and then there would be all that damage to my car. The thing is, all the smiling and waving did not make me sympathetic to the scofflaws' "cause." It made me think: "Don't give bikes the right. Give 'em the finger.""

2nd paragraph labelled FREEWHEELING:  https://www.austinchronicle.com/columns … 27/640034/

Adriel

Member

Registered: 2008-05-27

Posts: 91

Re: Austin Chronicle encourages violence against bicyclists (6/27/08)

holy hell, kill a bunch of people so you won't be late?

that same mentality plagues me even when I am obeying the law.  People see bikes as in the way, that guy probably would have bullied a single rider, but some self preservation instinct told him it wouldn't be smart against 200 riders.

There were a lot of cars that were cheering the mass (as usual) but apparently this guy was not one of them, I bet when I go 38 in a 45 in my car he is the same kind of ass monkey that rides my ass for 3 blocks trying to shove me faster.   Thats the kind of person I usually let go of the gas pedal for.  (Once that happened to me, and the guy was screaming obscenities and honking at me, I bet some people here think that I caused him to be such an angry road rage monster)  Slow traffic doesn't cause road rage any more than uppity women cause wife abuse.

I don't agree with some of the people who took all of the road at the mass, but as much hell as I suffered this month by people like the jerk writing this article, while I was being completely law abiding, stopping for all the stops, etc.  I think he can be inconvenienced for a minute or 5.

And we already have the right, we don't need his permission to be on the road.  I think thats part of the point.

No matter how much bs I hear about making the road safe for cyclists, the road is not really being made safer, and when you have a large mass of people, you at least have safety in numbers. 

The crap I hear over and over again is "He was dead right" which is just "Might makes right, get the hell out of the way of 2 tons of steel when you have 200lbs of bike + rider"  Well guess what, in CM we have 20-40,000 lbs of force out there, so we must be right.  Isn't that the inverse?

Anyway, this article pissed me off and it probably came out in my reply.  Hopefully some of what I said makes sense.

oh and I read the article and I'm not sure if he was part of the gay rights parade, or against it, but either way he is either a hypocrite or just doesn't like assemblies of any kind that slow traffic.  Maybe someone else can translate what he means:

DRIVE-BY MOMENTS With my chauffeur/sister-in-crime Stephen Rice commandeering the Champagne-pink 1965 Cadillac Coupe DeVille convertible, we sailed (well, crawled) through the streets of Austin along the Austin Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce's Pride Parade route. I kept wondering what I really wanted to throw from the car: Rocks? Cocktails? Bon mots? Instead, we settled for tossing garish beads and Twinkies.

Last edited by Adriel (2008-06-28 20:41:32)

Jason

Member

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-31

Posts: 48

Website

Re: Austin Chronicle encourages violence against bicyclists (6/27/08)

Due to my (and several others) letter to the editor over this article, this week's Page 2 column is of a related topic. Louis Black has several things to say about Mr. Moser's statement, as well as Critical Mass in particular and free speech/civil disobedience in general. Check it out, and feel free to read my response as well:

https://www.austinchronicle.com/columns … 18/645899/

Adriel

Member

Registered: 2008-05-27

Posts: 91

Re: Austin Chronicle encourages violence against bicyclists (6/27/08)

I added my comment to the list, It sure took him a lot of words to say about one paragraph worth of content.

There was also a story about a DJ who encouraged motorists to open their passenger door and hit the brakes for cyclists, but I do not know where that link went.  If I find it I may add it to the comments.

I wrote more about how I feel about this here:

http://austincyclenews.com/?p=120

Last edited by Adriel (2008-07-17 11:56:11)

MichaelBluejay

Webmaster

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,466

Website

Re: Austin Chronicle encourages violence against bicyclists (6/27/08)

Stephen MacMillan Moser passed away, at age 61.