Hey, there! Log in / Register
It's a small world, homicidal Civic driver edition
By adamg on Tue, 08/02/2011 - 8:25pm
Jonathan, who reported his bike was among those hit by a gray Civic at Harvard and Comm. Ave. during a Critical Mass ride on Friday, reports today he got the name of the driver:
Wouldn't you know it, I'm "friends" with this person on Facebook. It's a very distant connection, and I haven't had any contact with this person in at least 15 years other than accepting their friend request. They "friend-ed" me if that makes any difference.
Yes, a lawsuit is in the works.
Via Eoin O'Carroll.
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Not guilty.
Not guilty.
is that how you stay filthy?
n/t
That almost rhymes.
That almost rhymes.
Richer
Richer than Richie
All you [people] come and get
All you [people] come and get me.
time for a statement from the city
Has anyone contacted Nicole or Mumbles to ask for a statement?
Let me guess: "This is what happens when you don't follow the rules, you pesky cyclists. Now wear your helmet and stop for red lights."
By Menino's (and his puppet, Nicole Freeman's) silence, they are endorsing vehicular assault.
Critical Mass should be
Critical Mass should be banned.
Biking through stop lights and blocking cars and pedestrians is clearly illegal.
Yup
I find it funny the cyclists are trying to use this as a rallying cry.
Why I in no way support vehicular assault, let's not pretend that Critical Mass wasn't nudging many of it's people to actively break traffic laws that are in place both for safety and to protect car users and cyclists.
Riding through red lights and stop signs is illegal, blocking traffic with the right of way is illegal, corking intersections is illegal. Not wearing helmets is not illegal yet, but via the video it shows you the types coming to this stupid event.
They need to be banned, and work through the proper channels if they want a bike parade. This emo hipster alternative bullshit needs to stop before someone gets killed.
Critical Mass isn't helping cyclists rights.
Don't ban it
Just enforce the existing traffic laws. When critical mass rolls through a red light, just ticket all of them.
It's not illegal to ride your bike in a huge group and call it Critical Mass.
It IS illegal for a group of Critical Mass riders to break virtually every traffic law while riding like fuckheads.
Yes! Ban Rush Hour Too!
No more rush hour - which is driver and car critical mass, only the vehicles are vastly larger than the occupants! Keep all the cars off the roads because they jam everything up, plug intersections, block bikes and pedestrians, etc.
This was the argument that won a judgement against police in California for attacking cyclists - Critical Mass is compelety indistinguishable from any other type of traffic jam - which plugs intersections, blocks roads, impedes traffic ...
I like this logic
You're going to stop me from throwing banana peels and dumping motor oil on the sidewalk, officer? Well, you'd better arrest ice too, because people slip on it in the winter!
Rush hour traffic is a sad fact of life. Assholes circling an intersection to get attention isn't necessarily.
Furthermore
Rush hour traffic doesn't happen because drivers make a conscious decision to overcrowd roads, trying to stick it to the man. It happens because there are more drivers than the roads have the capacity to handle.
If traffic is being caused by an automobile driver or or group of drivers driving illegally, we would expect that those drivers would be pulled over, fined, arrested, whatever is appropriate. The same expectations should apply for bikers. When you take the "civil," all we're left with is disobedience.
Wrong
Traffic happens because people choose to bring large vehicles on the road at a time when they know a lot of other people will be doing the same.
Traffic jams happen, in part, because people choose to enter intersections that they cannot clear.
Injuries happen because drivers choose to ignore crosswalks and speed through lights that are already yellow or red, sometimes in groups of three or four, sometimes blocking intersections.
These situations are not a "fact of life" any more than chosing to cycle to work. Cars are not a natural phenomenon. There is no special "car privilege" granted by God or whatever. Sorry.
Exactly
I don't disagree with any of those reasons. Blocking intersections and ignoring pedestrians are illegal, and should be punished. Boston is pretty lax about intersection blocking, but I've definitely seen cars pulled over for not stopping for crosswalks. In Philadelphia, they're very strict about not "blocking the box." In Seattle, they're almost gestapo-ish with their sidewalk enforcement, both to cars and pedestrians.
Almost all drivers, bikers and pedestrians are law abiding. People who block intersections with their car are jerks, are breaking the law, and should be fined. People who jay walk and block the flow of traffic should be fined. People who ride bikes through stop signs to block the flow of traffic should be fined.
All of these are wrong, all of these are illegal, and it's silly to pretend that one is better than another.
I'm all for fining those who "block the box"
I'd even be up for banning rush hour - though I'm not sure how. But SwirlyGrrl, you're approaching OFISHL-like mindthink if you believe that people get in their cars with the deliberate intention of creating traffic jams - which was clearly the intent of the cyclists in the recent Critical Mass incident.
I can see the Civic driver being prosecuted for assault with a deadly weapon - over-exposure to assholitude is no excuse to put people's lives in danger - assuming that he actually did drive into anyone (which we've seen no actual footage of even though someone was filming the event).
But the Critical Mass folks (at least the organizers) should also be up on charges of hooliganism and public endangerment. It's undeniable that they intentionally and with forethought arranged a situation designed to cause physical confrontation between large groups of people.
Critical Mass is compelety
Except it is.
plugging roads, blocking intersections, and impeding traffic are all ticketable offenses. They should be enforced.
Critical Mass is worse, because they're whole point is to cause those things to bring attention to themselves. It's not a every normal day use sort of thing, but a bunch of spoiled attention whores who think it's doing some sort of service to cyclists.
It's not.
When these things are enforced on all modes ...
... I'm all for it. Corking is stupid and counterproductive - bikes make a much bigger statement when massed up in the lane waiting for the light! Blocking the box because you are a special prince/princess masshole who doesn't feel the need to wait your turn is stupid too. Nail them both.
And don't distinguish cyclists running red lights from motorists running red lights, either. I see that all the time, too. Nail the courier who fails to yield to the walk light or the unmarked crosswalk and the MBTA bus driver just the same.
Am betting better than even money
That the guy on the bike will NOT be calling the clowns from Critical Mass, who organized this event, to testify in his testify in his favor.
Clowns from Critical Mass
Identify them. Try to find them.
It is anarchic, toots.
Why don't you call the clowns from RUSH HOUR, who organize the morning and evening traffic jams? See?
Rush hour doesn't have a website
Rush hour doesn't have a website.
Nobody says, "I'll see you at rush hour at Copley at 5:30 pm on the last Friday of the month".
The dozens of courteous individual bicyclists who pass through Central Square every few minutes are traffic. Critical Mass is an intentional traffic obstruction.
Car procession protests have also been known to happen. NYC taxi drivers have done it several times. Would Critical Mass people support such a car protest if it caused them problems during their individual bike commute, since it's the same as rush hour, just a bunch of vehicles who happen to be using the same road?
I agree that the rush hour
I agree that the rush hour analogy is a bit of a stretch when it comes to Critical Mass. The NYC taxi protest you describe seems a much better fit.
So let's run with that: Let's suppose that a cyclist, angry at being delayed by the taxi protest, decided to hurl a Molotov cocktail at one of the taxis. Let's say that the cabbie escaped his vehicle, which was destroyed beyond repair. Let's also say that the angry cyclist was identified.
What do you think the police would do? Would they make no attempt to apprehend the cyclist? Would they tell the cabbie to wait 48 hours and check back?
What would the comment threads on stories about the incident look like? Would commenters overwhelmingly say that the cabbies deserved it, that they invited gasoline-fueled assault by intentionally obstructing traffic? Would a few commenters offer tepid moral equivalencies, saying that two wrongs don't make a right?
To be slightly nitpicky
It doesn't quite work the same, because bikes are more nimble, and it would be a lot easier for a cyclist to scoot over to another road where traffic wasn't being clogged by the cabs. But, yeah, I imagine there would be a considerably different set of consequences.
Well yeah, and the
Well yeah, and the authorities could legitimately ask what the cyclist was doing with the petrol bomb in the first place. So it's not a perfect analogy.
But my point remains: There exists a glaring double standard when discussing the behavior of drivers and of cyclists, one that is especially troubling when it comes to matters of personal safety.
I am sure your lawyer is
I am sure your lawyer is happy that you are making public statements regarding your lawsuit.
Also, dont be so excited about using the courts to get revenge against the driver. There are far more important issues the courts have to deal with then you clogging it up getting your pound of flesh.
Hah!
If the total damages sought for the trashed bike is less than $7000, it will go to small claims court.
Visit a small claims forum in Massachusetts. You will almost certainly find that the plaintiff in every single case that day will a debt collection agency suing over a defaulted credit card debt that they bought for pennies on the dollar.
I mean it. Every single case.
If a remember reading correctly...
his wife is an attorney.
He just made an error in judgement and decided to ride with the group as the left, I believe, instead of just waiting till the all went by and then continued on. So he got nabbed by one of the irate drivers that did not keep his cool while the bike riders peacefully protested against the evil automobile. (sarcasm alert)
A lawsuit seems a bit over the top in my opinion. I can see possibly small claims if his bike was trashed. Good luck to him.
Critical mass sucks
I've been an urban cyclist pretty much all of my life and a sometime bicycle commuter, and I wish death and mayhem on these Critical Mass jerks. If you've alienated me, you have no hope whatsoever making your case to the mainstream.
Critical Mass is incredibly
Critical Mass is incredibly stupid and unproductive.
This guy is also unintelligent for both aligning himself with Critical Mass and sharing his pending lawsuit with the UHub world.
The Civic driver is the most stupid for trying to take a human life, or at least endangering one.
EDIT: Clearly I didn't read your comment very well the first time. Wishing death on others because of their total lack of manners or completely misguided 'activism' doesn't exactly put you in the brain trust either.
why are these cyclists
why are these cyclists looking for trouble with cars? as an every-work-day bike commuter and every-other-day pedestrian and cyclist, i have plenty of dangerous car encounters as it is.
They see it as peaceful
They see it as peaceful activism. You know, like Rosa Parks. The only problem being that Rosa Parks just wanted a seat on the bus, she didn't want to kick everyone else off the bus so that she and her friends could have a party in it.
I am going to organize a
I am going to organize a makeshift parade on foot that bisects the next critical mass rally.
I'm in
sounds like fun
That's the spirit
Not that it will delay anyone anymore than critical mass does, but it sure would be fun to watch.
I dig Critical Mass
I'm a cyclist, cycle-commuter, tax-payer, voter, car-driver, pedestrian, and critical mass rider who feels that Critical Mass is a legitimate form of protest against the same anger and ignorance that exists on Boston roads everyday, as is witnessed in the reaction that it provokes on these kinds of discussions. When I'm on a bike, it is a daily struggle to receive courtesy from drivers for my fair share of the road. Unfortunately, being cut-off, ignored, side-swiped, or even doored, are common risks for every urban cyclist.
Granted, the intersection-circling is obnoxious when it goes for more than one light cycle, but that is the exception to CM. That is 1% of the ride, and isn't typical. The majority of it is hundreds of people, charting a safe course through the city for one evening per month. It is social, urban, and engaged folks following no hierarchical order. There are no organizers. There is no plan. It is organic and fun. You are welcome and free to participate. The majority of the participants are kind people, not "pretentious hipsters" or "bike snobs" or provocateurs as many think them to be.
Critical Mass, but legal?
Jafari, do you think it would be possible to conduct a Critical Mass ride that stops at all red lights? Doing so would remove the one legitimate gripe that motorists seem to have with the monthly rides.
Of course, motorists will continue to hate on cyclists, even if we follow all the laws to a tee, but without the red-light running, they will have a harder time crisply articulating their grievances.
Really get drivers mad
Can you imagine hundreds of bikes stopping at every red light, creating a snails pace stop and go peleton?