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My first time down, enjoyed most of it but felt the aggro didn't really help get any kind of message across and just got people wound up.
Maybe some kinda flyers to hand out would help, something to explain what we're doing there and encouraging drivers to be more aware of cyclists, with a little thanks for their patience. But I'm sure this has been tried before.
Did like the Queen Vicky merry-go-round though .............
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lots of annoyed cabbies and scooters on the Mall. Shows the problem of getting the point across.
No sign of my rear light, either. Still, enjoyed the ride.
here's the crowd at the taxi bump near Cambridge Circus:
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alockett
Did like the Queen Vicky merry-go-round though .............[/quote]
She loved it (just spoke on the phone)
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Well who went tonight???
No police escort...what's the world coming too :-) I ask...one of the best I think I have been on - plenty of entertainment mostly courtesy of London's good old Black Cab Driver's...not to mention the camera theft right under the nose of the Old Bill...anyone see that?that was my camera, wrestled off me by two rude-boys after I took their picture for bumping a girl who was holding them back whilst the crowd moved on (i put up a good fight). Cops waded in, one of the guys ran off into the crowd but we held the other from driving off by holding his doors open. In the end, a cop pushed his way into the driver's seat, pushed the driver into the pasenger seat, grabbed the keys off him, and drove off at high speed, with my camera in the car.
spend an hour at charing x po-po station explaining the story repeatedly, before getting nothing more than a crime number... then to the snow and the foundry to sink beers and laugh about it all.
cheers everyone who helped out, it could have got nasty.
An odd night without police escorts, it was pretty fierce out there tonight.
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my first time down too, was surprised at the lack of police, seemed a little bit angry at the beginning, motorbikes and scooters seem to think they're pushbikes eh?
guys on the tall bikes were from camberwell i think, saw one of them riding one outside college while i was there last year. -
worst thing was when the mass stopped for ped crossings, what the fuck is that shit
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worst thing was when the mass stopped for ped crossings, what the fuck is that shit
manners?
Reading VeeVee's and fred's accounts of last night, made me think, what is the point in CM again? It seems to me that it's just become about riding around drawing attention to cyclists in all the wrong ways. Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of a ride slow through town to raise awareness, but at nearly 7 on a friday, you've already missed the thick of rush hour, and smashing in wing mirrors etc is just fucking ferral.
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why not do a proper blockade?
actually obstruct ALL vehicles as a protest about road safety, the standard of driving and cyclist deaths.
On foot, with banners.
CM in the eyes of non-cyclists (and many cyclists) is a bunch of ne-er do wells out to cause trouble. The good people get lost in the throng of idiots, the message gets lost amongst the aggro and normally placid people resort to base instinct through frustration. (drivers and cyclists)
I'd also like to see drivers of essential and trade vehicles doing a similar thing, to protest about selfish, moronic private-use motoring in London. Single occupancy cars are a fucking joke in this country, vehicular Critical Mass was reached a long time ago.
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worst thing was when the mass stopped for ped crossings, what the fuck is that shit
tell me you're not serious?
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more and more i'm beginning to think that CM is/has become a joke.
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No visible policing last night at CM.
Good side - looked better none of those hi viz shepherds with fat arses
- lots of sensible self policing hence some positive interations peds and drvrs - edgier vibe less of a tourist attraction more fun -more empowering and powerfulBad side
-couple of negatives interactions went further than the should have (anyone see the mad ped who pushed a fixie rider off his bike at trafalgar sq screaming "it was a green man"?) - When a (dense) policeman did try to stop the self policing by ordering blockers to let some taxis through the mass fragmented.Wonder whether this was a one off experiment or a Borisian policy...
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tell me you're not serious?
i am. i dont know why people are on about some message thing, cm is and always was and will be about riding around making some friends, and having a good time with out worrying about cars.
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cant believe the one mass i miss in 2 years is the only one other than the december ride not to have police on it. oh well such is life.
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hey, i thought it was a good mass - although didn't see the trouble with the cab. it was the first time ever that i saw no cops (and i've been doing the mass - irregularly - for a long time, and in many different cities around the world), so that was quite amazing. i thought most of the time holding up cars etc at junctions worked well, although the biggest problem was the people at the front. they kept on racing off and not waiting for the people at the back, meaning it all got hugely spread out. the other major mistake was turning into a one-way street - the wrong way - which was a single lane of traffic and loads of pedestrians. ended up confronted by a police van where there was a little bit of negotiation and then eventually people were allowed through and onto a side street (going the right direction) but only about two at a time. unsurprisingly, the group that rode off after this was only one or two hundred, instead of the many (close to a thousand?) people who had been there earlier.
all in all, for me, a fantastic mass - but then, i didn't see any real trouble (despite a taxi actually driving into me!)
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Was fun to see all those frustrated and racist cab drivers getting all upset. Aaaaah.
so just the racist ones got upset ?
well that's ok then, otherwise I would have thought that's a really fucking stupid thing to say.
although I don't think pissing off taxi drivers helps anything, if it does, please explain.
they are only trying to work and if the selfish, moronic private motorists got the fuck off the roads then they wouldn't need to get upset.
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that was my camera, wrestled off me by two rude-boys after I took their picture for bumping a girl who was holding them back whilst the crowd moved on (i put up a good fight). Cops waded in, one of the guys ran off into the crowd but we held the other from driving off by holding his doors open. In the end, a cop pushed his way into the driver's seat, pushed the driver into the pasenger seat, grabbed the keys off him, and drove off at high speed, with my camera in the car.
spend an hour at charing x po-po station explaining the story repeatedly, before getting nothing more than a crime number... then to the snow and the foundry to sink beers and laugh about it all.
cheers everyone who helped out, it could have got nasty.
An odd night without police escorts, it was pretty fierce out there tonight.
Hey Fred, well I hope you have some luck following this up...I witnessed most of that episode if you need any back up...
alockett
Matt
floatingcyclist
freddo
hekeshi_shiollips
chris_crash
turnpedal
VeeVee
speedwolf
rpm
_Zed_
StandardPractice
skydancer
not4sale
pete
danger_joel
d0cA
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About
Critical Mass - September '08 - No police escort!
Posted by
@RckStdy
[ame="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=F3o9c1ZGTks"]YouTube - Critical Mass, London, Mall[/ame]