Only thing is, besides the screaming and general such-and-such protesting typically has, they were pretty damned safe about it, and they took up only one lane in a two-lane street (which, in dead snow and winter as we’re having now, a single bike will take up, as the curbs are iced like all hell).

Maybe us Canucks are just nicer about things. Since I moved back up here from the States I keep noticing discrepencies like this.

Just sayin.

Apart from traffic light disobedience, the most distressing scene as a driver is individual cyclists’ intercar weaving (e.g., if traffic is stopped and the cyclist wants to move ahead). Perhaps someone who has never owned a car or is a particularly skilful cyclist might find it more difficult to see how this sort of behavior can appear rather impetuous, not to mention frustrating, to drivers. When CM does its thing, they come in a unit, so you’re presumably less likely to hit them. But in all its efforts to increase visibility, it perpetuates some of these bad habits – like the red light issue. The notion of cyclist as an imperfect creature doesn’t sit well with people who like to hate cars, but if CM wants to be more effective, it should concentrate more on enforcing behaviors of mutual respect, not an anarchist (and show-offy) “look, you can’t stop us” ‘tude. However earnest the monthly gig may seem to some, its efforts certainly haven’t positively affected my ride.

Dude, I was in the car with her. It certainly felt dangerous to me, and you’re really not going to get very far trying to explain to my how it secretly wasn’t dangerous.

3505(e) Limitation on riding abreast. — Persons riding pedalcycles upon a roadway shall not ride more than two abreast, except on paths or parts of roadways set aside for the exclusive use of pedalcycles.

Don’t collect a chaotic mob and then come to me and claim that running the light is a good idea because it’s making the world safer. In particular, don’t make that claim to the driver that hits some poor slob on her mountain bike who was following the mob through the light.

Double pacelines are where you get 2 lines of riders each drafting off one another. They are not illegal, but they are a stupid thing to do in traffic because the bikes then take up more room than they need to, and you are not riding as far to the right as is practical. There is also almost never any point to drafting on city streets.

My pants are not really in a knot over slowing down traffic. My pants are in a knot because CM claims to want to re-envision traffic laws to be more bike friendly, but the participants in the ride appear to me to be completely and utterly ignorant of the laws they seek to change, and of how to handle a bike safely on the road.

Finally, if you want to interpret CM as some kind of civil rights demonstration, I suppose that’s fine with me, but then go read the URL I link to at the end and maybe think about whether CM is doing anything at all to back up their demonstrations with real work.

That would be more disruptive to the traffic flow than simply running the light and causing 30 seconds of disruption.

Multiply that by ten for a city such as New York, where not running the lights will create hours-long traffic jams in an already crowded city, and it seems silly to be arguing this point.

By “double pacelines” do you mean two cyclists riding side by side? I wasn’t aware that that was illegal in this state.

Go back and re-read Laura’s description — CM gave her the choice of running someone over or risking being t-boned by another driver.

If you want to spend your time on self-indulgent wanking about “re-envisioning the potential of public space”, please do the rest of us a favor and do it in a way that doesn’t put people at risk.