Masa Crítica today! (for bici riders)

[darmanad]

Seems like even the bicyclists in BA are shitty rude drivers.

 

[muppditt]

Well, to begin with this topic is about Masa Critica not my opinion of "the constant and enormous noise produced 365 days a year all hours of the day by cars."*

I live on Santa Fe and the noise of the cars fades into the background and I don't notice it anymore. When I do notice it that means something happened. The Masa Critica people made more noise than the cars and buses do as noted by the fact that everyone was at the windows. And thus I question WHY they need to make noise and be aggressive? Isn't the point of bike riding to be different than the cars?

and so they made some noise. and some are 'aggressive.' one day a month. IT'S A PROTEST.
so you are desensitized to the constant noise of cars and don't question it. it is just a matter of habit for you then. so when some cyclists try to show something different and bring attention to a new way (ok in fact OLD way! hehe) of transport, their noise bothers you because you are not habituated to THEM making noise. But cars, ok no prob.
i have lived in noisy big cities my whole life and i will love the day when i won't be constantly assaulted by the noise of cars. not to mention the threat to life and limb. i don't mean get rid of cars, of course not.

Critical Mass is a manifestacion/party/celebration all in one. So yeah, at those types of events there is noise. Are you surprised when a noisy manifestacion passes by your place, or a crazy party with fireworks, etc?

To answer your question then as to why they are noisy, it is because they are protesting and celebrating at the same time.

On a different tangent, or perhaps not, you just cannot argue that bicyclists are noisier then cars. And you want to talk aggression? Again, you seriously cannot argue that cyclists are aggressive vs drivers.

 

[darmanad]

Muppditt,
As a pedestrian and bicyclist here I believe that BA car drivers and motorcyclists are pathologically inconsiderate. The majority of both drive insanely dangerously. I have my theory about why a seemingly normal person changes into a fuckup when s/he gets behind the wheel (having to do with BA socioeconomic conditions), but...
What, exactly, are the members of MC protesting? and
Do you think their protest is effective?

 

[mini]

Oh. It's a "protest"... I thought is was a fun group ride thing.

 

[muppditt]

Muppditt,
As a pedestrian and bicyclist here I believe that BA car drivers and motorcyclists are pathologically inconsiderate. The majority of both drive insanely dangerously. I have my theory about why a seemingly normal person changes into a fuckup when s/he gets behind the wheel (having to do with BA socioeconomic conditions), but...
What, exactly, are the members of MC protesting? and
Do you think their protest is effective?

Yikes, big up to you for biking in the city! I have seen so many close calls here in just 1 month....cars just turning right in front of bikes. Not to mention the guy who fell off a garbage can, but that's another story

I do think the protest is effective. I lived in San Francisco proper (where Critical Mass started) my whole life and saw big changes happening because of the attention brought to bicycling as a form of transportation. There are exceptions of course, but drivers in SF (except tourists hehe) really ARE aware of bikers and peds and watch out for them. Bikers and peds have the right of way and use it; versus here where we have to wait for the cars (at least in practice, I dunno about what is the law).
There is still a long way to go but we have a very good network of bike lanes (yes we ride the hills, some on fixed gear :/), bikes have the right to use the whole lane as a car does, bike signals, certain large thoroughfares are closed to cars on certain days. Market St now is closed to cars during commute hours....last I heard when I was there in March...?
For a really nice bike city, Berlin is a great model. I lived there for 6 months and loved the bike-ability. Then winter comes haha.
BsAs would be a very easy-to-bike-in city, it is FLAT! But as the car situation is currently, I fear for my life under the wheels of a car. I would love to ride down 9 de Julio to get to dance class, here there and everywhere.
MC in BsAs is only 2 yrs old I think....so...
After a few years i think the bike thing will be better and I will ship my bike from the US. It seems as if every time they repair a street they add a bike lane by default??? Every recently paved street has a bike lane now...does anyone know about this?
*edit: Oh, to me the protest is about life and death LOL. For people who choose not to drive, there needs to be awareness among drivers of their existence so as to not kill them heheh. A marginalized group seeking to gain rights.

 

[darmanad]

Muppditt,
I lived in SF over 25 years (in the Mission, Noe Valley, Baja Pacific Heights (Cal & Laguna), near Fisherman's Wharf, on Telegraph, Portrero and Russian hills). I didn't bike in the city but I did observe the controversial bike messengers on speed and and the start of MC. I am keenly aware of the courtesy paid to bicyclists and pedestrians in SF. I moved to Seattle and biked there. What a great place for bicyclists and pedestrians - even kinder and gentler than SF. I biked a lot in Manhattan and Rio as well. Nowhere are the drivers less considerate than BA. Thank god the city is constructiong more bike paths. I traveled the one on Suipacha just yesterday. Like other new ones here, it is less than 1 meter wide each direction. (I would gess both lanes are about 1.4 m). As you would expect, I had to take care to avoid pedestrians walking on and blindly crossing over the bike lane, not to mention some cyclists coming from the opposite direction who, for some Bs As-based reason, could not stay on their side of the dividing line.
There are better ways for bicyclists to protest than MC which only antagonizes motorists, and we don't need to antagonize tham any more than they already are.

 

[muppditt]

darmanad,
yes i do think the event antagonizes motorists. i am not sure right now as to what other options there are to show that the streets need to be shared versus just going out there and taking them (which is MC).
i do think there are enough thoughtful motorists out there who perhaps are now aware of cyclists' existence though (as I saw with the changes in SF)...and that is the goal. this might not be a popular thing to say among the car-centric, but i think many motorists need the slap in the face of being 'inconvenienced' by bicycles (or other non-cars).
jeez yesterday evening i was almost witness to a baby's decapitation by a freaking driver speeding by on a narrow street...he was so close to the sidewalk and going so fast, this little kid was centimeters away from having no head. who really is inconvenienced then? haha hmm...no head, or a slight delay in your journey in your car?

 

[gagarine]

I wrote a long answer... but admin of the forum erased it by mistake.

So now shorter and more messy.

Biker are a minority, as every minority (woman, black, gay,...) they tried to be recognized. One of the way is making manifestations.

So now, about Argentina and street violence:

Ok?

It's somthimes you can feel in BA every day when you try to cross a street: It's the street of the cars and every car driver thinks it's the street for himself. That's not fair! All this space for almost nobody and 2 meter for pedestrian? And I don't speak about cars parking on rare bike lane...

So I think is understandable than some biker are really frustrated and feel them life threaten. When you fell frustrated you can become violent, think about sport fan losing a game...

Those "Masa criteria" will be efficient?

If they do only that, certainly not. But it's part of a biggest movement: the end (perhaps) of the car centric culture, specially in cities.

Don't forget than women, gay or black was also not understood when they was making manifestation asking for more rights.

 

[jago25_98]

The bicycle is the best transport in BA, especially a folding one. I've been loving it!
It's the best because only the subway beats it for avoiding pollution - walking is less efficient, you get more pollution in cars and buses counter-intuitively. It's faster than buses and subways factoring in waiting 5mins for one to arrive - in most situations. It's exciting in busy traffic, amazing!

What's holding it back from being massive is safety, class rules and a little bit of laziness.

There's major pressure to have one. That's something locals have communicated to me. It's like being a homeowner in the US; can you have sex without one? It's jewelery. That needs to change for a city.

Incidentally, where's a nice repair shop and somewhere to park a car safely on the edge of town where one can keep a car to cycle to? Perhaps we could setup a car share/hire scheme... I'll post a thread.