If you have the stomach for it, this is a video of a recent critical mass ride where an insane person in a car plows through the bikes at high speed. Someone explain what happens to a person's mind when they get behind the wheel and forget that they are still just a human being too. WTF.

[www.youtube.com]

i haven't even watched it (and wont) and i already feel sick...all that pain.........................................................................................................................................

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Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Insane.

When I searched for more news of this, I didn't find any, but there were several cases of this happening in the past couple of years, like this: (also a highly disturbing image) [www.msnbc.msn.com] They all seem to involve drugs - alcohol, pot, etc.

This was so deliberate, the driver speeds through the crowd of bikes mowing down several people and continues to speed off. Seems they were feeling indignant about having to wait for cyclists and entitled to drive wherever the hell they please unhindered. This is the point of critical mass, to illustrate the insanity of vehicles on the road. Sad freaking sh!t guys. Sad.

No doubt they were feeling entitled to the right of way, which they may have actually had since many cities require permits and police escorts for this type of activity. But, it's very likely that there were drugged, which facilitates turning stupid thoughts into stupid actions.

drugs are not always the case, a little old lady crashed into a church bake sale my dad was at one time, killed a lot of people, she said she couldnt make the brakes work...brakes where tested, and working fine... she must have confused the gas for the brake...I hope..., but she wasnt under the influence of anything according to the blood tests.

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Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Nope, people do bad things without the influence of drugs, but the precedence seems to be that people in the past have plowed into cyclists when stoned.

Ever been in a critical mass ride? I have. The guy that nearly ran a bunch of us over was just MAD that we were in his way and he couldn't speed off to his destination. People lose their minds when they get behind the wheel. They somehow forget who and what they are. Even my mothers screams things at people through her car windshield that she would NEVER EVER say out loud to another human being. It's freaky to watch.

Nope. Don't ever plan to, either.

You know, coco, this happened in Brazil. A country where, because of overpopulation and egregious income disparities, life has become very cheap, as in India and China. In such a place, it is easy for someone to psychotically divorce themselves from others of their species and destroy them under mundane circumstances, as easy as crinkling up a Big Mac wrapper and throwing it out of the car window. That act of littering is minuscule and the mowing down of cyclists is gigantic on the scale of transgressions against Life, but they arise from the same impulse: Me-me-me-me-me. The Me Impulse. It is coming to our culture, too. Temporary Disassociative Sociopathic Disorder--it's not just for G20 protests anymore.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/2011 04:36PM by Tamukha.

It doesn't matter what country they're in, some people have just lost sense of humanity when behind the wheel. Yesterday on the 5-lane freeway I was driving with my auto set on cruise at around 5mph above the speed limit. There were two lanes to my left and two to my right. A big semi came up behind me and started honking and flashing his lights to get me to move out of the lane. A total of four lanes on either side of me were available for him to pass. He didn't want to change lanes apparantly and felt entitled to the lane. I didn't move so he changed lanes and passed me and when he was even with me he turned on his blinker and started moving into my lane. I was left with two choices... hit the brakes and get out of his way and hope the people behind me are paying attention or speed up and get out of his way.... I chose to speed up out of his way and kept going until I was close to the next car in the lane so he wouldn't try it again. And that made him insane! As he passed us he was honking and giving me the middle finger and clearly yelling. He continued speeding up the road and out of sight. What gets me is why didn't he just do that in the first place instead of trying to run me off the road??? How many people had he bullied out of that lane on his journey? It just didn't make sense.

RocketShip,

Please see what I said about this being temporary psychosis. And about its setting into our culture, which, on a microlevel, has thus far been fairly humanistic. It used to be there were things one would never say or do to another unless one were pathologically sick. Now, all bets are off.

Drip, drip, drip . . . this is the sound of civilization trickling away. Those of us that are neurologically modern hominids must fight it, as you did on the freeway.

I am a cyclist fulltime. I don't drive a car; never have except in driver's ed and a later private lesson. Didn't take, LOL. I have gotten disrespect as a cyclist from drivers and I try to be good about using signals, not weaving into car lanes, etc. I have heard of Critical Mass people going in the same lane as the cars and there was nothing the drivers could do because there were so many people on bikes. In Chicago I have seen cyclists doing crazy things--some even ride without brakes! (I think these are racing bikes that are designed this way.) So it's not like all cyclists are perfect and those dumbass ones give people like me a bad name! As for why drivers do it, I think they are envious that we are enjoying a simple pleasure while they are trapped in their metal boxes. I get a perverse thrill being able to pass a bunch of cars waiting at a red light because I am in my lane and can do so

Of course they go into the same lanes as the cars, they are not blocking traffic, bikes ARE traffic! Especially where there is no designated bike lane, cars must make way for bikes as they would for other vehicles. It is the purpose of critical mass rides to bring attention to the fact that cars share the road with PEOPLE on bikes and on foot. Many drivers have no idea of the law regarding other traffic but they should and they must be made aware. At least in Canada, pedestrians ALWAYS have the right of way, then cyclists, and last motorized vehicles. Not that anyone should take advantage or abuse their rights in any way, but balance has to be attained and as it stands, so far on the road might (cars) makes right and that is wrong, Wrong, WRONG.

I am talking about where there are lanes. In Chicago, the meet-up is downtown and there are bike lanes all over the place. Chicago is one of the most bike-friendly places in America but still, it's a huge city--one of the largest--and so the traffic can get quite intense during rush hour (meet-up time is 6 pm). They are gonna start building protected bike lanes with a concrete barrier They just received gov. funds but are starting with a test area. I won't be able to go in that section because it's too far away, so I hope they get on with it already!

Canada may be much more respectful of cyclists than America. Wouldn't surprise me a bit. But when in Rome, you do what you gotta do. I stay on the right side. I don't go darting in and out of the car's lane. Some drivers are scared of hitting cyclists; some are just pissed. I don't care; I wanna have my own space so I stay outta the way!

coconuts,

With respect to stuff like this, Canada is practically in another solar system . . .

I just watched this and I am not so sure.
[www.youtube.com]

coco,

Saw the CBC's "The Fifth Estate"(same topic) last Friday and was chilled. Sweetie, it is your present administration--the authoritarian brain is the same the world around and engages in the same actions no matter in what longitude or latitude it find itself. We see this throughout history. Be vigilant and entreat your fellow citizens to resist. Watching the video, I said to myself, this is not Canada. Us, sadly, but not Canada.

Resist.

The CBC episode was mild in comparison. I can NOT believe what I saw in that video. Shock. I am in shock. I even knew about it already but seeing it with my own eyes was something else. How many people won't even bother to watch though? The same 60 or so % that never even bothers to get out there and vote. Sigh.

I vote, but I try not to watch this stuff cause Ive got enough stuff in my head I dont need already...I dont need to visually see something to relate to and understand the severity of it...

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Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

It's ok folks, turns out he was "in a hurry".

[www.businessinsider.com]

My suspicion that there's an undiagnosed sociopath in every upper eschelon banker is thus vindicated.

wow... ive never understood the impatient people in a hurry when they are in cars... maybe its all the walking I do, a car is always so much faster, it feels almost like teleportation in comparison,lol

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Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Little man gets all freaked out when he looks out the window of a car, says everything is going by way too fast for him.