On 2007-12-01, PeteSig (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

"Terryc" wrote:
Harry 'Snapper' Organ wrote:
I see that Critical Mass continues to set the image of cycling back
with its acts of mass stupidity.

Nope,crititcal mass is simply doing what is legal. It is constable plod
that insists on turning it into a three ring circus every month.

Actually in Melbourne the Police bile squad and motorbikes are generally
very supportive. They work to make sure the ride proceeds smoothly, but
spend more time sorting out misguided motorists who seem to think their
'urgent meeting' gives them a right to run down cyclists.

I had lunch at a cafe just then, sitting outside under the verandah
watching the intersection of Burwood and Glenferrie. Lots of
seriously dodgy driving. One old but very important looking guy,
obviously in a bit of a hurry, was a little annoyed that someone had
stopped in front of him in the left turning lane for the quite clearly
red light, as a car coming the other way was completing their right
hand manevour into the same road. So his horn went off for a first
time. The car in front, a little spooked by the frustrated guy
behind, hurried on along behind the guy completing his turn from the
opposite direction, getting a little close for comfort. The red has
now been like this for about 4 seconds. Guy behind now rushes through
to start his turn, and does some dodgy maneuvering to avoid the cars
now travelling directly for him.

Incidentally, at that intersection, I saw something scary about every
100 cars. Lets say that someone who does something that scary, once
every tenth intersection they pass through, should never have been
allowed behind the wheel of a training vehicle. That means one in
every 10 cars are driven by a driver who should not be allowed to
drive because they are going to create a dangerous situation every
10th intersection they pass through. That, or one in every 100
drivers creates a dangerous hazard *every* intersection they pass
through, but in practice, I tend to see an individual driver do
something stupid once, then don't repeat that again for a while, so I
suspect it's more people being stupid less often.

Very few cyclists
are so out of line that they need prosecuting.

Annoyingly though, the police stop passage of trams behind us when we
have all explicitly stopped in the left lane frantically waving them
through. The tram passengers have more right than us to pass through
the city unimpeded, because the density of people inside a tram (140,
apparently) is higher than the density of a pack of cyclists (1000 of
us stretch about a km in 1.5 lanes on Brunswick/Johnson St), and we
readily recognise that!

--
TimC
TELESCOPE, n.
A device having a relation to the eye similar to that of the
telephone to the ear, enabling distant objects to plague us with a
multitude of needless details. Luckily it is unprovided with a bell
summoning us to the sacrifice.
-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"