I went on the Critical Mass ride yesterday. just a group of friends with a common interest who go for ride.We started at about 5.45 from Haymarket and went to Monument where we met up with a few others and then about 50 went down to Central Station. Coming back from Central Station,going up Clayton St West there was an incident.50 bikes takes up a fair bit of road space so we were spread across both lanes, and joined the traffic queue I was towards the middle of the pack. There was car horn going intermittently - I assumed an impatient driver. There was a bit of a commotion. There had been a collision between a taxi and one of the bikes, related
here, with some pictures of the damage. We all stopped, turned around and went to see what had happened. I saw the driver , in the car, not getting out until the police arrived. So eventually they arrived and started taking statements. Several people came up , volunteering names and addresses as witnesses.
Hopefully we will get to hear the outcome.
So what does CM achieve (other than making taxi drivers irate) ?
- As a regular commuting cyclist, it is undoubtedly safer going through the city centre on a bike, as part of a large crowd. My daiy commute is to the Coast and I'd love to have a CM ride along the Coast Road. Much better than the hotch-potch mixture of back roads and cycle paths in varying states of repair.
- Its good humoured - and the pedestrians seem to like the spectacle.
- It will remind people that a bike is a good way of getting around.
is annoying taxi drivers a good or bad side-effect ? As the average rush-hour speed or traffic through town centres is something awful, a bunch of cyclists wont make much difference
