> From: forsythm@no-spam (Mark(desalinate for e-mail)Forsyth)
> Reply-To: forsythm@no-spam
> Newsgroups: aus.bicycle
> Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2003 14:39:34 +1000
> Subject: Re: Ride Melbourne's CityLink Tunnel with Critical Mass!
>
> On Wed, 25 Jun 2003 11:30:03 GMT, ghostwombat <heehaw@no-spam> gushed forth:
>>> From: forsythm@no-spam (Mark(desalinate for e-mail)Forsyth)
>
> [deletia]
>
>>
>> Naysayers like Mark just don't get it. It's not about pissing off
>> motorists... it's about viewing the world in a whole new way. Cities are for
>
> In your view you may not start out with the intention of pissing off
> motorists but they inevitably get pissed off, rightly or wrongly, at the
> disruption caused.
Disruption? 5 minutes, max. Car drivers get mad at other other car drivers
all the time... when are you going to start campaigning against that, Marky?
>> people... it should be fun to be out on the streets. And, once a month for
>> 90 minutes during CM, the streets become a carnival. Conversation flows
>
> For some motorists, and others, for 90 minutes once a month the streets
> become a source of frustration and anger. Frustration and anger that
> could well be taken out on YOU - think about it.
Boohoohoo... see above. Can you tell me about any time of the month when the
streets AREN'T filled with frustrated & angry motorists? You should see my
Dad on a Sunday morning driving to the local shops. He's a shocker, and he's
far from alone.
>> among the riders, and smiles randomly and repeatedly break out on the faces
>> of riders, pedestrians and motorists (gasp... yes, even motorists!) alike.
>
> And for a few days after the CM ride I will have to put up with more abuse
> and downright anti-cyclist behaviour than I would if the CM ride hadn't
> happened.
What a load of bullshit. This comment is spouted so often, you could almost
harvest it to use it for fertiliser. I've never heard a bigger piece of Shit
in my cycling life. Your proof, Marky? Any empirical evidence to back up
your outlandish claim? Or will you just rely on the old "it happens to me,
so I know it happens" crap. Do you even know when Critical Mass happens, so
that you can correlate your "observations" to your "thesis"?
>> Come along to a CM one time Mark, and you might actually enjoy it! I spent
>
> Sorry - I'm not into deliberately putting myself in the position of
> annoying the shit out of others.
Are you getting enough, Marky? Sounds like you're a bit damned grumpy
there...
>> my first CM in constant danger of falling off my bike coz I was laughing so
>> hard at the sheer pleasure of it all. Not at the anti-motorist stuff that
>> some people always sprout, but at the cameraderie, the inspiration and the
>> revelation. Oh that the other 718.5 hours of the month would be as joyous to
>> be on a bike as during CM... Have fun on Friday night, Mark, coz I will sure
>> will be, along with 400+ of my biking friends.
>>
>
> Have your fun on Friday night - the rest of us will put up with extra abuse
> and aggro you generate. Go forward - be selfish.
Extra abuse, my arse. Selfish indeed... imagine if the 400 Critical Massers
were driving cars in the Friday evening peak, rather than riding bikes.
People like you wouldn't even make a comment about that, but imagine all the
aggro, pollution, resource use and congestion that 400 steel cages would
cause. Yes, Marky, it's really selfish to want a better world. I'm sorry. I
apologise in advance to your grandchildren for trying to give them a
half-liveable world.