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Newsom to Critical Mass: Police yourself
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San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has asked Critical Mass riders to keep it peaceful by cracking down on riders who taunt drivers and pedestrians.
SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - Mayor Gavin Newsom has asked San Francisco’s bicycling community to crack down on “bad actors” — those who use Critical Mass rides to break the law and taunt drivers and pedestrians — after a Redwood City family was allegedly attacked by cyclists at last week’s event.
On Wednesday, Newsom said he does not want to overreact to the incident or begin policing Critical Mass rides more. He said the incident was “egregious and aggressive,” but also rare.
“It does the bicycle-advocacy community no good to have people that are aggressive and dispirit the entire movement,” Newsom said. “I would encourage the bicycle coalition to say, ‘Look, we don’t put up with this, enough is enough.’”
Cyclists in San Francisco have been taking to the streets en masse to promote alternative methods of transportation since 1992. The rides, which happen the last Friday of each month, attract thousands of cyclists who bike through city streets, and in many cases, ignore basic traffic laws.
While Critical Mass rides are unofficial events with no organized leadership, there is a police presence. The rides have been mostly tame in recent years, but last week’s incident has attracted Newsom’s and bicycle advocates’ attention.
On March 30, alleges Susan Ferrando of Redwood City, she was leaving Japantown around 9 p.m. in a family van with her husband and their five children, ages 9 to 13, when cyclists chased them down and attacked them, swarming her vehicle at the intersection of Post and Gough streets. One cyclist shattered the van’s rear window with a bike, police reports stated.
Cyclists, however, have a different version of what happened. Critical Mass rider Kate McCarthy claimed Ferrando bolted through a group of cyclists milling about at the end of the ride. Cyclists rode after Ferrando, yelling for her to stop, McCarthy said, when Ferrando allegedly hit a cyclist, who was thrown 3 to 4 feet, and kept driving.
“People were voicing concern that [Ferrando] should be arrested because of this alleged accident. [The bicyclist] said he wasn’t injured and that he wants no police action,” San Francisco police Sgt. Steve Mannina said. “With no injuries, we wouldn’t do a traffic-collision investigation anyway.”
San Francisco’s Critical Mass was put on the map a decade ago, when a ride across the Golden Gate Bridge blocked rush-hour traffic for hours and former Mayor Willie Brown threatened a crack down.
A month later, about 250 cyclists were arrested for running red lights and blocking traffic on a ride that involved more than 5,000 bicyclists.
Staff Writer Bonnie Eslinger contributed to this report.
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Comments from Examiner Readers
7:36 AM MST on Tue., Jun. 19, 2007 re: "Newsom to Critical Mass: Police yourself"
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11:55 AM MST on Sat., Apr. 7, 2007
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Examiner Reader said:
Thank you for adding this quote from police seargent : “With no injuries, we wouldn’t do a traffic-collision investigation anyway.” This goes to the heart of the issue. Cyclists and pedestrians are so vulnerable among traffic that whenever there is an incident they are usually either unscathed or dead. If unscathed (no matter how much of a close call) the police will treat it as non-incident. I suggest commuting pedestrians and cyclists begin to wear video cameras. Enough is enough.
305 agree | 269 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
There are so many different versions of what happened because each person remembers events differently. This is no different than any other incident in which there are witnesses. Critical Mass is a fixture in San Francisco. Everybody knows that the last Friday of the month is Critical Mass Day. At most, someone in a car is inconvenienced by 10-15 minutes while the riders pass by. But that extra time could easily be eaten up someplace else because traffic is only getting worse in the Bay Area.
256 agree | 221 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
I moved to SF from Ohio, leaving behind my car and bringing my bike. I came here knowing that SF is a bike friendly city. I even brag about it to my friends back home, telling them about the great bike network, the advocacy of the bike coalition, and numerous other benefits to riding here. I've been 100% bike and no car for a year and a half now, and I have yet to go to CM. when people ask me if I go I simply say it's not my thing. CM unfortunately has some bad people doing bad things. It's very important to remember that the majority of bikers are not like that. Sure we get angry when we get cut off or almost run down by cars, and it's scary and tough to get through a commute without a taxi, bus or UCSF shuttle driver trying to take your life. We bike because we have something bigger to prove. We are doing what we can to make the world a better more sustainable place, and I think that alone deserves some respect. As far as CM goes, it's not and should not be a representative
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david said:
indeed the critical mass flyer does "speak volumes." it's a cartoon. it's a very cynical, sarcastic idea: enormous bicycles running over cars with enough force to send them flying...yelling "get out of our way" on top of it. as a cyclist (i sold my car) and a los angeles critical mass participant, i don't think this flyer is calling for bike riders to come to critical mass and be destructive to cars. rather, it's calling on cyclists to join other cyclists who are frustrated with auto traffic that actually can and do run over cyclists and pedestrians with enough force to send them flying. look at the flyer again, only this time imagine a cars in place of the huge trail of cyclists, and people on bikes in place of the little cars that are being thrown out of the way of the huge tires. then you'll see the current reality. once you sell your car (assuming you have one) and become a pedestrian or cyclist in a large city, you'll see how little regard car drivers have for your li
257 agree | 251 disagree
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Examiner reader said:
4-5-07 The real question is why so many bikes and what purpose does holding vehicular traffic serve? I ride a bike and I drive a car. Running red lights?stopping vehiclar traffic? Creating a disturbance by critical mass is a problem that unfortunately will likely only get worse. No rules and no sanctions and now with the city's cart blanche attitude-no accountability. Critical Mass has defined itself and will not, nor can not hold 1000+ riders accountable for misbehavior. I guarantee eve
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Examiner reader said:
It sounds like there were many witnesses. How could the stories be so different?
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