For all of the unequivocally civic commenters on this thread, ask yourself this: would you be defending someone driving through a protest if the protesters weren't on bikes?

lots of people in this thread that don't understand how protests work.

This is how cyclists feel when they are surrounded by cars on busy roads because the cycling infrastructure is shit.

Except, cyclists can't kill people in cars with their bike.

So, lady, imagine our frustration.

Edit: spelling 🤦‍♂️

As a Bicycle commuter... there's plenty of "Am I the Asshole?" that needs to go around here.

I understand the cyclists are treating this as a protest, but unless the road is closed, get the hell out of the oncoming lane. You're not doing anything here other than confirming the drivers bias that you're the problem.

As for the driver, just fucking STOP until they pass. Is the risk of you hitting someone worth the few minutes that pulling over out of the way costs you? The driver's pissing and moaning on the video is some self-entitled bull shit.

And recording while driving...

Protesting the lack of safety for riders by being unsafe riders? I don't think the best way to convince the public that cyclists can be safely integrated into traffic is to purposefully create dangerous situations.

Car brains are incapable of realizing that they're the deadly threat.

Idiots in cars, idiots on bikes. Hell yeah I'm pro bikes but setting a wheel on incoming lane? Yeaah.. no thanks, I'm fine

"Dangerous to drivers"

Because you're going to give yourself an aneurysm over a minor inconvenience? You're in a giant suit of armor. You could hit every single one of those cyclists without sustaining even a scratch.

If the cyclists were actually dangerous to drivers, do you think the diver would be accelerating aggressively towards them?

I don't like cars, but this is fucking bonkers. Trapping people in place isn't 'protesting', it's being a twat.

All the people claiming that this is a legitimate protest surely understand that the car driver was only 'counterprotesting', right?

Idk about the usa but here in europe its EXPLICITLY written into the drivers code that even if someone is driving illegaly if its in your power to stop an accident you have to. So if a person steps in front of you randomly and you have half a second to react thats usually not your fault BUT if you for example saw that there was a school bus dropping kids off and then you hit a child running across the road theres a large chance that theyre gonna charge you. Of course in europe you have to put like 30 hours into theory and then a lot of driving lessons to get a license while in the usa you basically get a drivers license instantly and nobody gives a fuck so thats why people dont know the rules...

Where I live, critical mass is legal. Bikes can go on the street and we have a law that allows multiple vehicles that move as one to be treated like one vehicle.

Whenever I've been on a Critical Mass ride, we've always had designated "corkers", people whose job it was to block traffic with blockading/dancing/whatever while the others continued onward. Without people doing that, you run the risk of this sort of carbrained nonsense.

I obey the traffic laws. I'm apparently one of the only people in my town that has read them. I like riding my bike. I like my town. People Hollar at me from their cars. I get called "fag" every second day. For taking a bike ride.

"Everyone except me is crazy."

Imo it looks remarkably safe as long as we ignore the person in the car driving into oncoming traffic.

She definitely should have either stopped or gone a different route, but it is incredibly dangerous to cycle head onto incoming motor traffic. Not really a great look for the cyclists.

Better off staying in the correct lane but hogging it so vehicles had no choice but to stay behind.

Confused Portlander here. Why are these bikers fully clothed?

How about they take this up with the officials who can actually make a difference in bike safety and quit making life worse for people who just want to get home?

Go bike around City Hall if you want to "raise awareness." All you're doing here is pissing people off.

I agree that more bike lanes are needed and also cyclists need to be treated with the respect any life demands.

But flipping off a driver or generally blaming people who drive is fighting the wrong fight. I drive a car, I also cycle, being in a car doesn't make me anti-bike.

Fight the government - flip off the government - that is refusing to put in safe infrastructure for the bikes (with protests like this, of course. But don't flip off the driver, at best it does nothing, at worst it widens the gap between both groups and makes it easier to dehumanize and villianize the cyclists).