A Critical Mess
Did you hear about the altercation at the Seattle Critical Mass ride on Friday? Well if you read about it Saturday in the Seattle Times you got a story that made it sound like a group of crazed riders attacked a driver. Today the the Times posted the story again–this time with comments from the cyclists–and a very different version of events emerges. Other witnesses now say the driver involved ran over over a cyclists’ leg before the altercation started. It’s hard for a reader to figure what exactly happened, but you have to wonder why the times posted the story on Saturday without any quotes from cyclists who were actually there.
Even if the driver is at fault, this is a black eye for cyclists. CM engenders too much ill will, pitting one set of road users against another, making it that much harder to make progress on cycling issues.