Traditionally, small groups of bike riders from around the city gather together on the fourth Friday of the month and head to the Wilshire/Western Red Line Station to gather for Los Angeles Critical Mass. This month, following what Streetsblog is calling the "Critical Mass Attack," a new group of riders will be joining the mass: the LAPD.Full story here.
In a flyer being circulated to bike advocates and within the department, the LAPD has announced that it will be joining the June 25th Los Angeles Critical Mass to both show their support for the rights of cyclists to ride peacably in a large group, be the purpose party or protest; and to help weed out the riders responsibile for the vandalism and other mischief that's given Critical Mass a bad name.
Can something like that work here? I know a few people had met with OPD but I never heard back on what the results of those meetings were. Anyone care to fill us in?
Tip of the hat to Bulius for the heads up...
3 comments:
i live in san francisco, and SFPD rides in our mass all the time. we have motorcycle cops all along the edges of the mass, and occasionally they even cork with/for us. but more relevant to your post, there's also SFPD bicycle cops riding IN the mass, and they're always very cool. whenever anyone steps out of line, they check em, but always in a cool way.
i think it would be great if LAPD could do this in a positive way, as SFPD does. it's pretty awesome to ride alongside a cop on a bike and just BS about whatever.
I live in Lakeland, Fl and commute on my bike everyday. Recently on the 1st Friday of this month we had a (small) critical mass ride, considering we've been discovering more and more riders around town and even some out of town, something like LAPD joining their critical mass ride is awesome to me. This past 1st Friday was the first mass ride this town has ever had. And I honestly think this town is getting more and more bike friendly. If anyone from the 407, or anywhere in the surrounding areas, would like to join, we meet up in downtown Lakeland every 1st Friday. We'd love to have more riders join us.
bike cops would work best but they would have to work with the crowd, not against it and as far as keeping everyone in line and in check behavior wise that would be perfect if they did it without being "douche bags" the presence of just a few bicycle patrol officers say in front and in back would drastically change "unfavorable" interaction of motorists and bicyclist
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