Chris0516

Has anyone heard about this?

https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2019/04...pack-cyclists/

maallyn

Not in Portland (10 years) and not in Bellingham (where I live now for 3 years)

Mark

BobbyG

I think "Sir Mick" said it best,

"Go ahead, bite the Big Apple, don't mind the maggots..."

You Tube

For the record, I think New York can be wonderful, and NEw YOrkers are some of the nicest, finest people in the world...but it is a big city, so there's the potential for more crime. It's no different than Dickens' 19th Century London.

livedarklions

Well, at least they're outside and not staring at their phones.

Kidding.

MattTheHat 

Loosely quoting the reporter: "metal barriers, signs telling bicyclers to dismount and rumble strips are being used by the police to prevent reckless and menacing riders." That's the funniest thing I've heard in a while. Sure, the "menacing" riders are going to observe the metal barriers, obey the posted instructions to get off their bicycles and add the always effective...rumble strips! Who makes up this stuff?

-Matt

lostarchitect 

These are packs of kids being hooligans--pretty much as they always have. These ones just happen to be on bikes.

jon c. 

I've read about similar activity in other cities, but with dirt bikes.

Bmach

Springfield Ma area has bike and dirt bikes. I think 3 dirt bikers have been killed so far this year. The town next to Springfield had a group on bikes breaking off mirrors on cars last week. I have twice witnessed them riding right by the cops and the cops did nothing. The police not taking action just emboldens their behavior even more. Confiscating the bikes or dirt bikes will not do anything since most are stolen. So what should be done to stop them?

lostarchitect 

Yeah, we have them too.

indyfabz

There were a few groups in Philly a year or two ago who were harassing/assaulting people. Some of the kids groped women as they rode by. Usually they simply disrupt traffic when they show up in town. Can't believe some of them haven't been run over.

mr_bill

"We are all just people on bikes. Words from Exec Director Galen Mook on the dehumanization and otherization of bicyclists" (From Facebook posting linking to this April Update)

-mr. bill

mr_bill

Bike Snob NYC on “Bike-Outs”

BTW, a “swarm” of yoots went “wild” in Union Square in Allston. Yup, six yoots, on six bikes, two abreast, “took the lane” on SIX WHEELS! Unacceptable, TWELVE wheels are the minimum required.

I’ll tell you, I was “terrified” that they might tease me for riding on two wheels. But then the last one on the left gave me a thumbs up as I was turning left.

For all I know they started in Oregon and were on the way to say hi to Jim from Boston.


-mr. bill

livedarklions

Yeah, the Bike Snob column made me embarrassed that my BS meter didn't go off on the first report. Anything that gathers teen-aged boys that doesn't involve a high school coach automatically turns into reports of gangs of "hoodlums" up to no-good.

mr_bill

BTW, the hissy fit over bells referenced by Bike Snob NYC?
Now it's barbies that they are upset about.

-mr. bill

base2 

What I see here is a sense of community. Maybe if people got out of their cars, they'd feel it too.

--Just sayin'

livedarklions

That this is the biggest complaint people can come up with about this generation of teenagers says something about how peaceful this cohort is compared to prior ones. If this was the 1990s, we'd be talking about the high rate at which they were shooting each other. This is just run-of-the-mill teenage rule-breaking, albeit very athletic. Hardly a threat to anything except a short commute time.

Moe Zhoost

According to Eben Weiss, this whole thing is contrived to be much more than it really is.

The Phantom Threat of Teenage-Led "Bike-Outs

rydabent

He should have stuck his cane in the front wheel of one of those thugs. A good face plant and maybe a broken collar bone would teach them to suck eggs.