Get a job you hippies! Preferably one that involves finding new oil deposits.

Osama bin Laden blocked my SUV :(

I'm a cyclist, but these Critical Mass douchebags don't represent me.

I can haz deathwish?

Umm- Bikes are allowed to ride on roads, no problem. They certainly shouldn't be on sidewalks. Don't be ignorant. Highways are another matter.

I bicycle everywhere I go. I'm also 40 years old and have never know the touch of a woman.

/not really
//I'm 28
///and lonely, so lonely

@SpeedWagon: I like the cut of your jib.

I'm surprised no one was shot. I mean, it is open season on LA freeways right now.

@Rick Astley: I like some of what critical mass does, frankly stunts like the guy on the giant bike are funny. they also do huge city-wide scavenger hunts in certain places, which are fun.

i'm a cyclist as well (hence my icon) and even though i am all for disturbing the peace critial mass does NOT think their protests out well. case in point - once they closed off a main intersection in center city philadelphia to the point where an ambulance couldn't get by. imagine dying because you couldnt get to the hospital in time since some douchebags were causing gridlock

@cyclopticgaze: hey, i'm 26, cycle everywhere i go, and get laid a lot :P ok well, maybe not a lot, but on a regular basis...

Bikes belong on roads and designated bike paths. If you ride a bike on the sidewalk, you can get a ticket. If it's a designated multi-use sidewalk, then that's legit.

Bikes share the road with cars. Bikers should ride on the right, unless they're turning soon. Also, bikers should signal with their left hand. And drivers should learn what the signals mean.

Who do you think you are, Travis? Are you the DOT? I mean, this is some stupid stunt put on by radials, but the majority of bikers don't hold up traffic. Please don't confuse me with them.

@philibuster: radicals. not radials, because radials wouldn't put on stunts.

@philibuster: Well said.

Sorry about this, guys; it was payback from my showing up to ride at the X-Games halfpipe session with an International CXT.

Doesn't CA specifically prohibit bikes and pedestrians from it's expressways? New York does. Horses, too. It's like a big fuck-you to the Amish and hippies.

I mean, I get the point of the demonstration, but that's DANGEROUS, if not also illegal.

@philibuster: well said indeed! although, sometimes the sidewalk is hard to avoid, as it can be tempting to hop up there when avoiding traffic, or when a city bus almost knocks you off the road. that is another thing - taxi cabs & city buses need to make peace with bicyclists, no joke!

yeah, travis, i'm going along some other posters here. bikes belong on the road, too. with a statement saying bikes should be on sidewalks, i guess you're not a cyclist, or the last time you rode a bike was when you were a wee lad with training wheels, riding up and down the sidewalk on the street you grew up, while your dad chased you.

do i agree with these asshats riding on the freeway to protest? hell no, these guys are stupid. when i ride on the road, though, i treat myself as a vehicle, and that's what i expect from other drivers. i follow the rules of the road like everyone else.

but to say that bikes belong on the sidewalk...i'm sorry travis, you're wrong.

would it have not been ironic if the guy on roller blades fell completely backwards on his ass, then was run over by that prius coming up behind him?

Don't your onramps have signs that say "motorized traffic only" or something to that effect? I can't recall...might be one of those regional nuances, like saying "the" before the name of the road ;)

critical mass is a cool thing, but i thought it was only inner city rides.. leave it to LA... FUCK!

hmm, either way it's big in Seattle, but they haven't done any douchetastic things like this and most likely won't....

@SpeedWagon: critical mass aren't hippies, they are usually like anarchists, they break shit, which is not normal hippie mentality :P

Bike on the road, but only if you can maintain 50-75% of the posted speed limit, even uphill. Otherwise you are a hazzard to everyone.

Sidewalks?
Dude, bikes don't ever belong on sidewalks. If you're going to use your bike for transportation, playing dodge the pedestrians is a sure way to crash. I recently saw a video of some urban unicyclists screwing around in traffic and crowds, not cool.

Bicycles don't belong on freeways either. Just give me roads with decently wide (and debris free) shoulders, or a bike lane/path. If the road is too busy, I won't do any of that "I've got the same rights as cars and so I'll cross lanes to make a left turn" stuff the granola crunchers and look-I-bought-racing-team-spandex tools like to do. I'll be sure to keep out of the way of the cars if the cars keep away from me.

I'm gonna go for a ride now. This $4/gal gas BS makes me want to bike more often, and save the precious dino juice for the places too far to ride.

Jalops Jalops Jalops. Cycling on sidewalks is ILLEGAL in California. I sure as hell don't support these guys, statement or not (stupidity/recklessness is not a statement). But sidewalks are NOT the answer.

@Mazda-Eric-with-1cup-arugula: Well hook a brutha up! Just don't make me wax my chest.

But actually I'm a cyclist, too, though not for commuting. I live out in the country with great low traffic roads and scenery.

@philibuster: Amen!

Ride on the road. Follow the rules of the road. Leave the sidewalks for the slowpokes who are walking. Shoot these Crimanimal Masshats - they are the ones who give cyclists a bad name. Well, them and all the other idiots who ride on the wrong side, blast through intersections w/o even looking, etc.

Crimanimal Is that even a word?

Cyclists are quite vulnerable to the poor driving skills that come standard to most DMV-approved motorists. They are especially easy targets for lard-ass road-raging douchebags who give the rest of us hoons a bad name. I tip my hat to this ballsy band of highway bandits even if their intentions are misplaced. Remember more people on bikes mean less cars and trucks clogging the roads for the rest of us.

All my impressions of Crtical Mass have been that many of them are sanctimonious a-holes. I totally agree with more space for bikes but the faux bike messenger bike punx bullcrap is super played out. Ditto goes for the tall bikes thing. It showed up here in New York maybe 7 or so years ago and any and all contact I have had with those dudes has been negative.

Actually I've always wanted to take my bike on one of those big ramps, so I'm kinda jealous.

Yes, there are signs prohibiting unmotorized vehicles and pedestrians on our freeways.

@Mazda-Eric-with-1cup-arugula: That would have been so ironic the universe might have exploded.

@cyclopticgaze: ...eww :P

everyone at my job thinks i'm so environmentally friendly for biking to work each day - don't have the heart to tell them it's how i commute and don't give two-damns if the planet explodes in a week

Should have had a few truckers block the road ahead, jump out of their rigs, and give these "bikers" a sound thrashing. I've heard a cheater bar or lugwrench to the kneecaps tends to spoil pedaling for a while...

Unless they can maintain 65, stay off the highways, please.

@Mazda-Eric-with-1cup-arugula: Everyone at my job thinks I'm nuts just because I don't leave the office for lunch. They figure it's either an environmental thing, a gas expense savings thing, or a food expense savings thing.

All of the above. People are odd.

I am already pretty pissed off behind the wheel down here in SoCal... this would have driven me over the edge.

We should have Cal Worthington take his 09 Chevy Kahbolt on the 405 and shot at them with his .45...

I live in Austin and the psycho-cyclists are always complaining that motorists dont "share the road". But these jerks fail to follow the most simple rules of the road, like stopping at stop signs or signalling a turn.

My bicycle commute puts me on a wide sidewalk for a couple hundred yards before dumping back out onto a path but I usually take it because it's safer than the 45 mph traffic on that road and there are almost never any pedestrians. Cycling is allowed on I-90 east of Issaquah near Seattle but that is hardly an urban environment. That section of I-90 heads up a mountain pass over the Cascades, has wide shoulders, and there is no reason a cyclist would impede traffic. This LA stunt seems like a good way to make a dent on the hood of a lady jabbering on her phone while she tries to navigate her Lincoln.

@cyclopticgaze:
If that rainbow flag's any indication, I'd say they've been avoiding the touch of a woman.

They were on the 405 during Friday rush hour??? Eh, they were going faster than all of the cars anyway!!!!

You aren't allowed to ride your bike, walk, or ride a horse on the highways near me...

with that said, these guys are a-holes.

I'm surprised these guys didn't get run over or shot. Anybody remember the scene from the movie LA Story, when it's "open season on the 405?"

As of reading this I'm going to stop complaining about the trash we have living here in PA... for at least a week!

@HUMONGUS: @FatBraff: What's up with the hate? Just because you take issue with these fool's sensibilities doesn't make harming them okay. It doesn't justify fantasizing about it or finding it entertaining either. Good job wearing the asshat yourselves.

You know, if they really wanted to piss people off, they should have just occupied all the best parking spots at Nordstrom's; make those b*tches have to walk...

@Shaman: They're holding up traffic. If that's not a cause for justifiable homicide, I don't know what is.

@Shaman: I was just going off on a tangent about seeing Cal Worthington... the commercials have gotten to me.

I never said I would be entertained if they were hurt whilst pulling this stunt...

Rochester closed a useless piece of highway, called the Inner Loop, several times last summer and let the pedestrians/bicyclists/skaters use it. It was pretty cool :D

A couple of my friends want to make the whole Inner Loop deal into a racetrack, but to me... Not enough curves to make it intersting.

@Turkina: they have old closed on/off ramps on I-89 in burlington, vermont that are great to ride down :) though the cops do not appreciate it

Yeh...I love riding my bike, and I've done it across the country twice, but the the nuts with Critical Mass piss me off. They just do stupid stuff for effect.

I ride because its fun, it's good for me and girl cyclists never wear underwear (and if they're riding in the front of the pack with me, they're in good shape.)

I cracked up last year when some fat broad in curlers, driving a rusty Olds covered in bondo yelled at me, "Hey! Why don't you go get a job!"

Heck, my all carbon Aegis cost more than three of her cars and I was more likely to get where i was going than she was driving that piece of crap.

In my garage sits my STI. I drive it when I want to go fast. If I just want to go, the bike is great.

+1 for riding in the road and not the sidewalk. In my experience the sidewalk is usually the most dangerous place to ride. Cars don't usually check the sidewalk when turning and pedestrians don't keep an eye out for bikes on the sidewalk (which they shouldn't have to). I will also add that while I am all for raising cycling awareness I've always felt that all critical mass does is make everyone in a car how annoying cyclists can be. Freeway or no freeway.