Hit and runs reported at London Critical Mass ride + VIDEO

paulbrock, sorry mate should have made it a bit clearer. When in custody, if the offence is suitable and your record is suitable you can get a caution for certain offences.

You can also be given a ticket in custody for offences rather than go to court or you can be reported for the offence and a summons is issued for you to attend court at a later date.

Zanf - again apologies if i have misconstrued your comment of "If you dont like that then stop any claims you might make to being a supporter of human rights" i assumed meant human rights act unless of course there is a different human rights.

2000 killed, 20,000 seriously injured every year, everyone's communities made little worse by roads dominated by vehicles.

Disrupting the flow of traffic for a few minutes is hardly a disproportionate response.

That's like saying thousands every year are killed or injured by violent crimes so going round giving Chinese burns to everyone you see for 30 minutes a week is hardly a disproportionate response.

Whether or not CM are right wrong, good or bad should not be the issue here. These incidents add proof that;

1. Patience is pathetically low. Ok, drivers are held up. I've been held stationary for two hours on a motorway. Did I force my through to the front, ramming any vechile out of the way. No I waited until traffic moved! When there's roadworks do you drive on the wrong side of the road to be at the front or to make progress?
2. Cyclist are still seen as second class not human beings by those in the metal boxes. I love the look drivers faces when I tell them my bike is worth more than their car. Or when asked was 10 second of their time really worth my life?
3. Vehicles are (seemingly) increasingly being used as 1 ton plus weapons and the police are too stretched do anything about it.

"this person decided to use a vehicle as a weapon against an entirely innocent person but this driver will be going to prison now."

No they won't. Using a car as a weapon with deliberate intent to injure someone will be classed as 'careless driving' and they'll get away with a fine, at worst. That's because cyclists are considered to be second class citizens whose lives and health are unworthy of protection by the law.

I bet if the driver had been stopped and punched, the law would have taken that far more seriously.

Unfortunately whilst CM rides might create a highly visible demonstration (let's face it a ride designed to pressure and already stretched transport infrastructure is not simply a "ride") they also increase/fuel the negative views of cyclists from others who are simply trying to drive home from work.

I am with Mr Whippet on the lack of care and recognition from drivers of vehicles towards cyclists generally.

Too often and I am sorry it is most often black cabs, I am passed with only millimetres to spare between my elbow and the vehicle. Many times I am overtaken even when I am travelling at the same speed as the traffic.

What I can't support though is those cyclists who ride with reckless abandon endangering people at pedestrian crossings and ignoring substantial road junctions. They are also giving cyclists a bad name.

London has become more and more congested every year and will continue to be - the only certainty is that it will get worse.

What we need is for people to take notice of others around them and behave with care and consideration - treat others as you would like to be treated.

Never been on a Critical Mass event but it looks like the sort of assertive protest activity the authorities really hate. No one is doing anything wrong, no one is organising, no one is leading, people just turn up and cycle about a bit.

It must infuriate the Establishment. In my book keeping the powers-that-be on their toes is a good thing so the more this happens the better.

I am dead set against agressive protests, especially where violence may kick off, but the idea of just turning up to lend support to an issue seems to be brilliant.

I have no doubt the authorities will try to spin these events as hotbeds of crime and disorder and so must be stamped out at all costs. They do not like large impromptu public gatherings. It smacks of sedition. They did the same with Raves in the early 90's. If they don't understand it they want to stop it.

I was stuck at a junction the other evening, watching as an endless stream of people on wheels flowed across in front of me. It was great to see people occupying a street under their own steam and displacing the vehicles. Unfortunately, these were the speed skaters, who do a similar thing to CM, but make it look fun and exciting, unlike the dismal spectacle that CM presents.

"I really enjoy Critical Mass rides as a fun way to chat to people and relax after work"

What you need is a bar.

"but the absolute vast majority of people on CM are simply cyclists who want to ride with other people in a friendly and celebratory way"

Me too! Perhaps you should have come on the Dunwich Dynamo, rather than standing in the middle of a junction with a silly hat, blowing a whistle.

It's interesting that so much of the focus is on the suffering of car and taxi drivers. At least they mostly have the option of turning round and avoiding CM, unlike all the poor sods stuck on buses unable to cross blocked junctions, or pedestrians trying to use the crossings that CM ignores. Or even the cyclists I saw on Clerkenwell Road commuting home (imagine!) having to avoid the CMers weaving up the wrong side of the road.
CM was a great idea when there were so few cyclists they were effectively invisible. With all the work that remains to make London a safe, convenient and pleasant place to ride, that's no longer the case. CM should stop before they deter too many more people from cycling.
And yes, anyone who uses a vehicle as a weapon should be prosecuted, face severe sentences and lose their licence.

I think the attitude comes because CM are trying to make out they represent cyclists....They don't represent me, I want to do ONE CM, just so I can see it, in general I do NOT agree with it and they give cyclists a bad name.

It should be STOPPED and use the time you spend holding up junctions and cycling slowly without letting people past, to make an actual difference, sit down and set out an agenda to take to someone like TFL, instead of just clowning around in a group.

What would people say if 700 "hoodies" got together once a month and blocked the entrance to a train station and stopped people going home....

If anyone's interested, that's a BMW 3-series 'compact', E46 model.

I went on a Mass ride once. The group headed to parliament square and then just stopped. I didn't find it particularly celebratory to be honest, more like just being stuck in traffic in central London. After 10 minutes of waiting a cabbie hurled some verbal abuse and for once I agreed. Maybe I was doing it wrong but I left as soon as I could get away from the crowd.

I prefer to celebrate cycling like I did this morning, on a club ride taking in the views and roads that Hertfordshire offers without a load of people constantly parking in front of me.

Scary how alive and well the idea is that if a driver does something aggressive to you, you must have brought it upon yourself.

Last weekend I led a fancy dress bicycle procession round Bristol, as part of Bristol Cycle Festival. It was a traffic free Sunday and pretty much all the roads we used were closed, dead ends, or separate bike paths, but we still had some appalling behaviour from drivers.

One taxi driver tried to force his way through a group of families in fancy dress, while a woman in a car (with her kids in the back) deluged us with verbal abuse. Afterwards I asked if people wanted to take these incidents any further and sadly no-one did. One bloke even told me that he felt what we were doing was antagonising motorists.

I've had similar experiences when training as a Sky Ride leader. In the space of one afternoon we had three or four dangerous overtakes, honking of horns, and "punishment passes". This is despite being in a small orderly group of about ten riders, all riding sensibly, wearing helmets, etc.

It's time to stop making excuses for these people and start encouraging people to crack down on them, before more serious incidents happen.

Can motorists not chill out, even on a Friday night? I've often wondered what these idiots do with the precious 5 or 10 minutes that they save by speeding, harassing or threatening other road users etc.

Wow, I left a comment that was MY opinion, come back today and its gone mad. I may well reply to some of the comments that quoted me, but as it was MY opinion....how can you tell me I'm wrong....

As for farrell....

Spot the difference. London Cab Drivers planned a protest against Olympic lanes for 5.00pm on the 27th of July last year. The Met took out a banning order forbidding this, so around 200 Cabbies turned up at 2.00pm instead. Arterial traffic in five directions from Hyde Park Corner was blocked for an hour. No arrests were made.

zanf, the human rights act is not fit for purpose. Its original format was brilliant however now its misused on such a massive scale that its become a monster no one can control.

It then causes problems for genuine people with genuine problems.

Also i have no problems with CM making their monthly journeys and i would gladly take part, what i do have a problem with is people jumping on the CM bandwagon for their own gain possibly causing problems.

Hope i've made myself clear.

"The vans in this video were JUST for CM.

Most charges were dropped, and only 5 out of 9 (from the original 182) that made it to court were found guilty of breaching conditions applied to the ride"

You have to remember that it was the Olympics and the city was flooded with thousands of cops and any sort of gathering will attract the Police, in numbers, to make sure it didn't effect the opening ceremony.

Can you also supply how many were given tickets, cautions or reported for summons from the 182 and not just the people who went to court as i'm sure the info will be in the public domain.

I cant decide whether i agree with them or not and i cant help feeling that they bring a lot of bad publicity with them whenever they set out.

There will be some, like all demonstrations - public gatherings, who are only interested in causing problems and others who are there just for fuN.

That being said there is no need for what the drivers did and i hope they pay the penalty, however i wont hold my breath.

I think if they went down the route of making it a full blown demonstration with the assistance of the Police instead of "just turning up and riding" then i think their point would be better put. But again it's only my opinion.

GKam there ladies and gentlemen, deciding he is bigger and better than our countries legal system....

I preferred your earlier work when you were pleading for freebies to be honest.