Free Republic

The BMW driver whose ride was surrounded and trashed by a gang of bicyclists on Fifth Avenue was attacked in broad daylight while driving with his elderly mom — who screamed during their escape, “We’re going to die, they’re going to kill us!” Max Torgovnick, 36, recounted the harrowing run-in to The Post one day after it unfolded around 4 p.m. Tuesday at 21st Street and Fifth Avenue. “It’s something that I never expected to happen in New York City,” said Torgovnick, a lifelong city resident. “That’s something like you would see on the streets of a war zone. I...

When JoJo McKibben was the victim of a hit-and-run on April 3 as she biked to work, she wasn't all that surprised. She was hit while biking by a drunk driver last summer and has come to expect that cars won't realize she's riding on two wheels. McKibben's boyfriend Brendan Sharpe said he has also been seriously injured by cars while he's biked in Austin, once in 2009 and again in 2015... Katie Delleoz, the executive director of Bike Austin, said she personally has nearly been struck at the same intersection McKibben was hit at last week

There is a limit to how much stress can be put on something before it is finally and irreversibly destroyed. It goes by several different names. Critical mass, tipping point, and system overload are but a few. In each case, the term refers to an event that finally breaks the camel's back (to use yet another term for the same thing). Society is not merely reaching its critical mass; it is reaching it so swiftly that predictably, there will be an abrupt and catastrophic breakdown of historic proportions, eclipsing even the fall of the Roman Empire. [snip] The backlash has...

Houston police are considering a plan to charge the Critical Mass bicycle group as safety concerns draw officers away from their regular duties. The event, which sees thousands of riders take to the streets on the last Friday of every month, has operated in cities across the world for over 20 years..... Four officers in two police cars help riders through intersections, with officers driving ahead and behind to clear the path. Houston police say they are now exploring the possibility of riders footing the bill for those services, as happens now for big funeral processions and for some busy...

The bicycle party known as Critical Mass turns 20 on Friday. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of riders in all manner of dress and - if recent history holds true, no dress at all - will band together for a commemorative, congestion-causing cruise through downtown San Francisco. [snip] Chris Carlsson, the Critical Mass spokesman, said he expects 5,000 to 10,000 riders on Friday, more than 10 times the number of riders who routinely participate. "It's going to be a gigantic mess, but it is going to be fun," Carlsson said.

Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich's campaign attacked Virginia's GOP primary election system on Saturday for keeping him off the state's March 6 Super Tuesday ballot. The state party said that Gingrich, who lives in Virginia, had failed to submit the required 10,000 signatures to appear on the ballot. The Gingrich campaign responded that "only a failed system" would disqualify Gingrich and other candidates. It said Gingrich would pursue an aggressive write-in campaign, although state law prohibits write-ins on primary ballots. Gingrich campaign director Michael Krull said in a statement: "We will work with the Republican Party of Virginia to pursue an...

A woman who was badly injured when she was struck by a bicyclist in a crosswalk at Mission Street and The Embarcadero last month died this morning, San Francisco police said.

Professor Peter Furth has ridden his bicycle to work at Northeastern University each day for the past six years. The two-mile trip through the Boston suburb of Brookline, Massachusetts, is usually without incident. Furth's journey is worlds apart from his former Boston commute, which for 13 years was a battle with drivers who wanted him on the sidewalk. "I've had motorists that drive a couple of inches from my elbow, trying to scare me," he said. Furth would catch up with drivers at stoplights and ask them whether they knew how close they'd come to hitting him. Invariably, they would...

As Jean Smith, 63, arrived at 30th Street Station on a train from Wilmington this evening, she and other commuters were warned that there was a large gathering of young people inside the station. Some "Facebook thing," they were told. Oh, no. A South Street flash mob, she thought. "I watched the faces of the people getting off the train," said Smith, of Blackwood. "They were shocked." But what they found was not a riot, but people standing around as if time had stopped. It was a flash mob, but of the whimsical type. Amtrak police estimated about 500 to...

A doctor convicted of assaulting two bicyclists by slamming on his car brakes after a confrontation on a narrow Brentwood road was sentenced today to five years in prison. Christopher Thompson, wearing dark blue jail scrubs, wept as he apologized to the injured cyclists shortly before he was sentenced. "I would like to apologize deeply, profoundly from the bottom of my heart," he told them, his right hand cuffed to a court chair. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Scott T. Millington called the case a "wake-up call" to motorists and cyclists and urged local government to provide riders with...

SEATTLE -- An Everett mother says she's outraged over a weekend protest full of naked cyclists. The group was riding along the Seattle waterfront Friday night wearing nothing but smiles to expose some of the dangers they face. But not everyone was smiling. "I looked and there were naked men with their genitals hanging out," said Marcy Hayes, who was there with her 6-year-old daughter Ashland. "I'm yelling at my daughter to look away." Hayes says she and her daughter walked out of the Seattle Aquarium and right into the path of a pack of cyclists and all their nakedness....

In my development finance work in the developing world, I have undertaken a lot of negotiations with businesses (mostly media companies) in places ranging from South Africa to Guatemala to Serbia looking to borrow money. The nonprofit private equity fund I work with has standard loan documents, of course, and over the years has looked to tailor them to fit risky investment in these environments with less than perfect adherence to the rule of (contract) law. As I watch the Detroit restructurings unfold, particularly the strong-arming of senior and secured creditors, I wonder what new covenants creditors might want to...

... San Francisco can't even install new bike racks. Blame Rob Anderson. At a time when most other cities are encouraging biking as green transport, the 65-year-old local gadfly has stymied cycling-support efforts here by arguing that urban bicycle boosting could actually be bad for the environment. That's put the brakes on everything from new bike lanes to bike racks while the city works on an environmental-impact report. ... Cars always will vastly outnumber bikes, he reasons, so allotting more street space to cyclists could cause more traffic jams, more idling and more pollution. Mr. Anderson says the city has...

A rookie cop - the son of a highly respected New York City detective - has been stripped of his badge and gun after being caught on video viciously attacking a bicyclist who was part of a Times Square demonstration.

A rookie cop - the son of a highly respected New York City detective - has been stripped of his badge and gun after being caught on video viciously attacking a bicyclist who was part of a Times Square demonstration. ' The startling YouTube video shows Officer Patrick Pogan, 22, apparently setting his sights on - and then tackling - a bicyclist as he pedaled along Seventh Avenue as part of last Friday's controversial Critical Mass ride. Christopher Long, 29, was among a throng of riders as he whizzed toward the corner of West 46th Street at 9:30 p.m. and...

The man tried to back up, but bumped into a biker. "This enraged the group," Jamieson said.> The driver tried to drive away, but hit another bicyclist.Critical Mass riders cornered the car again and started spitting on it and banging against it. One bicyclist punched the driver through his open window, and another used a knife to slash the Subaru's tires, Jamieson said.

Bicyclists were twice as likely as drivers to be at fault in the nearly 2,000 collisions that killed or severely injured Bay Area bike riders in the past decade, an analysis by The Chronicle shows. Bicycle and safety advocates say the deaths two weeks ago of two cyclists hit by a Santa Clara sheriff's deputy's cruiser should serve as a call to improve relations between cars and bikes on the roadways.The advocates say large numbers of cyclists fail to follow the rules of the road, running stop signs and red lights, and drivers are becoming more aggressive. "There is a...

Critical Mass, the loosely organized bicycle group that ties up rush-hour traffic once a month in Minneapolis, has demonstrated who rules our streets. But Minneapolis isn't the only place where the Mass mob has strong-armed the police and City Hall, and left outraged motorists fuming but impotent. Today, Critical Mass cyclists cow commuters in more than 300 cities, from Denver to Rio de Janeiro, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The ride got its start in San Francisco (where else?) in 1992 with about 50 cyclists. Authorities there looked the other way as riders ran red lights and snarled traffic....

Tonight's Critical Mass in San Francisco marks the 15th anniversary of the rebellious rolling ride that locally has propelled the bicycle movement into the political mainstream and globally has been copied by hundreds of cities. What began with four dozen bicyclists riding together up Market Street on Sept. 25, 1992, has turned into a monthly happening that regularly draws thousands of participants pedaling along the streets of San Francisco, at times drawing both praise and scorn. The monthly Critical Mass rides are part political statement and part roving street festival and now are firmly part of San Francisco's cultural fabric....