come help us reclaim the streets from the grips of the steel monsters that are usually quite indifferent to the malleable, soft, even tender flesh of cyclist and pedestrians, of whom they claim 12,000 per year. Yes, over 12,000 accidents per year on the island of montreal alone, involving physical injury. How many more are near-misses? 25,000? 40% of deadly accidents in Quebec involve Montreal pedestrians.
The city is completely apathetic (apart from Projet Montréal) to citizens’ calls for more responsible urban planning regarding transportation. A few token gestures such as a line of paint on the side of the road is not enough, when one considers that city officials squander $300 million on fake water measurement devices to be installed by the mafia, or that city councellors from almost all preeminent municipalities (Longueil, Laval, Verdun, Varennes, Brossard) also sit on the boards of engineering consultation firms, which then award the contracts… to the mafia.
When cyclists congregate in sufficient numbers to let automobile drivers feel, for only an instant, the rage and desperation that normally beset us, thn the point of critical mass is attained whereby we democratically express our insatisfaction in a much more legitimate way than the patent conflicts of interest occuring in city hall where millions are dilapidated in back-patting and gross corruption.
They will tell you that you do not have the right to take over the road, that you have to ride single-file, that you are obstructing traffic. That it is contrary to the “regulations” or the Code de la Route.
Come join the ride, where we make our own rules; meeting spot is square Phillips (corner Union & Ste-Cath) at 5:45.
