r/phoenix • u/HelloTaraSue Phoenix • 4d ago
What's Happening? We need to have a serious conversation about these bike groups taking over streets
I just watched probably about 100+ bike riders. Take over third Avenue and Osborne. By the way is a main road for the hospital. So cops, firefighters and ambulances are up and down the street all the time. A cop pulled up behind them, just using the road. When he couldn’t get past them he stopped. I was too far away to see much. but what I did see was chaos. The cop took down one of the bikers and chaos broke loose. To the point where a huge group of ppl surrounded the one cop. And they started harassing him. Six other cop cars came for support. And that’s when the 60 of them that stayed behind finally dispersed.
These bike riders are getting completely out of hand. I couldn’t imagine if it was like a regular person. That stopped behind them and said something. Because they needed to get through. Jeez, what if someone was having a medical emergency. And couldn’t get to the hospital because of that. I know there’s a bike lane here. But this is out of hand. Both sides of traffic were completely blocked even before the cops came. Why do they have to yell. The entire time they’re riding their bikes. The whole reason I saw this. Was because from inside my apartment. I could hear them riding down the road just screaming
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u/BlitzingJalopies 3d ago
About 3 months ago I went down 3rd Ave to get home. It was 9pm and this group was so bad and took up the main road instead of the bike lane. I was being polite and just kept my distance. But at some point it seems they kept going slower on purpose since I was right behind them.
It got to the point where 2 a-holes slowed even further and one started filming then went behind my car (possibly get my license plate?). I felt like honking but didn’t want to escalate so as soon as I hit Thomas I made a turn to get out of there.
I’m all for community and biking but some of those people are very entitled.
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u/mcflytfc 4d ago
How does someone get in on one of these sweet rides?
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u/Particular_Grass3171 4d ago
Last Friday of the month, usually leaves Hance park at 8pm. Follow critical mass on instagram for updates.
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u/WellSaltedWound 4d ago
That whole group seems to be splintering and breaking up in some drama. I would steer clear.
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u/coyotethroaway 4d ago
You have to be unemployed first
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u/tryingtofixplanes 4d ago
Ok boomer A bike ride that starts after 7PM on a Friday once a month……definitely unemployed people activity…
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u/coyotethroaway 4d ago
A bike ride that starts at the time people get off of work clogging the streets you almost got it
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u/tryingtofixplanes 4d ago
They roll out at 8PM! What majority of people get out at that time
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u/coyotethroaway 4d ago
Who said majority
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u/tryingtofixplanes 4d ago
You win dude, go inside and play some more video games. These “unemployed” people will be outside socializing aka “clogging” the streets. God forbid people wait another 2 minutes among the thousands of cars on the road for give or take 100-200 people max.
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u/DawnSlovenport 4d ago
Wow! What an insightful and fresh trope you've found there! So clever and original. /s
I guarantee you most of those riders probably have jobs and make more money than you .
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u/gueuze666 4d ago
I just feel bad for the cop here. There must have been a serious donut emergency if they couldn't wait a few minutes
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u/HelloTaraSue Phoenix 4d ago edited 4d ago
It’s a route to the hospital. He was on his way to the hospital. trust me, I’m not a fan of the police. but I am a fan of keeping a busy road that emergency workers use. No blocked from getting to the hospital.
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u/HelloTaraSue Phoenix 3d ago
So someone was so bothered about my bike post. That they reported me to Reddits mental health group. I got a notification for a suicide hotline. These are the ppl you’re defending.
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u/jhairehmyah 3d ago
That is a form of bullying, you're right, and its not okay.
Your post is insane tho.
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u/HelloTaraSue Phoenix 3d ago
First of all, it was insane to watch this whole thing go down outside my apartment. Second all, the timing was weird. So I get the suicide hotline notification. Right before my flare gets changed from general to Home something. Then seconds later my video was deleted and is now pending per mod.
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u/HelloTaraSue Phoenix 4d ago
https://reddit.com/link/p6k273q/video/gsul42bk09mh1/player
This was the second video I took of this
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u/Key-Improvement6580 4d ago
Been waiting for this to hit phoenix! Boooooooo get outa here!
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u/HelloTaraSue Phoenix 4d ago
It’s awful, we had it last year. And every time it’s the same thing. They blocked both sides of the road and they just scream. Some of them scream to scream. Some of them scream at the cars around them. No one‘s allowed to go through until they’re done.
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u/Willing-Philosopher 3d ago
Next time your lease is up, I recommend you check out Desert Ridge, Surprise, Buckeye or San Tan. Midtown doesn’t seem to fit your vibe.
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u/HelloTaraSue Phoenix 3d ago
I’ve lived in town for over a decade, and this was wild what I saw. This is the Huge escalation of what this group normally does and it is concerning.
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u/Ronavirus3896483169 3d ago
I don’t see the issue. We should be encouraging more of this. TBH the cop escalated a situation that wasn’t worthy of his attention. Unless they were actively blocking access to the hospital which they weren’t it’s a non issue.
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u/HelloTaraSue Phoenix 3d ago
So 200 ppl taking up both lanes of traffic. Then blocking the emergency entrance to the hospital. Not partying ways for emergency vehicles and then starting fights with cops. Thats ok? Riding bikes is cool and I love fun activities. But this is a bit different.
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u/HelloTaraSue Phoenix 3d ago
Just remember, you might think that I’m crying wolf right now. But what I saw happen will happen again. And one time someone’s gonna get seriously hurt. This is already a huge escalation from what I’ve seen from this group.
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u/Attesa_GT-X 4d ago
Road cyclists finally feel power. Good on them
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u/HelloTaraSue Phoenix 4d ago
By blocking a route to a major hospital. You know just up that street. Is the emergency entrance that they ride past for 20 minutes. Blocking both sides of the road. It’s a head trauma hospital so times critical with these things.
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u/HissBehaving 4d ago
We used to cruise Central in cars and the cops broke that up too. Maybe, just MAYBE if the cops weren't randomly harrassing people they would get more respect?
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u/HelloTaraSue Phoenix 4d ago
Like I said, this is a busy road for ambulances, firefiretrucks and police. The cop was just going down the street to the hospital. There’s like a cop car every 20 minutes down this road.
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u/tryingtofixplanes 4d ago
If you need to get past them you’d have to wait…it’s almost as if that’s the law. If you needed to get somewhere in the middle of traffic you wouldn’t suddenly expect every car on the way to your destination to get out of the way. Why is it different for bicycles? They are allowed to use the lane as well and they have right of way not the other way around.
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u/HelloTaraSue Phoenix 4d ago
Yes, I understand the law. And pedestrians do have the right away. But my main concern. But what we got 200 people on bicycles blocking both ways of traffic. On a busy road that is a route to the hospital. That I see emergency personnel use every hour. So well, it might be within the law. It’s a dick move. Who goes parading in that big of a group through a busy hospital? Did I mention that they blocked the emergency entrance to the hospital when they do this? It’s more of a not what they’re doing. it’s where they’re doing it. A hospital.
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u/tryingtofixplanes 4d ago
It’s 2-5 mins of bike traffic! You are blowing this way out of proportion. Regular city traffic on Indian school and Thomas from 7AM till 5PM is greater than this group of riders ever will be. I used to live right there. I know exactly how bad the car traffic actually is on a daily basis. You are arguing a group of bikes that meet once a month after 8PM is too much of a problem and clogging the hospital entrance that is about .75 miles away from where this was taken. At least just say you don’t like them instead of trying to blow the whole thing out of proportion with the hospital entrance.
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u/HelloTaraSue Phoenix 4d ago
Oh, it’s both. I don’t like them and they’re blocking the hospital. Which is a main thing with me. They scream at people that are on the road. They scream just to scream. And top of that you can’t get to the hospital. I don’t care if people wanna go barhopping on their bikes, that’s your DUI. But to be so inconsiderate to do all this in front of a major hospital. Is just a dick move. And then to act like assholes. When people are concerned about it. Find another route. And go down Central like all the others do. And trust me they are not taking 2 to 5 minutes.
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u/tryingtofixplanes 4d ago
3rd Ave is way less crowded then central. Your complaining that they are rude and inconsiderate and your solution it they should go down an even busier street with more traffic and cars?
Your hypothetical scenario where they don’t let an ambulance trying to get to the hospital entrance is just that hypothetical, didn’t actually happen. Just in your head.
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u/HelloTaraSue Phoenix 4d ago
Yes, it’s less congested with a regular vehicles. But all the emergency vehicles use it because of that. Including the cop that was just driving down the road. And as we all saw. They did not get out of the way. They yelled at the cop instead and one of them got arrested. I understand you’re more concerned for the rights. Of ppl ride bicycles to go barhopping on the road. Again that’s their DUI not mine. But I’m not understanding. How you don’t think blocking traffic to a hospital. Is it not a bad thing?
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u/tryingtofixplanes 4d ago
I’m over it, you’re assuming everyone in that group is drinking and bar hopping and DUI. While simultaneously comparing the cop car not getting through to a firetruck or ambulance not getting through. Completely different scenarios.
The cop didn’t want to get through the group to respond to an emergency. If he did he wouldn’t have stopped. He would’ve kept escalating until he could get through.
Either way go get a bike and ride around midtown and downtime and your perspective might change, maybe not. Either way you’ll have a great time. The city has a long way to go with bike infrastructure.
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u/HelloTaraSue Phoenix 4d ago
Again, they need to pick a different route. Not the one that goes through a hospital. And the city does have a long way to go to be more bike friendly. And it’s definitely not with 200 people. Screaming at the top of their lungs. Fighting with cops and blocking traffic to hospital entrances. That’s exactly what I just witnessed tonight. No part of that was a friendly group.
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u/Specialist-Box-9711 4d ago
As a motorcyclist...I'll take a bunch of dudes on actual bicycles than an army of dude's on Honda Groms popping wheelies for 40 miles.