Montreal bikers held a “die-in” Sept. 22 as part of a city-wide car-free celebration. The photo above and details come from Dominic Ratthé of Montreal bike blog Rouler à vélo, who was kind enough to relay the details in English.
The city shut down Ste-Catherine Street, one of the major downtown streets, and laid down grass and benches in the street. A banner above the street read “En ville sans ma voiture toute la semaine!” Sounds a bit like Park(ing) Day celebrations. If only Seattle would shut down a downtown street like that.
But once the street re-opened to motor vehicles, bikers came in and shut it down again by “dieing” en masse in the middle of the roadway. This is a pretty interesting way to bring attention to bicycle safety and to claim more bicycle road space.
Comments
2 responses to “Montreal bikers stage mass ‘die-in’”
Meh.
I’d really prefer that the bicycling community refrain from “Truth” ads for protest inspiration. We’re accused of touting our superiority and self-righteousness, and co-opting the very same two tropes from the worst ad campaign in the history of television isn’t going to make us look any better.
Plus, the whole Die-In message flies in the face of what I think it means to be a bicyclist. Biking is about living, it stands apart from the monotony of traffic lights and bus schedules, of computerized acceleration and fare travel. Sure people die tragically on bike, but they do in cars, hospitals or at home.
The best way to protest is to revel in the possible. That is why I like the first half of this protest and and Park(ing) Day. The second half, though, is fucking despicable.
@Geoff
No need to be that rude, Geoff 8^). At least we should recognize that the event attracted attention, including attention to the Park(ing) Day. All the way to Seattle and around the iCycle-world.
Dunno about “superiority and self-righteousness”, but I know bike activists are right about being less destructive on the environment. Some people might say this is “superiority and self-righteousness”, I do not.