I do think you glossed over the question of why obeying more of the laws wouldn’t make it potentially more powerful by taking away the “low-hanging-fruit” that allows many to dismiss it as just a group of thugs.

I was really disappointed in Minneapolis’ critical mass the time our newly elected pro-bike mayor decided to ride and so many of the riders started riding into oncoming traffic and taking one ways that he felt he had to leave.

That was a loss.

Besides, I don’t want to see a world where people charge into traffic going the wrong direction – not on bike, car or foot. I don’t want to see a world where people deliberately antagonize each other. I don’t want to see a world where emergency vehicles are corked because they happen to not be bicycles. I don’t want to see a world where pedestrian’s right of way is disrespected and pedestrians who try and take it anyway are buzzed, yelled at, and otherwise threatened/abused.

A world where bikes are safe and accepted, where they take their space and don’t give it up and where the cars have to wait their turn, is great. The feeling – especially to someone new to urban riding and a bit scared to mix it up with cars – can be very empowering. To keep the riders together and the mass “safe”, I’m good with keeping the mass rolling through an intersection once the first riders have gone through, but why does it need to go so far past that?

The big problem I see with CM is that it provides one more example for drivers to claim that they have the right to use the road because they’re going somewhere, but cyclists shouldn’t be using the road because they’re there for fun, or excercise, or as a means of political discourse, or whatever. I don’t generally see drivers having to justify their reason for being on the road, though.