Sunday, June 9, 2013

Nudepocolypse 2013

Nothing makes me more mad than a bunch of people expressing their "rights" to something at the expense of everyone else.

Saturday night, June 8, the Portland edition of the World Naked Bike Ride went through downtown, starting at Jefferson and the Park Blocks, heading toward 12th, up to Burnside, and then over across the Burnside Bridge to Grand Ave. The police helped corral the people, but they just kept coming. More and more people, until the end of the starting line ended up back at Madison and 4th.

My question: Did the organizers of the event stop to think about the impact this would have on TriMet, its operators, supervisors, and riders? My guess: NOT. To me, this is a level of arrogance above all else, basically saying "screw you" to all people who happen to be in the way. I think this is one of the greatest detriments to society, and it brings out so clearly the selfish and arrogant attitude that so many people have that they are owed something by society.

Last night, on the TriMet Scanner Twitter feed, the tweeters had a heck of a time keeping up with all the radio transmissions from the dispatchers, supervisors, and operators who were trying to navigate the ship through this mess. Below is a sample of tweets to demonstrate the impact of the Nudepocolypse.




I think this speaks for itself.

Now, I love my school, Portland State. But the person who runs the Facebook page made a post supporting the Nudepocolypse. As a perfect example of the difference between ignorance and awareness, I took the opportunity to express my distaste:

My hope is that efforts like the TriMet Scanner will not only make people aware of the issues going on within TriMet, but also how people's actions affect others. TriMet's riders and operators did not deserve to be so adversely affected by the Nudepocolypse, neither did the dispatchers and supervisors need the extra stress.

Portland, let's not let your "weirdness" become a detriment to innocent bystanders. But then again, that's what it will always naturally become.