by frog
Over in the United States the all powerful cycling lobby is getting ads that demean cyclists pulled from the television. First the one about Jim and now this one:
I actually thought it was quite funny. I know the conclusion was supposed to be “Cycling sucks, I wish I had insured my SUV so I could still be cruising the urban streets in it.” But the message I got was “Hey, I never noticed before how unfriendly these streets are towards cyclists. Wouldn’t it be great if there were more cycle lanes and less pollution.” Or, maybe, “Not only did I save money on unneeded car insurance, but my health insurance premiums are rapidly falling now too!”
Published in Health & Wellbeing | Society & Culture by frog on Mon, April 21st, 2008
Tags: BIking, cycling, insurance, television ads, United States
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
Assuming he’s an uncomplaining and hardy soul who takes his morning cloud of smog like a trooper.
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This science study and this summary from CAN [pdf] suggests you might get more smog in your lungs from sitting in a car.
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Thanks frog! I’d say it’s a little stronger than “suggests”.
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Great company slogan “Sanity makes a comeback”
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some cycling dudes down here say they quite happy to share the bus lane
hardly ever a bicycle run over a bus and kill them or vice versa
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Well you wacky man if they’d killed them they wouldn’t be telling you anything now would they
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but air conditioners have filters don’t they? how can an air-conditioned car be more polluted than the air breathed by a cyclist?
the pdf summary didn’t say a word about filters
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Filters aren’t going to keep out something as small as carbon monoxide or NO2 (molecules of a similar size to your oxygen or nitrogen molecules). I guess that the uncertainty in the amount of larger particles could have something to do with filters – not that cars are particularly airtight otherwise anyway.
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The message I got was “If you don’t insure your car how are going to be able to afford a cycle helmet and a full size bike intead of having to ride your kiddie’s bike.”
In fact if I seen this clip without knowing it was an ad I would have thought I was watching a cycling safety video. One that follows the practice used by John Cleese and Jim Henson in their management training films. Start with a humorous take on everything you shouldn’t be doing. Riding an undesized bike, not wearing a helmet, not checking for pedestrians when crossing the footpath, not keeping right (especially when racing the helmeted cyclist), turning left from a right turn lane, not riding on the sealed shoulder, cycling on a motorway. No wonder the cycling lobby hated it.
Did you click on menu and check out the “Are you having trouble getting to work?” ad? Did the transit lobby get that one pulled? Or would Americans actually go to these lengths to avoid riding on buses?
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If he drives like he cycles it’s no wonder he couldn’t get car insurance!
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