thdave

Last night, ABC Nightly News had a segment on the high cost of fuel and what folks are doing about it. The story was fine and dandy, until the last part, which has my blood boiling!

The last part of it included a cyclist or sorts. It was a joke. The guy was dressed in a polyester suit and tie, and was slowly riding a cruiser bike on a country road. The broadcaster laughed at the guy and they wrapped up their story.

How frickin' sad. Cycling is a real alternative to driving a car and reducing fuel consumption. I saved a 100 gallons of gas last year by peddling. ABC, showing a lack of concern for the topic, instead decided create a stigma against it--the clear message was the cycling is for nerds! Slow, unathletic nerds, poly suits required!

bike2math

It's entirely possible some of the public won't buy this though. I don't know if its gas or the truly excellent weather but the bike path and the streets leading towards it are full of bicycles. Last week I had four bicyclists try and run me off the path, two in one day. I wish the price of gas would go down, I miss my solo commute and quite time.

As people see more and more people arriving at work on bicycles, as people know more and more family members who bike to work or half bike half bus to work it will become more acceptable.

Doggus

I'm seeing a few more bikes, but I'm also seeing a lot more scooters and motorcycles which I'm totally fine with too! Anything to kick the black crack habit.

thdave

Undoubtably, bike2math, ABC News is disconnected from this. However, that doesn't change the fact that they mocked us!

No_Minkah

It's been bugging me badly that whenever I see a report in the MSM about the high cost of gas, the central lesson is "drive around looking for a good deal on gas" or "close the car windows". For people in urban areas the BEST WAY to improve your health AND save the planet is to ride a bike, but it's never mentioned. Why isn't there a bike lobby powerful enough to buy the media, like the oil companies bought the government? /end rant.

gear

So the over weight woman who was gassing up her SUV and said she would have to "ride a bike or maybe a horse" didn't bother you? I garentee when gas costs more than $5 per gallon, there will be a lot of people in polyester suits riding bikes, and no one will be chuckling at them then.

DataJunkie

I think NBC nightly news also featured someone on a bike. I was too busy cooking to pay attention.
Anyhow, it may just be that I am miserable from my pollen allergies but I really don't care much about the price of gas or who does or does not cyclocommute. Maybe when I feel better I can summon up the energy to become outraged.

thdave

I have no problem with people in polyester suits riding bikes--ABC is the ones that are laughing at them.

The overweight woman scene I didn't pay attention to. But it sounds like she wasn't serious about riding a bike, given that she tossed in the "horse" comment. Ride a horse to work? That's my whole point--ABC didn't take cycling commuters seriously.

It just seems to me that a major news company should report real news. If it includes bicycling commuters, then they should report on real cycling commuters and not take the easy way out and film the first person they see riding a bike.

gear

I think I see the problem your having. You think ABC news is a major news company. They are big and they have a lot of viewers but MAJOR???? Watching network news is like reading just the headlines in your newspaper.

Doggus

But that's what most everyone watches.

gear

I watch it too, but I read when I really want serious information.

WalterMitty

Now THAT's something to get outraged about! ABCCBSNBCCNNMSNBCetal, are about selling soap, cars and razor blades with a sprinkling of biased social commentary to give it an "edge".

I swear, I can miss the programs these people produce for a year and still tell you what they're going to say before they say it.

If you want news you'll have to go somewhere else.....

thdave

Well, Waltermitty, if they do have a bias, you'd think it would be in the direction of conservation of fuel, and not in the direction of laughing at bike commuters.

closetbiker

Shouldn't it be the cyclist laughing at everyone else who has to pay the high cost of gas? Or maybe the broadcaster was laughing at everyone else when the solution to using less gas is right in front of our eyes? After all, go to London, Tokyo, Dehli, Amsterdam and many other areas of the world and you'll find people slowly going to work on bicycles in suits and ties. America consumes more than it's share of gas. Maybe they're the ones who everyone is laughing at. I know I laugh at my co-workers when they complain about how much their gas costs them to get to work.

WalterMitty

Ummmm, well, no actually, that doesn't fit the "everything is crap and someone is to blame" template. If you start proposing something even remotely resembling a potential or partial solution where the public at large could take an active role in accommodating, mitigating, minimizing or (heaven forbid) solving a problem for themselves, you've become one of those "names that shall not be spoken here".

While they can stomach the occasional story about the lady saving stray cats in Oregon somewhere, when it comes to anything from teen pregnancy to global warming to race relations you'd better keep your simpleton, partial, low cost, less-than-omnipotent solutions to yourself.

So tune in at 11 to find out if mixing red wine in your coffee is good for you and whether or not an asteroid will strike the planet in our lifetime...

flipped4bikes

At least the dude was riding a bicycle! Seriously, what image of the "ideal" cyclist would you rather have them show? A road weenie wearing full Euro kit and Briko sunglasses? Or one of those models decked out in the latest fashions that Bicycling Magazine is pimping?

And as for the broadcaster laughing, what do you expect from somebody who gets car service in a Lincoln Town Car to/from his fabulous West Side Trump condo?

thdave

A regular dude on a bike would be great--this was nerd-dude. Ditch the beach ride and give him a hybrid at least! Toss the poly suit and dress shoes. Give me a frickin' break!

Have him wear something kind of athletic--like bike gloves and a form fitting shirt/jacket. Put the suit and tie in panniers with other gear. Talk about his ride in to work--how much gas it saves him, how he feels, and how it benefits him.

That's a story!

WalterMitty

Tsk, tsk, tsk, it's obvious you didn't attend one of the better journalism schools. YOUR story doesn't fit because it:

1) Doesn't support the underlying theory that we are all helpless victims of the money grubbing oil companies. (You think robbing you blind is bad? They're gonna turn you all into bike riding NERDS!! Details at 11...)

2) Doesn't support the underlying theory that the only solution is Government intervention.

3) Doesn't support the theory that the present Government is at fault.

4) Supports the theory that free market responses to price shocks could potentially reduce demand (and price?) and that those solutions might have a positive effect on a laundry list of other "social ills" (e.g. "global warming", "the obesity epidemic", "urban sprawl", "social isolation", "no public transportation", fill-in your favorite "news" story here)

5) and etc...

I'm really very sorry to burst your bubble, but if it doesn't bleed, or fit one of the pre-set social templates, it just isn't gonna play in the big city. Google "John Stossel" for more background and commentary.

mjw16

The guy reminded me of Pee Wee Herman in his Big Adventure. He struck me as a little "touched" and was likely riding because he couldn't get a driver's license. Good for him for getting around on his own, but I thought it was a little unfair to paint all cyclists with this guy's brush. Of course, the reporter was perched on the hood of his rented Ford Mustang convertable. Probably a V6, but nontheless no economy car or hybrid.

The message, although probably unwittingly sent: cars are cool, fun, and sexy and you will have fun driving them regardless of outrageous gas prices and, bicycles are for weirdos and should be confined to the fringe members of society or children.

Like most newscasting; innacurate, unfair, and sensational.

I love this debate because, as I was telling a co-worker yesterday, it's largely academic for me. I drive my economy car once or twice a week and ride my bike almost exclusively to work (I do take Metro on occassion). What these luxo-boat or SUV-driving knuckleheads don't get, is that their disproportionately gas greedy vehicles are having a large impact on deman, causing these inflated prices. Yet, their the ones crying the loudest and seem most unwilling to compromise and adopt another type of transportation. It's largely about ego and, to some extent, ingorance.

TexasGuy

ABC and CNN hate America. This is pretty typical of the type of media I expect these 2 to push. They also push stories of people pawning off 100 year old antique watches to pay for a weeks worth of gas.

TexasGuy

if by that post you are trying to say that I am a) cool, b) fun or c) not weird i want you to know that i would be deeply hurt

thdave

He did have a Forrest Gump look to him (or he was tipsy, like you suggest). Your right on about the Mustang--sexy gas guzzler ok, bike not image. I forgot about the Mustang.

Knucklehead is a good word for broadcasters doing a story on conserving gas while driving a sports car.

ItsJustMe

No they won't, and yes, they will.

Gas could go to $10 a gallon and maybe 1% (but probably not) of people driving cars might think about riding a bike.

Mostly people will just start screaming, and will cut back on other things instead.

The real problem is that people won't view bicycle riding as a real alternative to having a car, they will view it as a hardship, something that they're driven to and will want to blame someone for it. We do it because we want to, each for their own reason. To the vast, vast majority of americans, riding a bike would be humiliating, and perhaps equivalent to going to a food bank and getting a box of mac and cheese to feed your family; something you'd do if you were forced to, but you'd hate every second of it, find someone you could blame it on to demonize and hate for it, and stop doing it the moment you could.

allez

let them waste their money on gasoline, if you let it get to you, THE TERRORISTS WIN!

Gojohnnygo.

On a good note, The NBC Today Show talked to a bike commuter this morning. They gave him a little time to say how much money he was saving. Then again it was aired at 9:00am eastern when most are driving to work