Has anyone else looked at the author's five points with regard to cars?
1. Stop selling fear.
When I flip down the visor on my van a sticker tells me "Death or serious injury may occur". To make it worse, it's telling me that this death or serious injury may be inflicted by one of the vehicle's
safety devices! My wife covered this sticker in her car with a sticker that says "375 Horsepower". I guess she didn't like the auto industry selling fear to her.
2. Start riding like adults.
Cars might fare slightly better than bikes on this one, but mostly because they're such hulking beasts that it's hard to drive a car like a kid. Cars roll through stop signs. In heavy traffic, the last car through a "yellow" light is routinely still in the intersection well after the light turns red. Speed limits? Hah!
I don't have a survey handy saying how many drivers think other people drive like idiots, but I have a fair idea what it would say.
3. Save the spandex for when you need it.
I've got nothing here. Cars have this nailed. You can wear the same clothes to drive a car that you wear to sit on the couch in your living room. Of course, that's not really a coincidence, is it?
4. Be nice to others.
Please! This isn't even close. Most cyclists wave at least to one another (never mind the large minority who think this is stupid). Most, I think, are friendly toward random people who happen to make eye contact with them. People in cars, not so much. People in cars, for the most part, don't even look at one another unless it's to observe the other guy picking his nose. Then there's the not insignificant minority of drivers who are outright hostile to other people. Mean people are mean regardless of the vehicle they use.
5. Tell industry leaders to embrace the reality of a mature, cycling rich culture.
I don't know off hand which automobile publication is the largest, but I'm pretty sure that the majority of its content centers around horsepower and sportiness. I think the magazine shelf at my local grocery store has more publications dedicated to making cars seem like something you could race than it does about any other single "sport".
This one cracks me up anyway. The guy wants people to treat bicycling for transportation as if it's "normal" but he also wants industry magazines dedicated to this "normal" activity. Yeah, I'll look for that right after the premier issue of
Minivans Monthly. And
Bicycle Times...this has been bugging me lately. Yes, it's a very different magazine than
Bicycling, but is it really any less consumer oriented? True, the reviews don't focus on $8,000+ carbon race bikes. Instead they focus on $2,000+ steel utility bikes. I don't need a $2,000 utility bike any more than I need an $8,000 race bike. I can race on a $500 bike and use a $100 bike for utility purposes. Just because the magazine caters to the tweed crowd doesn't make it any more grown up.