GM Blunders onto Campus
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Never been a GM fan. On the topic of car vs bike, my town is set up in a weird way so it actually only takes me about 5 minutes, on a bad day, longer to ride my bike to school than to drive.
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Sometimes I wake up late and try to save time by driving the 10ish km (9ish by bicycle) to campus (in outer suburbia, but very congested nonetheless). I don't even have to get on school property before I realize my mistake (15 min driving + 15 min parking and walking vs 20 min cycling). I don't think this plan has ever worked.
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LA Times: GM Pulls Advertisement that Offended Cyclists
https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/mone...cyclists-.htmll
https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/mone...cyclists-.htmll
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When I was in college, I lived 12 miles (and about 1200 feet of elevation gain) from campus. It never even occurred to me that it might have been possible to bike it. So instead I drove a series of $1000 cars that generally lasted about a year each.
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GM can go to hell, I don't plan on buying any of their vehicles because I don't like them...I prefer Japanese imports. I did some research and found out that GM was responsible for destroying the public transit in the early days. Shame on them. If a GM salesman came knocking on my door , I would just slam my door right in his face.
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What do you expect from Government Motors. That's why I bought a Honda last year when I had to replace my Ford. The Ford was a good vehicle but the repair expense started to get ridiculous.
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Maybe we can all write GM and tell what we feel about the ad?
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When GM can build a good car for the price of a good bicycle . . .
$40,000+ ( + gov't help) for a Chevy Volt . . . really???
Should not have bailed those schmucks out.
$40,000+ ( + gov't help) for a Chevy Volt . . . really???
Should not have bailed those schmucks out.
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It kills me how often I hear things like "many of us here are cyclists" in response to complaints from the cycling community. I swear everyone I've ever talked to in the local government has claimed to be a cyclist. I don't doubt that they own a bike and maybe even ride it a couple of times a year, but this response really strikes me as being in the same vein as the people who tell you that they have many gay friends while you're pointing out their homophobia.
Riding around your suburban cul-de-sac with your toddlers on tricycles does not make you "a cyclist."
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Lots of money in cars, little in bikes. Advertisements push how great they are. No ads for bikes, so it's hard to compete.
Plus, high school students, which these college kids were a few years back, hate bikes--they all think cars are cool.
But, the college campus is where a bike is better and everyone knows it. Heck, walking is better than a car. GM is an idiot for trying to show that it's embarrassing to bicycle when car parking on large campuses are typically further away from classrooms than the kids dorms or apartments.
Plus, high school students, which these college kids were a few years back, hate bikes--they all think cars are cool.
But, the college campus is where a bike is better and everyone knows it. Heck, walking is better than a car. GM is an idiot for trying to show that it's embarrassing to bicycle when car parking on large campuses are typically further away from classrooms than the kids dorms or apartments.
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I think we're all over-reacting a bit here. Buying a new car after finishing up one's schooling, whether it be high school or university has been a rite of passage and part of the American dream for decades; they're just tapping into that. One can debate whether that should or shouldn't be what one aspires to, but I'd say it's a safe assumption that at some point in nearly everyone's young life, there was a car that they coveted, that they wanted so bad they could taste it (and go into debt for it). As bike commuters, that's not where we're at, but to be dismissive of someone else's aspirations is no more fair than for others to be dismissive of our aspirations, even if the end game is different. Furthermore, we look like the uppity a-holes that everyone already thinks we are by "being insulted" by some silly ad campaign. I'm not selling any of my bikes tomorrow to buy a car, GM or otherwise. I'm not so easily swayed by Madison Avenue that I have to find my self worth within their ideals or marketing schemes. Laugh it off.
#62
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I think that ad is just an indicator of what's happened to our society. I saw this today and thought it summed things up rather nicely:
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This is very dependent on the land. In an urban environment, biking 14 miles each way can easily take 2 hours. Driving costs more, but it also means saving as much as 90 minutes each way. In my neck of the "woods," I'm running into a traffic light or stop sign at least every 500 ft.
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Agree. I have a 15mile commute across a large area of Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and its just as fast, if not faster on bike depending on traffic for the day.
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It seems that Giant has just replied with this https://road.cc/content/image/46042-g...lity-does-suck
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Now, here is an ad idea after looking at the Giant ad. I think it is truthful and yet parodying the GM ad:
A picture showing a passenger in a truck/SUV is stuck in a traffic jam looking enviously at a cyclist who just zipped by (possibly with a wave from the cyclist). And the tagline could be "Traffic Jam Sucks", "Time is better spent moving" or something in line of that (literary is not my strong suit).
A picture showing a passenger in a truck/SUV is stuck in a traffic jam looking enviously at a cyclist who just zipped by (possibly with a wave from the cyclist). And the tagline could be "Traffic Jam Sucks", "Time is better spent moving" or something in line of that (literary is not my strong suit).
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what, that we are now an idiocracy and the person with the sign is hoping to be its presidential nominee in 2013?
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"Let us hope our weapons are never needed --but do not forget what the common people knew when they demanded the Bill of Rights: An armed citizenry is the first defense, the best defense, and the final defense against tyranny. If guns are outlawed, only the government will have guns. Only the police, the secret police, the military, the hired servants of our rulers. Only the government -- and a few outlaws. I intend to be among the outlaws" - Edward Abbey
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if you want politics, come to P&R, if you dare.
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"Let us hope our weapons are never needed --but do not forget what the common people knew when they demanded the Bill of Rights: An armed citizenry is the first defense, the best defense, and the final defense against tyranny. If guns are outlawed, only the government will have guns. Only the police, the secret police, the military, the hired servants of our rulers. Only the government -- and a few outlaws. I intend to be among the outlaws" - Edward Abbey
"Let us hope our weapons are never needed --but do not forget what the common people knew when they demanded the Bill of Rights: An armed citizenry is the first defense, the best defense, and the final defense against tyranny. If guns are outlawed, only the government will have guns. Only the police, the secret police, the military, the hired servants of our rulers. Only the government -- and a few outlaws. I intend to be among the outlaws" - Edward Abbey
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Obama the magic man and his evil car company, Guberment Motors strike yet again. Give billions to failing solar cell companies just like he did to Guberment Motors and then undo what little good may have been done by encouraging already jobless and in debt to the eyeballs college students to spend what little of their parent's money or college loan money they have left on a modern day Chevy Vega. Yep, then go hang out on Wall Street and defecate on the sidewalk while whining about rich people.
When the guberment gets involved in running our lives then you get such nonsense, elections matter. Four more years of this kind of thing and you will be required to purchase a GM car along with your health insurance or go to a re-education camp and if that does not straighten you up, well, off with your head. Teach you to ride a bicycle instead of a cage.
When the guberment gets involved in running our lives then you get such nonsense, elections matter. Four more years of this kind of thing and you will be required to purchase a GM car along with your health insurance or go to a re-education camp and if that does not straighten you up, well, off with your head. Teach you to ride a bicycle instead of a cage.
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It seems that Giant has just replied with this https://road.cc/content/image/46042-g...lity-does-suck
z
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Weshigh Facebook took the second link down? ha! limpid lizards those folks.
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[QUOTE=[url]https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?p...50980333_n.jpg[/url]
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The same people who wanted Americans buying ever-larger SUV's the past 15 years did not bother to produce an appealing new car for most Americans since the Saturn, 20 years ago. I like the Nissan commercial which shows an older couple using their compact SUV to go for mountain biking with another couple.