LOOK! New NYC Bike Safety Ad Targets Who, Exactly?
(click image to read copy)
That car is so unsafe for bicyclists, what with that deceptive partial bike lane painted on it. OK seriously, the reason, nine out of ten times, why a pedal pusher is drilled in Manhattan? It's because the motor vehicle driver didn't LOOK. But heaven FORBID we target the precious, careless NYC car driver directly. S0 many very influential, very rich, non-subway-taking Manhattanites steadfastly sit behind the wheels of their planet-choking Escalades, Denalis, etc., gunning it through yellowish/red lights all over fucking town all the time. I've personally witnessed two bicyclists get drilled by SUVs speeding through dangerous intersections; one man was seriously injured. But nooo. Instead we get a generic "Can't we all just get along/LOOK" message (nice logo!) with a cutesy visual that means/accomplishes absolutely nothing. A message that—since the ad's placed in a bus shelter with a tiny headline—can/will only be read by passing pedestrians. Brilliant! Bravo, red tape-wrapped NYC government approval process!
(snapped on E. Houston St.)
(campaign via Worldwide House of Hack, Publicis)
Here's the Transportation Alternatives press release.
—RIP, Liz Byrne.
update: as commenter f mckenna points out, the car is shown turning the wrong way onto Lafayette St., which as NYers know, means it could only be a Jersey driver.
previously in NYC "Public" "Service":
2. conEdison. FULL OF IT.
1. NEVER SHAKE A BABY!
3. MTA needs our 16 million eyes.
4. Today's Lesson: The "C" Words.
5. It IS hard for black kids to fit in on the UWS.
6. The comedy of the NYC Office of Emergency Management.
posted by copyranter @ 10:05 AM
11 Comments:
And of course the car is shown turning downtown into Lafayette's uptown moving traffic. "Well no wonder" the motorists shall say.
I can't stand all the cyclists in this city. They seem to follow their own rules, which are none. I've seen a bicyclist plow through a large group of pedestrians crossing the street, knocking three to the ground when he ran a red light. I think they need to slow down and stop blaming everyone else for their reckless ways.
while you're right to be pissed out the idiots who plow through pedestrians, you're not right to apply that opinion to all bikers and especially incorrect to apply that to bikers who "[blame] everyone else for their reckless ways." The fact is that the carelessness of drivers (both moving and those parked in BIKE LANES or double parked) causes a ripple effect through the system. People on bikes often find the best way to avoid being nailed is to go through red lights to get ahead of traffic. This does not excuse the reckless behavior of anyone...really, there's no need to be such in a rush that you can't avoid pedestrians (unless you're a bike messenger - if you've never been one, then you wouldn't understand the reasoning here). But honestly, people on bikes have their attention focused more on cars than on pedestrians - trying not to get doored or side swiped. Get on a bike and ride the streets of Manhattan, and then come back and try to apply blanket statements. It is also the responsibility of pedestrians to be aware of their surroundings. If you aren't paying attention while crossing the road, for whatever reason, then you share half the blame for any collision with a car or bike.
@stephen: preach on brother.
meanwhile, back to the ad . . . maybe that car is not turning, but swerving to avoid collision w/the bicyclist who smashed his windshield. (no comment on the bike v car entitlement debate. plenty of jerks in both camps--pedestrians, too.)
it looks exactly like a car turning the wrong way on a one way street, and nothing like a car swerving to avoid a bicyclist. I've been laying out ads for 18 years.
Well, the car's not moving, there's nobody in the driver's seat, & the windshield's smashed on the passenger side of the car (which had to be stopped long enough to paint those white lines). The bicyclist was either approaching the car going the wrong way on the intersecting 1 way street, or was also travelling the wrong way on the 1 way street the car is turning into. This disagreement about what the car might have been doing doesn't mean I disagree with the point of your post. I bow to your ad experience.
tom do you live in New York City? If so, you would immediately recognize the street as Lafayette St, a one-way uptown street. (click the image, note the direction the cars are parked/moving in). the only way that car could be in the position it is in, is if it turned left, the wrong way (heading south/downtown). note the damage to the left front of car; the bicyclist was going WITH traffic when the car inexplicably turned the wrong onto Lafayette, hit the bike, sending the biker into the windshield. It doesn't really make sense, but that's what's portrayed here. it's a local ad for NYers, so I don't get wtf they were going for here.
I wasn't confused about the direction of traffic, but I did overlook the damage to the left front of the car, proving the bicyclist was going the right way. I only noticed the windshield. That also proves you right & me wrong about the driver's intentions since he couldn't have been swerving. My bad.
Some late feedback here ... it was also pointed out by an observant member of my bicycle gang (way out here in Seattle) that based on the businesses pictured in the background, the intersection in the ad is Lafayette & E 4th. The car is not only turning the wrong way onto Lafayette but is also going the wrong way on 4th. E 4th is one-way Eastbound, not Westbound as the one-way sign pictured in the ad indicates.
I knew opening the comments would have words from a always arrogant NYC BIKE-IST
I thank Stephen for Shedwa's over generalizing the bicycle culture with one incident
while the masses of cars move along in a fashion that puts all those not surrounded by air bags and crumple resistant side panels at risk
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