would this get the message across?

In favour?


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Don't own a car so I am going to abstain.
 
D

Deleted member 1258

Guest
I'm not a car owner, and even if I was I wouldn't be in favour. I can't see what good it would do to antagonise the vast number of decent drivers to get a point across regarding the minority who are causing us grief. I think it would only harden attitudes.
 
Advert campaign: 'Cut Out Cars'

I suggest a TV and cinema ad campaign on the following lines:

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Wide shot of busy street congested with slow-moving traffic, Mostly cars and the odd cab and small van, some buses and perhaps a truck.

Cut to close-up of traffic going by: all the vehicles look oddly 'flat' except for one or two real cars with bored, frustrated drivers, and the buses and trucks with similarly teed-off drivers and passengers.

Crane shot: camera rises slowly into the air and pulls back to reveal that many of the cars are hollow cardboard cut-outs -through the open top we can see a cyclist or two inside each one. (The cabs are pedicabs, the small vans are cargo-bikes of various kinds).

As the camera, now high up, looks down the street in long shot, the cardboard cars dissolve away, and the cyclists move to more normal, (though still assertive!) road positions. Traffic flows.

Voice over: Bicycles. They're not cars . . .

Cardboard cars fade back in and traffic lurches to a squealing, honking, gridlocked halt.

Voice over: . . . thank goodness.

---------------------------------------------------------

Copyleft, Andrew J King, AKA the Recumbentpanda.
'Free to use, fair to say whose.'
 

classic33

Leg End Member
Similar things have been done elsewhere, with differring types of vehicles. Always it seems that once the "problem" caused by such a protest has gone from the roads, people forget what it was being done for.

They may notice that the roads do not have as much traffic, but seldom will they remember what caused the increase in traffic on the day.

We could say that another cyclist has been lost to the conditions on the roads.
 
OP
OP
jonny jeez

jonny jeez

Legendary Member
recumbentpanda said:
I suggest a TV and cinema ad campaign on the following lines:

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Wide shot of busy street congested with slow-moving traffic, Mostly cars and the odd cab and small van, some buses and perhaps a truck.

Cut to close-up of traffic going by: all the vehicles look oddly 'flat' except for one or two real cars with bored, frustrated drivers, and the buses and trucks with similarly teed-off drivers and passengers.

Crane shot: camera rises slowly into the air and pulls back to reveal that many of the cars are hollow cardboard cut-outs -through the open top we can see a cyclist or two inside each one. (The cabs are pedicabs, the small vans are cargo-bikes of various kinds).

As the camera, now high up, looks down the street in long shot, the cardboard cars dissolve away, and the cyclists move to more normal, (though still assertive!) road positions. Traffic flows.

Voice over: Bicycles. They're not cars . . .

Cardboard cars fade back in and traffic lurches to a squealing, honking, gridlocked halt.

Voice over: . . . thank goodness.

---------------------------------------------------------

Copyleft, Andrew J King, AKA the Recumbentpanda.
'Free to use, fair to say whose.'

you. are . WASTED. (perhaps literally, to come up with that campaign idea!)

Genius...you should start a thread called "write your own cycle campaign ad/script!!" and post this reply as a starter, be interesting to see how many latent creatives there are hiding in the backwood of the cc forum.

I'm off to get thinking in preperation
 

Crankarm

Guru
Location
Nr Cambridge
This is only a thought but ..........in view of the news of yet another cyclist's death in Oxford Street today detailed on another thread, why don't we organise an event to remember our fallen and lost cycling companions killed on the roads? Obviously it would have to be organised properly with full approval of the authorities. Can't see why they would object. Invite the usual suspects BJ, Transport Minister, Prime Minister, cycling groups and organisations, families of the bereaved cyclists who might be pleased that they had a voice, rather than their loved one just being forgotten, the media.

Congregate or terminate outside Buckingham Palace or a slow silent ride around a small circuit to take in Trafalgar Square, White Hall, past Downing Street, the Mall and Buckingham Palace. The more cyclists that turned out the greater the impact. We could all dress in black or wear black arm bands, everyone would be totally silent. Obviously there is a risk of it degenerating into a critical mass which would be a disaster. It might be a step too far for some, but some riders could act as pall bearers carrying coffins representing the cyclists killed so far this year on the roads. We would then have a two minutes silence. We might also have the iconic white ghost bikes as well. I don't mean this distastefully but to push the message home to the authorities and the media the current dangers we face on the roads. I reckon in London there must be 10 - 20,000 cyclists that would turn out, maybe more? 30,000 run the London Marathon. For those who couldn't make London we could also have simultaneous events in Liverpool and Glasgow. Just a thought, don't flame me. But the carnage has to be stopped some how. Cyclists are dying far too frequently in totally avoidable circumstances IMHO.
 

chap

Veteran
Location
London, GB
Arch said:
Apart from the fact that I don't have a car, I don't think it would get the point across. Nothing will change some people. Look at the price of fuel, but they just carry on driving, and moaning.


Give it time Arch. Remember the fuel protests of 2000, 80p a litre it was then, I am willing to put a farthing on it being double that before years end, then I can retire a rich man. :ohmy:

One book I would recommend is 'Car free cities' by JH Crawford, whilst a lot of the book seems rather idealistic and overly-sentimental, there are several good points raised. The main fact, which ought to target the bean-counters, town-designers, and politicians concerns the unsuitability of cars for built-up cities, not only for efficiency (passenger throughput), but cost-effectiveness as well (costs on road repair, built facilities, monitoring, extensions).

Were there to be a matter-of-fact and highly publicised, joint campaign / report detailing the benefits of say, pedestrianisation, well-managed public-transport, and the promotion of cycling in cities (citing the transportation problems this would solve, and the financial benefits that would follow), then this would carry more credibility and make a powerful contribution to the cause.

Alas, many reports detailing proposed cycle advocacy, and transport solutions tend to be rather obviously biased and show self-interest (think: warring factions of LCC, CTC, and Sustrans...), and worst of all rather vague in essential parts; to this end they serve merely as a pretext towards justifying why the unsustainable method was the best option.
 

threebikesmcginty

Corn Fed Hick...
Location
...on the slake
The same amount of chaos could be caused and you could still use a bike by adopting the following method, waddayasay?

picture.php



I pinched this picture from mickle's excellent cyclorama site...

http://cyclorama.net/ :ohmy:
 
Another option, which is possibly more practical is to come up with a car sticker.

Imagine you're sitting in a car in long queue of traffic. You glance up at the car ahead and see a sticker in the back window that reads....

Sorry! If I was on my bike today I wouldn't be holding you up...

or something along those lines.

What do people think?
 
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OP
jonny jeez

jonny jeez

Legendary Member
Arch said:
Apart from the fact that I don't have a car, I don't think it would get the point across. Nothing will change some people. Look at the price of fuel, but they just carry on driving, and moaning.


not true...I must reply to at least two new threads a week from new riders looking to start communting to save money.

Granted nothing will change SOME people, but they are not the people we will try to connect with, we want to talk to the thousands (like us) who are open to change and not stuck in their ways....and just tip the balance

think back ten years and try to imagine standing in a pub smelling other peoples fags (making your clothes stink) and not feeling totally outraged...peoples attitudes can be changed
 

chap

Veteran
Location
London, GB
magnatom said:
Another option, which is possibly more practical is to come up with a car sticker.

Imagine you're sitting in a car in long queue of traffic. You glance up at the car ahead and see a sticker in the back window that reads....

Sorry! If I was on my bike today I wouldn't be holding you up...

or something along those lines.

What do people think?

Like it :wacko:
 

swee'pea99

Legendary Member
It's a nice idea, but it would never work because it would require phenomenal organisation and discipline and organisation and discipline and cycling just don't go together. It would be like trying to herd cats. Unfortunately, because it is otherwise a good idea.
 
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OP
jonny jeez

jonny jeez

Legendary Member
[quote name='swee'pea99']It's a nice idea, but it would never work because it would require phenomenal organisation and discipline and organisation and discipline and cycling just don't go together. It would be like trying to herd cats. Unfortunately, because it is otherwise a good idea.[/QUOTE]

perhaps you are right

and with only 16 riders in favour...I feel the idea is doomed to the round filing cabinet under my desk :ohmy:
 

buggi

Bird Saviour
Location
Solihull
Crankarm said:
It's a nice idea JJ but I suspect many may not have cars or jobs, or driving is just out of the question due to congestion or nowhere to park once there.

isn't that the idea... to cause more misery by congestion, even if you cause it to yourself for one day?

downfader said:
6410-471_d.jpg
:smile:

Really like their Jerseys :smile:

Love it!

jonny jeez said:
you. are . WASTED. (perhaps literally, to come up with that campaign idea!)
totally agree. Genius Advert...

magnatom said:
Another option, which is possibly more practical is to come up with a car sticker.

Imagine you're sitting in a car in long queue of traffic. You glance up at the car ahead and see a sticker in the back window that reads....

Sorry! If I was on my bike today I wouldn't be holding you up...

or something along those lines.

What do people think?

But... of course... the simple ideas are by far the most effective.

Calling Shaun... Can we have a CC car sticker of this????
 
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