GM's attack on bikes

A recent General Motors advertisement, run in college newspapers across the nation, shows a young man on a bicycle covering his face as he rides by a smirking woman in a car. The top of the ad says, “Reality Sucks; luckily the GM college discount doesn’t.”

At the bottom, the tagline orders people to “Stop pedaling…start driving,” in an effort to convince students to purchase one of the new GM vehicles pictured (both of which are priced upward of $14,000).

It was probably a wise choice to not run the ad on our campus.

The League of American Bicyclists gave IU a Bicycle-Friendly Campus Bronze Award in March, and given the fact that one of our biggest and most exciting events each year is centered around riding bikes in a large circle, I don’t think anyone here would
like all of the cyclists on campus to “stop pedaling.”

Nonetheless, the nationwide bike/pedestrian/car/bus debate has gotten a little heated as of late, and IU is beginning to reflect the same clash as GM’s pictorial. Cars swerve into bike lanes, almost sending cyclists flying. Pedestrians stride into the road regardless of absentee crosswalks or oncoming traffic. Buses can’t seem to make turns without causing an entire lane of traffic to back up and accommodate them.

Moreover, bikes are stolen, cars are expensive and parking spaces are rare, bus systems are tricky to navigate and (especially with the onset of winter) walking can be really, really awful.

Basically, unless you can teleport, there’s no ideal way to get to class.

With that said, bikes are pretty nice. They’re a cheap, quick way to get around campus, and they take advantage of shortcuts inaccessible by cars.

For a student looking to navigate college life, bikes are almost perfect. That’s why they’re so popular on campuses nationwide.

Although it would be nice to have a new car, the “sucky” reality is that most of the people to whom this ad markets are too poor to afford such a luxury. Worse, if a majority of college students began using cars for their transportation needs, campuses would become a pretty terrible place full of smog, accidents, congestion and chronic rage at the small amount of parking available.

For GM to disparage an environmentally ethical, economical solution is inappropriate.
Bicycles are a cheap and sustainable way to solve most of your transportation needs, and riding one is nothing to be ashamed of; even suggesting that bicycling is embarrassing is, frankly, embarrassing for GM.

It is for this reason GM was right to withdraw the ads and publicly apologize for all of the feathers it’s ruffled.

Instead, I propose the opposite of GM’s tagline. Stop driving…start pedaling.  

Reality may “suck,” but cycling’s a pretty pleasant way to navigate it.

­— kelfritz@indiana.edu