Bike Culture Archive Toronto & Beyond 2003-2012.
Photography by Martin Reis and Hamish Wilson.
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Bike Man Episode II
2 comments:
Anonymous
said...
It's a laudable initiative, but, God, there are so many wrong thing in just the first two episodes of these series...
- Everyone rides on the sidewalk, even the people with 26" wheels (illegal). The message's pretty clear: stay on the sidewalk. Might be an all right advice for kids, but these kids will be adults very soon and driving their cars around...
- The Bike Man's helmet is totaly misadjusted. In a real collision it'll probably just fly off his head.
- The Bike Man falls, hits his head on the ground while wearing a helmet and then just keeps riding with that helmet; no mention that it should be replaced after a collision.
- You might also notice that the only people who ride in this are kids. Again, a clear message so far: "Bikes are for kids". Sure, kids want to see kids, but they could've put some adult cyclists in the background maybe...
- The whole "lock" thing is pretty ridiculous. I expect Regent Park kids know that unlocked bikes get stolen... If they wanted to make it slightly helpful, they could've said a bit more about how to actually lock the bike to decrease the likelihood of theft.
I wonder if these "educational" videos are not doing harm than good.
Right on all counts. It's not okay to ride bikes on park paths, it's not okay to try to reinforce wearing a helmet at all, and everyone knows not to leave their bike unlocked which is one reason bike theft in Toronto is such a rarity. What a waste of taxpayers money, when our municipal authorities do such a fine job of promoting cycling and good practices! What need have we of community involvement of same? For shame...
All sarcasm aside, considering that they likely had dick to make do with for a budget, they did pretty well. Using park trails and sidewalks is probably more pragmatic than anything else. They also keep it simple and keep it relevant locally. One message per video. Lock your bike, wear a helmet. I probably see more kids without helmets than kids with maladjusted helmets and its not unusual to see a kid leave his bike unlocked (or an adult for that matter) while they just nip into the corner store. These are pretty good messages to start with.
What I'm really interested in is do these videos get any play? Have any local channels picked them up? Do they ever see the light of day?
2 comments:
It's a laudable initiative, but, God, there are so many wrong thing in just the first two episodes of these series...
- Everyone rides on the sidewalk, even the people with 26" wheels (illegal). The message's pretty clear: stay on the sidewalk. Might be an all right advice for kids, but these kids will be adults very soon and driving their cars around...
- The Bike Man's helmet is totaly misadjusted. In a real collision it'll probably just fly off his head.
- The Bike Man falls, hits his head on the ground while wearing a helmet and then just keeps riding with that helmet; no mention that it should be replaced after a collision.
- You might also notice that the only people who ride in this are kids. Again, a clear message so far: "Bikes are for kids". Sure, kids want to see kids, but they could've put some adult cyclists in the background maybe...
- The whole "lock" thing is pretty ridiculous. I expect Regent Park kids know that unlocked bikes get stolen... If they wanted to make it slightly helpful, they could've said a bit more about how to actually lock the bike to decrease the likelihood of theft.
I wonder if these "educational" videos are not doing harm than good.
Right on all counts. It's not okay to ride bikes on park paths, it's not okay to try to reinforce wearing a helmet at all, and everyone knows not to leave their bike unlocked which is one reason bike theft in Toronto is such a rarity. What a waste of taxpayers money, when our municipal authorities do such a fine job of promoting cycling and good practices! What need have we of community involvement of same? For shame...
All sarcasm aside, considering that they likely had dick to make do with for a budget, they did pretty well. Using park trails and sidewalks is probably more pragmatic than anything else. They also keep it simple and keep it relevant locally. One message per video. Lock your bike, wear a helmet. I probably see more kids without helmets than kids with maladjusted helmets and its not unusual to see a kid leave his bike unlocked (or an adult for that matter) while they just nip into the corner store. These are pretty good messages to start with.
What I'm really interested in is do these videos get any play? Have any local channels picked them up? Do they ever see the light of day?
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