Mercedes Exploits the Daredevil Cyclist Stereotype

(editor's note: This is actually yesterday's "Streetsblog.net" story.  You can find today's at DC Streetsblog - DN)

You might have seen it making the rounds over the last couple of days -- the new Mercedes ad in which a bike messenger challenges a driver in one of the company's luxury vehicles to a race from Harlem to the Fulton Ferry landing in Brooklyn.

There
are many irritating things about the ad, including the lousy acting and
the roundabout route the car takes (why the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway
and not the FDR?). At more than seven minutes (it's in two parts on
YouTube), it's also tediously long.

But worst is the
perpetuation of that old stereotype, the "maniac" bike rider. The
driver says at the beginning that he thinks the contest will be unfair:
"Sure, he gets to ride like a bat out of hell and we have to follow the
traffic rules."

And of course, that's the way it goes. No doubt, the risk-taking footage is fun to watch, and some local blogs have posted favorably about the ad (even Bike Snob NYC is mild in his critique).

But Mikael Colville-Andersen at Copenhagenize
has it right when he says the Mercedes spot is an effective attack on
the idea that riding a bicycle in a major city could ever be
comfortable or normal:

More from around the network: Utility Cycling asks whether Google's new bike directions are a "game-changer." Hub and Spokes has a contrarian view on bike-sharing in Minneapolis. And The Transport Politic has the rundown on the top 10 transit projects completed in the U.S. and Canada over the last 10 years.