Friday, March 6, 2009

What's Wrong With This Picture?

I saw one of these LOOK posters on a bus stop on my lunchbreak today, and finally thought I had to comment on it -

If you're squinting at the text, here's what it says:

"Avoiding a crash comes down to one simple action: Look. Last year over 3,000 cyclists were struck by motorists. To find out how you can make New York a safer place to ride, go to looknyc.org."
Okay, so I'm pretty obviously in favor of the sentiment of this ad, and NYC's new Department of Transportation has been doing seriously wonderful things lately. But take a closer look at the picture. What happens to the bike lane after the intersection? It disappears! How New York! And what's the car doing? Why, it's making an illegal left turn against traffic onto Lafayette, course. So what's the implicit message of the ad? "Hey drivers, when you're doing something stupid and illegal, be sure to watch out for cyclists"? Or is it, "Hey cyclists, be careful out there, 'cause drivers do some really dumb stuff sometimes"? Hrmph.

P.S. I'm a huge fan of jaywalkers, and I'm glad this ad features one.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

hahahahaha

ha

Splendid Little Stars said...

Since the bicyclist met his/her end at the car, there must be no more need for a bike lane. Because, as we all know, there is only ONE bicylist in all of New York.

Max said...

Ha ha, nicely analyzed. Thank you Daniel!