Tag Archives: video

The new Citröen C4: so “green”, even bicyclists like it

I saw this amazing commercial when I was in Madrid last week. It shows a new Citröen that is suggested to be so “green” that even bicyclists follow it. The dialogue in Spanish translates to:
“the new Citröen C4, zero CO2 emissions each time it stops”
“the new Citröen C4 with micro-hybrid technology”
Of course, there is no mention of how much emissions it is spewing when it is moving, not to mention minor externalities like congestion, dominance of urban public space, harassment of those same bicyclists, traffic injuries and deaths (including those of the happy cyclists portrayed in the ad), promotion of a sedentary lifestyle, and the tremendous waste of resources in the production and waste processing of cars. It reminds me of going to a sausage restaurant that has a happy pig with a knife and fork as a logo, seemingly eager to eat itself.

Mikael blogged about this over at Copenhagenize some time ago. Apparently, it was shot in Copenhagen last summer. The completed version that he posted was a full minute and featured cyclists inhaling deeply and excitedly at each traffic light. This is an edited version where they have cut it down so it just looks like the cyclists are following the car, but are not so anxiously inhaling.

I don’t imagine the ad ever played here in Denmark. Possibly because there are not that many Citröen cars on the streets here but also because I suspect that the concept just wouldn’t work. Danes would probably see through the hypocrisy quickly. It is quite ironic, then, that the ad is shot in Denmark where no one will buy the car but marketed in Spain, where no one rides a bike.

How long until people figure out that just swapping out the motor only makes a car slightly less bad, not “good”? All cars are emissions free when they are stopped. Let’s work to keep them stopped- stopped from ruining our cities, polluting our environment, and killing millions of people. Buying a new C4 is doing just the opposite.
Here’s the C4 being as emissions free and green as possible on the streets of Madrid: by being parked. No bicyclists in sight.
Thanks to Laura for translation.

Why cycling sucks

My friend Max Goldstein in Stockholm sent this on to me. Some Dutch students made this film of cyclists pretending to experience all the same issues as car drivers, which of course ends up in ridiculously brilliant satire. I personally love the guy stealing the parking spot.

At the beginning, the ‘cop’ says, “Well sir, how fast have we been driving?”. The sentence at the end means something like “Cycling﻿ is annoying, isn’t it?”.

I have been traveling the past two weeks in the US for the Transport Research Board and some meetings in New York. It has been incredibly insightful and exciting to see all that has been going on back in the states. I will post more about it soon once I get back to Denmark and things settle down a bit.

Crime Riders: how not to ride in Denmark

Danes making fun of all the rules there are for cyclists in Copenhagen. Everything here is practically illegal and subject to fines. Riding without a tail light, taking a right on red or left on green (without first crossing the street and then waiting for the next light to cross again) are all subject to $100 spot fines.

People are quite law abiding compared with places in the US where bicyclists quite often completely ignore lights and more or less do as they please. Of course, Scandinavians always like to complain about issues that others might find inconsequential since the problems here are simply on a minute scale compared to other places in the world. So of course there is nonetheless a huge debate about people breaking the laws while biking.

I saw Copenhagenize blogger Mikael Colville Andersen duke it out with the superintendent of the Copenhagen traffic police in a debate (that link also takes you to a cross post of the same video with a handy translation of some of the Danish in it). He made a fairly compelling argument that what we really need is not more enforcement of laws that are designed for cars, but more bike friendly traffic rules and more enforcement of the killers on the road- cars. I think if we really scratched our heads for a minute and thought about all the hit and runs and non-prosecuted car drivers responsible for injuries and fatalities of cyclists and pedestrians on the road, it would be pretty easy to see just who the ‘crime riders’ really are.

Gonna Ride My Bike Until I Get Home video
