Chicago-based artist Peter Miller has produced a magnetic "yellow card" that cyclists can use to give fair warning to dangerous drivers:
Says Peter:
This project is open source, which means that I am supplying everyone with the means to make their own magnets. Feel free to upload this pdf to any magnet-maker of your choice and self-produce as many magnets as you would like.
You can collect the PDF file from Peter's page.
Not a bad idea at all. But will it make a difference? Probably not.
Then again, as Tuco says, it's So much more civilized than my pet daydream of riding around with a baseball bat attached to my backpack.
It also lacks the most critical element: a specific explanation of what the driver did wrong. If you peel one of these off the back of your car two days later, how are you to know which of your actions endangered a cyclist? Obviously it needs to be delivered in such a way that the driver is aware of getting the card at the time.
But damien's right, anyone who gets one of these will probably just say Dumb f*ck cyclist
and chuck it away without any further thought.
But you never know, it might make someone somewhere really think about it.
Having seen the way Gold Coast drivers proudly boast about being the worst in the country (until recently, when they started claiming to be the worst in the world), I suspect they'd just regard something like this as a badge of honour.
Heh, sad but true. Earlier in the year I found myself reasoning the same way about idioitdriver.com.au—except with a yellow card you are quite literally giving them the badge.
Yeah, there probably are drivers out there who wouldn't throw the card away—they'd put it on the door of the beer fridge beside magnets displaying car company logos and megaswill commercial beer labels…
I don't think these will help any. The driver who's aggressive enough to receive one of these is not going to care, and there's a good chance they'll take it out on the next cyclist they meet.
The badge of honour thing, sadly I can imagine a few people who would love it. Most of them are male and under 23.
I've always preferred the squirt of water/ throwing of a half full bidon treatment personally.
Throw in a bit of swearing and gesticulation.
I imagine a lot of people would react with anger to finding one of these, since driving tends to make one inclined to react to everything with anger... but down the track I reckon there'd be a bit of pondering as to what's going around. The wording might be a little syrupy to use in Aus, but a yellow magnet could be great around town. Only hassle is I'd be putting most of mine on taxis...
I've got to admit that I was more taken with it as a cute and clever idea than the practicalities of actually using a yellow card and what the real outcomes might be.
I think Al's point applies to any response a cyclist makes, including Timboy's equally benign squirting water. Sad but true—again—Crowlie's right: anger does seem to be the default reaction for many drivers.
Oh yeah Lis, if taxis are going to be your main target then you'll need to get them printed in a different shade of yellow. Maybe a vivid dayglo tone…
Comments
I'm not sure this won't just inFURIate the people who are going to be most at fault (ie: suburu drivers), making them worse.