An elephant may well never forget, but I certainly do—and the comparison between me and elephants is best left there (especially in the context of lycra cycling gear…) Back in September Doc Homebrew sent a tip and I promised that I'd make an online comment about it soon-ish. It's more -ish than soon, as it turns out.
Anyway, the good Doc had seen an advert on TV promoting mutual respect between cyclists and motorists and pushing the Share the Road
message. He thought it was good but wasn't sure who was responsible for it—it turns out it was the one produced by the Amy Gillett Foundation, which I've only ever seen online.
But in the process of tracking it down online, he also found the stop.think web site from South Australia's Department for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure. The DTEI has been running a Share the Road campaign:
This campaign reinforces that both motor vehicles and bicycles are legitimate road users and deserve each other's respect and consideration. There are three easy steps for motorists:And one easy step for cyclists:
- All road users need to be responsible and give way in accordance with the Australian Road Rules.
- Motorists need to leave adequate space between themselves and cyclists, particularly when overtaking.
- All road users need to look out for one another.
- Cyclists must obey the Australian Road Rules.
The campaign included several media spots during July and August that reinforced this message, including a TV ad featuring Stuart O'Grady and another reminding drivers and cyclists that it takes two to tango
. The O'Grady video is a bit insipid (as all celebrity endorsements seem to be), but the two to tango
one is pretty good and it wouldn't hurt for other states to run it for a while.
OK, so I took my sweet time getting around to it and it would have been considerably more current if I'd mentioned this when the Doc sent it to me—but I got there in the end.
Sure it's not really news but being an SA Government initiative I reckon there might still be a few people who haven't seen it—I know I hadn't before I was told about it. And in the light of Dr Clapton's claptrap, I thought it was worth mentioning.
Gee, do you think the age of the campaign might dilute the message?
I hope not, it's still as necessary as ever.
Makes me wonder though if road rules will be updated to consider bicycles as legitimate traffic... I can't imagine what a nightmare of legislation might begin to cover instances of provision and non-provision of bike lanes in bike activity for instance. If there's a marked bike lane a rider should do this and a pedestrian and driver thus... If there's no bike lane, then it's the same free-for-all that currently exists?
I'm feeling particularly uninspired with Government thinking about bike traffic in light of recent rides and observation of road planning in new housing developments around here. Heh, reminds me of Captain Pissweak, aka your local roads planner. See this standard development practice from the last thirty years? Follow it to the letter with no creative thinking permitted.
I don't think the problem lies with the road rules themselves (see my comment on this topic in another entry) and as Crowlie says planning initiatives that show no initiative are also a problem.
But most importantly, "share the road" is a message that doesn't seem to become dated. Let's hope someday—soon—that we won't need it anymore.
Looks remarkably similar to the one they aired here in Queensland back in 2000. I can't say it made a lot of difference at the time, a 30-second slot on the telly isn't really all that effective unless a LOT of money is spent on repeats. Given the amount of other advertising that surrounds it, I think most viewers just blocked it out.
Personally, I think a few fines and/or prison sentences for people who break the law would be far more effective.
Chris really makes a good point and it's one that I didn't mention: what is the bloody point of running a campaign like this for two measly weeks? For instance, it appears that the Stuart O'Grady ad ran from 17 to 31 July 2005.
You know which brands belong to "Oh what a feeling!" and "Zoom-zoom", don't you? The brand recognition is so strong that it's actually difficult to keep the products out of your head when you hear these catch-cries.
"Oh what a feeling!" has been on high-rotation for a couple of deacades now (I kid you not) and Mazda's "Zoom-Zoom" theme dates back to about 1998. And it seems like only yesterday, doesn't it? Long-lasting repetition of the same message, in different variations, over and over again…
In contrast, the chances are dismally small of making a 30 second community service announcement stick in people's minds when it's only run for two weeks. If driver education is to be conducted in this way, then perhaps Dr Clapton is right after all.
Recall the "Share the Road" campaign from VicRoads circa 2004? Damn near sank without a trace, although most of the stuff is still online. Unfortunately the nifty wallet-sized "Cyclists & Drivers FAQ" isn't there anymore.
Laws, rules and due process aside for a mo, how can more road user compliance actually occur when the bog standard stuff like common courtesy is waning? Dare mention hippy stuff such as community development around traffic engineers & they're liable to break out in a nasty prickly rash...
All I recall is that we've had one of them fancy "Share the Road" campaigns. Can't remember a thing about it, although the logo looks vaguely familiar. Sad, isn't it?
As for local council engineers—is it always a size thing with those guys? If it ain't a big, hefty engineered solution, it's not even worth grunting at. Or so it would seem.
Comments
Don't know about the delayed blogging, but that SA campaign is quite a few years old.