Friday 25 November 2011

A Confused Message?

A little video attempting to show the pros and cons cycle commuting - brought to you by Confused.com, the same people who recently presented a survey suggesting questioned if cyclists should pay 'Road Tax'! (see the Guardian item on this here).

I don't know whether to laugh or cry at some of opinions displayed in the video. A little cycle training, forethought, awareness and courtesy from the cyclist wouldn't go amiss either (and he needs to work on his driving technique as well). Wear a helmet though (all the time?) coz that'll make all the difference and don't forget to use the brilliant cycle lanes!

Not a great advertisement for cycle commuting in my opinion.


4 comments:

  1. 'brought to you by Confused.com, the same people who recently presented a survey suggesting cyclists should pay 'Road Tax'!'

    Not true.

    They presented a survey which showed that a quarter of car drivers said they thought cyclists should pay road tax.

    Their press release is quite impartial about the whole drivers v cyclists debate.

    The Guardian blog article is poor in its reading of Confused.com's article.

    I've no idea why Confused.com made the feeble video or the press release. Perhaps they knew that clueless journalists would latch onto them and give their website lots of lovely publicity.

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  2. Perhaps they knew that clueless journalists would latch onto them and give their website lots of lovely publicity.

    ...a bit like a radio station that recently declared it wouldn't play Sir Cliff of Richards. Cliff kicks up a fuss. Free publicity results.

    (Probably helped sell a few more 2012 calendars too!)

    You can't help but criticise Confused though Pete. Surveys are generally multi-choice-answer affairs aren't they? If so then *COUGH!* 'Cyclists should pay Road Tax' *SPLUTTER!* must have been one of the answers.

    Like the radio station they will also have known that pandering to the misled thoughts of the majority will have resulted in equally tatty press coverage & noisy debate.

    That's my take on it mate, but unlike yerself I'm occasionally wrong :>X ;>D

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  3. Pete

    I am heartened only 25% of drivers felt cyclists should pay RT - and this minority was taken from the 46% of drivers who have been 'annoyed' by cyclists - hardly an unbiased sample of the population. So only 12% of drivers feel this way. No big deal then?

    It is true the Guardian focused on the 'Road Tax' issue and the poll did have other points to it but the option was given. I think the concern raised by the Guardian is valid. A lot of people hearing or reading about the poll won't drill down to the 'findings' and will latch on to the headline only. So the myth of RT is further propagated as a stick to beat over the heads/helmets of cyclists.

    Bring it on if you must I say to those 12%. All my bicycles will be zero banded, no revenue will be raised and layers of meaningless and costly bureaucracy will be created. Pointless.

    I'm glad we agree the video is less than perfect though! :-)

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  4. Pete

    I've taken on board your comments and edited my original post accordingly. I hope you approve?

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