by
Michael E. Jackson, USA
Winner of the 2001 Velo-City Falco Lecture Prize
Today's young people lead much less active ' lives than ever before, thus creating a future generation of unhealthy adults. One of the barometers of this problem in America is the dramatic increase of Type 2 diabetes, otherwise known as adult onset diabetes, in children. This is a medical condition virtually unheard of a couple of generations ago. Medical experts attribute the rise of Type 2 diabetes in children to a sedentary lifestyle that promotes obesity. A lack of regular exercise combined with being overweight are factors that lead to increased risk of diabetes and other medical problems.
Several factors contribute to youth inactivity and the resulting increased weight. The rise of the post World War H suburban communities with its emphasis on automobile travel to the exclusion of other transportation modes has turned parents into chauffeurs for their offspring. Personal safety concerns frighten parents from letting kids travel by bike or afoot on their own because they might get struck by a car or abducted by a criminal. Increased availability of home personal entertainment options such as television, videos, stereos, and computerized games and the Internet permit entertainment without physical effort.
Habits are hard to form and just as hard to break. How do we break the sedentary habits of today's generation of kids so that they will embrace the bicycle as a legitimate form of transportation as adults? After all the automobile offers comfort, ease, speed, conformity, and even sophistication, glamour and sex appeal. The North American image of bicycle transportation is often associated with hard work, physical discomfort, low speed, eccentricity, childishness, low status, danger, and penury. On the other hand bicycling ranks high among lists of favorite recreational activities and is noted for its low cost, environmental friendliness, and being a good way to exercise.
Unfortunately most North Americans only think of bicycling as a recreational activity, thereby limiting their use of cycling to leisure periods. Americans are working longer and take the shortest amount of holiday time among citizens of western industrial nations. Long days filled with working, errand running, and transporting kids to schools and extracurricular activities does not provide the average citizen with sufficient time for much in the way of recreational exercise. Therefore using the bicycle only for recreational purposes is unlikely to enable tomorrow's adults to achieve the health benefits of everyday cycle usage. If citizens are willing to use bicycling as a means of transportation as well as recreation, they can accomplish two tasks simultaneously; exercise and transport and are more likely to improve their level of physical fitness.
There are several factors that are needed to encourage greater use of bicycles by the next generation of adults. A better bicycling infrastructure must be provided for everyone that includes both on-road and off-road bikeway facilities, secure cycle storage at activity centers, showers and clothing changing facilities. 'This infrastructure should be properly designed and properly maintained. An educational campaign designed to teach all citizens, not just children, how to bicycle competently and how to travel using existing roadway networks will be needed to ensure that bicyclists possess both the skills and confidence to ride in a safe and competent manner.
However, the most neglected factor is promoting bicycle transportation. There should not be any wonder that the most popular mode of transportation, the private motor vehicle, is the most promoted form of transportation. In her book, Asphalt Nation, Jane Holtz Kay tells us that the automobile industry spends US $40 billion annually, worldwide promoting their products. Wow! US $40 billion annually, worldwide. Evidence of big advertising dollars at work promoting sport utility vehicles, minivans, trucks, and cars throughout the United States is overwhelming. It is virtually impossible to watch television, listen to the radio, travel down a roadway with a series of billboards, or read a magazine without encountering new car advertisements. By contrast, when was the last time you saw an advertisement promoting the virtues of bicycling as a transportation mode? Is it mere coincidence that the average 0.5 to 1.5 percent of work trips made by bicycle in American cities each year coexists with a virtually non-existent bicycle commuting promotional budget?
The average North American is bombarded with hundreds of advertising messages daily. Why? Because advertising is proven to modify human behavior and influence the choices we make. The late Ray Kroc, founder of the MeDonald's hamburger restaurant empire, is said to have lived by the phrase, 'Early to bed, Early to rise, Advertise, Advertise, Advertise'. Advertising helped to ensure that McDonald's Restaurants are known world wide and that knowledge has enabled the firm to claim, 'Billions Served!'
The tobacco industry's skillful use of advertising continues to entice people to begin smoking despite widespread awareness of the health hazards associated with tobacco consumption. Recent tobacco lawsuit settlements included stipulations curtailing the use of promotional tobacco advertising. If advertising can make a product known to cause various forms of cancer, heart disease, addiction, emphysema and other ailments smart and desirable, imagine what it can do for a cause like bicycle commuting, where users become stronger and can save money over most other travel choices? If advertising can make car ownership seem fun despite the frustrations of gridlock, road rage, and high operating expenses, imagine what it can do for bicycle commuting where users are not hindered by traffic jams and high ownership costs?
The bicycle transportation promotional campaign would be aimed at changing adult travel behavior by creating positive images of bicycle transportation usage. These positive images would counter the negative impressions too many people have of bicycling. The campaign would convey the message that bicycling is fashionable, desirable, and good for you. People choose bicycling as a transportation mode not because it is the only mode choice available to them, but because it is a choice mode. Bicycling is a logical choice, not just for the person who cannot afford to drive but also for the luxury car owner.
Children imitate adult activities. Children want to drive cars because adults drive cars. Often current bicycle safety and promotional messages are aimed solely at children under the rationale that 'we are training the next generation to be safe bicycle riders'. 'That is all well and good but the children also watch the automobile advertisements and vow to obtain that driver's license as soon as they become of legal age so they may join the ranks of car owners and prove to the world they are adults in good standing.
If children are exposed to bicycle transportation promotional advertisements aimed at adults then they are more likely to view bicycling as a serious transportation mode and thus will be more likely to retain the bicycling habit after they mature and are able to acquire motor vehicles. Furthermore as a result of such advertisements children are more likely to view first hand adult bicycle commuters, and perhaps even see their own role models happily pedaling to work, to the grocery store, to the video store, to the park. Such sightings will reinforce the message that bicycling is an activity adults do throughout their lifetimes.
Bicycling messages can be prepared in such a way as to appeal to adults but be comprehensible to children. This is because the virtues of bicycling including being healthy, nonpolluting, economical, fun, and smart are virtues that have universal appeal to all age groups. Therefore the majority of bicycle messages that depict people cycling should depict adults. Examples include greying workers nearing retirement and recent secondary school leavers cycling on their way to the office, bypassing gridlocked motorists, a young mother carrying groceries and children by bike, perhaps a father and son going to their local fishing place by bicycle with fishing poles strapped to their bike frames. Factory workers could be shown placing their bicycles inside company provided bicycle lockers as they arrive at work.
Other examples can depict the health benefits of bicycling; the bike commuter who has lost weight and feels better about herself, or the weekend athletic whose stamina has improved due to their substitution of the bike in place of the car, or the excitable executive personality who is calmer because bicycling releases tension. Other advertisements can promote the altruistic reasons for bicycling, such as reducing dependence on non-renewable fossil fuels, or to do their part to stop global warming, or because bicycling does not dirty the air, or reduces traffic congestion by taking one more car off of the road during rush hours.
Promotional bicycle transportation advertisements can also appeal to our selfish sides as well by stressing the financial savings achieved by substituting bicycling for driving. Examples in this genre include the family that can have a larger home as they only need one car in the family because the other breadwinner commutes by bicycle and therefore has more discretionary income, or the smart single who can afford to travel more often, dress better or to ski more frequently due to reduced automobile usage. Another vignette could depict how bicycling has enabled one worker to put part of their transportation savings into their retirement fund.
Other advertisements could address the misconceptions often held about bicycle commuting, impractical, strange, incompatible with dress requirements, too dangerous, etc. Testimonials from everyday people can address how they overcame negative assumptions associated with bicycle travel. Female commuters can describe what hair styles work best with bicycling, how to avoid 'helmet hair' and what steps they take to assure their personal safety. Celebrities, opinion leaders, and other role models that use bicycle transportation can endorse the concept of bicycle commuting to overcome the perception that only poor people and weird people travel to work by bicycle.
Finally a separate category of advertisements can provide safety messages for bicyclists such as how to ride in a competent manner, avoiding intersection collisions, being visible at night, how to dress for inclement weather, and etiquette for sharing multi-use trails with other users. These messages are designed to help undo the perception that bicycle commuting is too dangerous for the average citizen to consider. The use of authority figures such as police officers, cycle-experienced traffic engineers, and elected officials to convey safety messages to the public. Opinion leaders such as celebrities could also convincingly convey these messages.
Just about everywhere you find large numbers of people you can find advertising opportunities. Media options include the Intemet, newspapers, magazines, outdoor and public transport advertising, radio, and television. Each media format offers distinct advantages and disadvantages. Television typically reaches a larger audience than other media forms but is generally more expensive and is harder to target specific demographics. Radio offers a more targeted audience, and is usually less expensive than television but may reach a smaller audience and the format does not allow the transmission of visual images. Magazines may be kept longer than newspapers thus creating a better chance that readers may see your advertisement more than once. Newspapers range from general circulation papers to niche papers that reach highly segmented audiences, say ethnic group members, employees, students, union members, or neighborhood residents. This feature, also shared by magazines, allows advertisements to be tailored to appeal to specific audiences.
Advertisements placed on the outside of buses and trolleys can be read by people in various neighborhoods served by these vehicles. Public transport advertising can also be useful in promoting multi-modal transportation options for bicycle commuters such as bike on rail, and bike on bus opportunities. Billboards have the potential to be seen by tens of thousands of travelers daily. Bicycle commuting ads placed on billboards placed next to gridlocked roadways can provide especially effective moments to trapped motorists and passengers with time on their hands to contemplate the shortcomings of auto commuting.
Advertisements are used cultivate desire in their target audiences. Cultivated desire stimulates demand for the advertised good. Demand creates an increased supply of the goods in demand.
Advertisements promoting bicycle transportation will be expected to increase the desirability of bicycle commuting among citizens. Bicycle commuters have various needs such as bicycles, bicycle parts, accessories including helmets, lighting, and clothing and service. As more people respond to these messages by preparing for bicycle commuting they will purchase more bicycles, bike accessories, and pay for servicing. The bicycle industry would be expected to respond by increasing supply to meet demand.
Bicyclists will also demand a transportation infrastructure supportive of their needs. These demands will include more miles of on and off-road bikeway facilities, bike parking facilities, and employment policies that encourage or at the very least do not impede bicycle commuting. An increase in these supplies may not come as naturally as for purely commercial goods because of the involvement of government. However bicycle transportation promotional advertisement campaigns can play a dual role in the development of a bicycle friendly transportation infrastructure.
First the advertisements can stimulate desire from citizens who become bike commuters and then demand infrastructure improvements from government staff, elected officials, and employers. Second, traffic engineers, and transportation planners, exposed to the ads as well, may begin to design bikeway improvements into projects they are planning without being asked by citizens.
So if advertising is good for selling automobiles, tobacco, and hamburgers why hasn't advertising been utilized to a similar extent to sell bicycle commuting? A lack of money. Advertising campaigns require large capital investments and the bicycle industry has not been able to finance the type of saturation advertisement campaigns that the automotive, tobacco, and fast food industry has managed to do.
Past American bicycle transportation promotional activities have tended to be underfunded, inconsistent, and underwhelmng. As previously mentioned, many members of the public do not view bicycling as a legitimate and acceptable travel choice. Americans can be surprising uninformed about basic information regarding bicycle travel. Do bikes belong on the roadway? Are cyclists supposed to ride opposing motor vehicle traffic or ride in the same direction with motor traffic?
Often 'Bike to Work Day' events staged during National Bike Month (May) generate the only bicycle promotional efforts aimed at the general public in a region. Are annual Bike To Work Day participants sufficiently motivated to continue bike commuting on their own after the event excitement has faded or do they not cycle again to their workplaces until next year's event? While Bike to Work Day events provide much needed publicity regarding bike commuting these activities alone cannot be expected to change attitudes sufficiently so that a significant portion of tomorrow's adults ride bicycles on an everyday basis.
Other bicycle promotional activities have including radio spots, newspaper advertisements, and advertising on public transport. However these are usually short-lived events. Automobile advertisements by contrast, are continuous. They have no off-season. One solution to bridging the funding gap is to require the automobile industry to fund bicycle transportation promotional messages.
This proposal would require that a surcharge, perhaps a modest one to two percent, be placed on all new motor vehicle advertisements. This surcharge would be based on the cost of the advertisement itself The surcharge would be collected by the media sellers and turned over to a designated agency that would make the surcharge monies available for bicycle transportation promotional messages. Since new car advertisements seem to be everywhere and in all seasons, adoption of this surcharge would assure a steady stream of funding for promoting bicycle travel.
Why should the motor vehicle industry be required to fund the promotion of a rival travel mode? Because society's over-reliance upon motor vehicles has created external costs not paid for by the motor vehicle industry. Environmental damage due to air and water pollution created by automobile usage is borne by all users. The cost of treating asthmatics whose conditions are aggravated by vehicle exhausts, and who cannot afford such treatment is paid for by taxpayers. According to the Federal Transit Administration approximately one third of Americans do not have access to automobiles. Unfortunately too often those persons who do not have automotive access are doomed to second class citizenship defined by an inability to reach destinations that are accessible to motorists like employment sites.
A precedent has been set for industry funding of activities inimical to their interests. In California voters enacted legislation in the early 1990s that added a 25 US cent tax per pack of cigarettes sold in that state. A portion of these funds was given to the California Department of Health to fund anti-smoking ads. Recently California was noted for having the nation's second lowest smoking rate. Only Utah, a state heavily populated by members of the Mormon faith whose religious beliefs forbid tobacco consumption, beat California's low rate. Recent settlement of tobacco litigation filed against that industry by state attorneys general have required the tobacco companies to fund smoke cessation programs as well as anti-smoking ads. The suits were based on the principle that tobacco products created problems (i.e. sick smokers) that forced the use of taxpayer funds to remedy.
Deaths and injuries due to car crashes, environmental pollution, and the rise of sedentary lifestyles caused by motor vehicle usage stimulated by massive promotional advertising campaigns has caused taxpayers to pay for health costs to remedy these unwelcome byproducts of motorization. Therefore a proposal to require the motor vehicle industry to help fund efforts to provide healthy options to motor vehicle usage is not unreasonable.
The implementation of a continuous bicycle transportation advertising campaign targeted at today's adult population and funded by new car advertising surcharges is one way to ensure that tomorrow's adults incorporate bicycling as a healthy, everyday activity.