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Asinine Ad Bikes Invade Streets

By Ron Nurwisah, Boy Reporter

2006_3_29cyclead.jpg
The astute indie rockers on Stillepost spotted this press release. While not technically a new thing, the re-launch of these ad bikes is disturbing. Torontoist remembers seeing them last summer and being really really angry.
Cyclemedia claims that their adbikes don’t “contribute to urban congestion.” Really? Torontoist isn’t always the brightest bulb in the box but even we can see that hugging the sidewalk with your ad bike is going to cause some “congestion.” Downtown streets are pretty narrow. Don’t even get us started about seeing these in bike lanes!
The press release from Cyclemedia also raises a few interesting points:

These billboards are impossible to miss and are fully interactive! Get ready for in your face advertising that literally screams from the streets of Toronto!

Fully interactive? So if some those angry stilleposters and other angry Torontonians decide to hurl eggs and rotten food that’s fine? You did say fully interactive. And Cyclemedia has got one thing right, we’re screaming alright. Cyclemedia you’ll be hearing from some of us very very soon.

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Comments

  • http://blog.jamestilberg.com James

    They’re ugly, but they’re better than the ad trucks. At least these don’t pollute the air. Still, why should we allow either?

  • http://www.nestruck.com JKelly

    I think there’s a freedom of speech thingie that might get in the way of banning them. It’s like people standing on the corner wearing sandwich boards or handing out flyers.
    The trucks, however, have got to go and we have the idling and pollution ordinances to do it.

  • http://www.ohmpage.ca Rajio

    I much prefer this option to the fuel-burning ad-trucks. I would welcome a handfull of these per ad-truck though the moment they start to inhibit purposeful bicyclists thats where the line gets drawn. they don’t contribute to congestion so long as they dont get in the way of bicyclists.
    …but wait, is the guy/girl riding the ad-bike supposed to acctually be screaming as the press release implies?! ….seriously?! screaming in my face?!

  • Matt

    I wonder if there is a bylaw about what can be carried on a bike. It could be possible that these things could be considered dangerous to drivers. The Highway Traffic Act is pretty stingy it what it allows people to do once on the road.
    While I’d trade these off for ad trucks, we still have ad trucks AND these. We’ll soon have rollerbladers wheeling around in bike lanes pulling ads.

  • http://www.jillmurray.com Jill

    I don’t think there’s going to be any question of trading in the ad trucks for these. This smells like a full-on “in addition to.” As long as the truck guys can argue that they give better “exposure” to clients and it’s not enforceably illegal, those trucks aren’t going anywhere.
    So anyway, I’m literally screaming. Where’s my interaction?

  • http://www.myspace.com/madridisburning jake

    i worked for this company last summer it was a god summer job and helped me pay for collge.
    people inconvinience me every day in every way, get a real problem, 75% of this article is ficticious
    Jake