image via katu

Part of me thinks I shouldn’t be fueling this but my reason for posting this at all has little to do with wanting to discuss this actual advertisement and more about the “us vs. them” concept that is a continual battle. Just for some background, Webtrends (who shall remain linkless because I’m not going to deliver them any traffic) plastered a Portland MAX train with an advertisement saying “Should Cyclists Pay A Road Tax?” which has caused quite a stir. For the record, I think this stunt was pretty thoughtless, not purposely malicious but they should’ve known better. A marketing strategy should not be geared towards pissing people off or fueling a sensitive issue just to get traffic to your website.

I’d like to point to a recent post by Portlandize, a fabulous Portland-based website devoted to all things relating to the cycling world including tons of wonderful photos and videos from around the Portland area. You can read the original post to see his take on the subject but mostly I’d like to highlight the excellent point that…

“the terms ‘cyclist’ and ‘driver’ are divisive and imply a false dichotomy between people. In Portland, most people who would be termed ‘cyclists’ in this discussion own and operate cars, with which they pay gas tax for the gas they use. You might as well say that pedestrians should pay an extra road tax for the sidewalks they use. Drivers don’t use them, so why should they have to pay to subsidize the sidewalks? It’s a ridiculous argument, how can you categorize pedestrians and drivers? They’re the same people.”

This whole “us vs. them” thing is absurd and we’re never going to get anywhere if people don’t drop this ridiculous argument. To say that cyclists should pay an extra road tax doesn’t even make any sense. The only way this would fly is if the money were going towards a separate bike infrastructure, but Webtrends specifically said Road Tax, hence the reason people are getting a bit worked up. There might as well be an extra tax for those who wear red.