Satire is great. It allows us to critique and discuss topics too challenging to confront directly. Whether it’s Mr Swift’s Irish baby pie recipe or Mr Colbert’s staunch idealization of Bill O’Riley, satire is the tried and true tool of political humor. To that end, last week the meme #ReplaceBikeWithCar was born. To contrast the often, but overlooked danger and detractors of cars, with the inherent, but much maligned safer, slower, and more efficient bicycles, folks took to Twitter.
Replacing the word ‘car’ with ‘bike’ achieved results like: “Traffic was snarled for hours behind the multi-bike pile up.” The hashtag soon exploded in popularity. This a great example of how a little clever creativity and the the right technology platform can help spread a great idea.
More on the backstory, examples, and other neat bicycle related distractions at:
http://usa.streetsblog.org/2014/04/07/what-happens-when-you-replacebikewithcar/