The culture wars between drivers and cyclists are not something the automotive giant wants to wade into. There are already fights in cities all around North America about new bike lanes on downtown streets.
Just this week, where I live, a cyclist was killed as a result of being doored by a careless parked driver, while the trial opened of a man accused of ploughing into five cyclists in his van in the suburbs two years ago.
And right now, social media networks are full of content like this:
I'm not going to say cars are evil. (My wife owns a car.) And I'm not going to beatify cyclists, because as a pedestrian I have been at the receiving end of near-misses by aggressive riders. But I will say that a goddamn car manufacturer — especially one accused of once trying to destroy public transit in the US — is really endangering its social licence by trying to convince young people that they should be embarrassed not to drive a car.
And now even GM agrees. In response to pressure from cycling advocates and lots of Twitter hate, they have pulled the ad.
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