A new Canadian television ad for the Kia Sportage, filmed in San Francisco's Financial District, markets an attitude of acceptance about the responsibility of sharing the road with bicycles. It's quite a contrast from the conventional image of cars as an embodiment of power and dominance.
While the ad encourages drivers to share the road, it still reassures them that the car is "perfectly capable of 'owning'" it, and its slogan suggesting that driving is a part of any real change does sound a lot like greenwashing.
It is refreshing, however, to see a car manufacturer's marketing strategy that acknowledges the impacts of automobiles on the safety of cycling and prominently features San Francisco's sharrow markings.
Aaron was the editor of Streetsblog San Francisco from January 2012 until October 2015. He joined Streetsblog in 2010 after studying rhetoric and political communication at SF State University and spending a semester in Denmark.
