Top Gear hits rock bottom

08 September 2011 | 14:00 - By Philip Gomes

As we all know by now we have a cats and dogs problem on our roads, and while the behaviour of a subset of the cycling population may rankle the reality is that real solutions lie in changing the cultural behaviour of motorists.

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If that sounds a bit one sided well, that's just the way I see it - cyclists in this country have always been at the mercy of the heavyweights on our roads.

But how are we to change minds when shows like Top Gear Australia - and its parent in the UK - continue to demonstrate the sheer malignancy of motoring culture on our transport landscape?

Top Gear is the poster child for bad motoring behaviour, focusing largely on 0-60km/h performance, and engaging in a range of dubious stunts to demonstrate how incredibly awesome it is to drive like a lunatic.

Its style and tone contribute nothing in terms of tempering the worst instincts of motorists. Its overarching dialogue only about placing motoring first in the minds of viewers to the exclusion of other road users.

When not glorifying motoring culture the show has form in taking cheap and gratuitous shots at the weak - that is, when they are not producing fiction about potentially planet-saving alternatives in the motoring world.Take, for example, Top Gear’s line on electric cars. Casting aside any pretence of impartiality or rigour, it has set out to show that electric cars are useless. If the facts don’t fit, it bends them until they do.

Top Gear's latest crime against society - this time right here in Australia - is to entrench in motorists' minds a set of tiresome cliches about cyclists, while themselves recklessly breaking the law to demonstrate a point.



Now you could say that this is just entertainment and the scenes are staged, after all they will have received permission to (safely) drive around like idiots. At least I hope they did.

But that's beside the point. I'm trying to figure out what kind of entertainment is it when the show targets a specific group of vulnerable road users for the low brow amusement of its viewers? Maybe they take their cues from Australia's Funniest Home Videos?

Television is a powerful medium for a reason, imagery is more powerful than the spoken word, so what you show, or stage, has an enormous impact. Wrong-headed and misinformed visual statements about particular road users are not a joke. People can get killed and maimed.

Maybe Top Gear should air a segment on our hard-working long-haul truckies driving 24-hours straight on nothing but blaring Tamworth Festival favourites, No-Doze and Jack Daniels and see what kind of reaction they receive from that community.

I saw the segment as designed to denigrate legal and legitimate road users and quite likely give licence to motorists to play fast and loose with the rights of cyclists to use the roads.

Ultimately, it was an irresponsible mockery and failed to advance the discourse surrounding our shared urban and transport spaces.

Follow Phil on Twitter: @Lycra_Lout

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Comments (17)

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15 Sep 2011 14:16 AEST

Peter

From: Canberra

I think GOMES should lighten up a bit, is big brother an indicative cross section of society...no it isn't, but the show is entertaining for some. Is Top gear indicative of the driving habits of Australian Society, no it isn't but it is entertaining, people should grow up and see it for what it is, try not to complicate the subject too much.

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14 Sep 2011 18:07 AEST

Alistair

From: Sydney

Well,,, the show has just been axed. http://smh.drive.com.au/motor-news/top-gear-australia-axed-20110914-1k8lc.html He he....

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12 Sep 2011 7:59 AEST

Just too sad

From: Brisbane

This segment in top gear was an exercise in pure bigotry and hatred. If in doubt, try listening to this story again, substituting the word 'cyclist' for any other ethic or social minority group. This bogan and this show is teaching a sub-culture of people that it's OK, even funny to abuse, intimidate, and break those that interfere with their activities and are less able to defend themselves. And why not, it worked in South Africa, Germany, Afganistan. To extreme? maybe, but its the same seed

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10 Sep 2011 20:38 AEST

Rick

From: Brisbane

Just bear in mind cyclists you are the traffic hazard - no amount of road rage can justify otherwise - even if you could accidents still happen - and who comes off second best. - Please take care not to be a statistic.

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09 Sep 2011 13:29 AEST

stu

From: cairns

I think the said media 'personality' was attempting to be humorous. Unfortunately, it appears he is humorless, uninformed, unintelligent, unbalanced and most likely over payed. Best he stays driving, don't want the likes of him giving cyclists a bad name.

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08 Sep 2011 21:26 AEST

Duncan

From:

If you can promise me that drivers won't act inappropriately around cyclists because of comments like these, then we cyclists won't get so precious.

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08 Sep 2011 20:18 AEST

Brenden

From: Pearces Creek

Before you start bagging the show, take a good look at the behaviour they were sending up. None of it showed consideration for anyone else and much of it was illegal and all of it regularly displayed. All the show depicted was bad cyclist behaviour. If you don't want to be made fun of don't give the clowns ammunition. That said I am not sure the segment really raised the level of discourse around sharing the road

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08 Sep 2011 18:40 AEST

Rob

From: Beaconsfield

Phil, this is the type of story that needs voices like yours - for you are one of the people doing this day-in, day-out... for pleasure and/or transport, it's something that we can all do: ride. What a great thing. And there's room enough in a modern society for the notion of respect. With some of this from both sides of what should never even be a car-vs-cyclist divide, then it could all work in harmony. A metre matters a lot...

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08 Sep 2011 18:03 AEST

Pete

From: Sydney

It's all a laugh until I use a weapon "for a laugh" with the same potential energy as a typical car travelling at 60kmh... on vulnerable road user - that's a barrage of Colt .45 bullets in case you are wondering. Is it any surprise that the annual road death tolls are higher than gun related deaths ?

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08 Sep 2011 17:55 AEST

Micheal

From: Canberra

Don"t get so precious.

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