"You know that place where you're paying $4 per gallon to support the Arabian Economy while the US Army kills Iraqis for you; parked in traffic for an hour to drive 20 miles to a house that is worth less than the mortgage; breathing pollution & listening to two morons rant on the radio at 'drive time' in a car you bought for $50,000 a year ago that is now worth half that?"

"Oh Man, I'm there!"

As a regular bike commuter (when it's not raining heavily, at which times I take the bus), who rides in, get this-- STREET CLOTHES (khakis, or whatever I need to wear for work that day)-- I can say this makes me REALLY not want to ever buy a State Farm product of any kind.  They just don't get it, do they?

What kind of dolt suggests that the choices before us are so polarized as to require the wearing of silly tights/pants just to ride a stupid mountain bike to work?  Get real, ad agencies.  Get educated, and ride on 2 wheels sometime yourself, and you will see that the choices are quite viable and realistic.  In my case, not only do I save on parking and bus fare, I get my daily cardio the doctor kept asking me about during physicals the last 10 years (without ths health club dues) and I get to experience my local "sense of place" (the environment, remember it?) and passage of seasons, neighborhood sense of community, and the empowering knowledge that, for these miles at least, I am NOT part of the problem, but part of the solution.

To get to this place, other challenging decisions had to be made, including choice of housing location (5 miles from the office) and city (with housing I could afford on the income earned, at such a location) where such activities would be practical.  Anyone who thinks the solutions for energy independence, climate change avoidance and general sustainability are beyond us, is just not thinking creatively enough!

A big bird flip sign to State farm and that chick in the ad with her dry-clean-only outfit.  Maybe State Farm oughta try implementing a commuter incentive program for their employees and customers to get people out of their SOV SUVs and into vanpools, transit, and bikes.

How about offering Pay As You Drive auto insurance while you're at it, guys?  That needs to be part of the solution as well, and companies like State Farm could, and should, be leading the way toward sustainability by providing such consumer options, rather than casting the future as a grim have-vs.-have-not choice.

Moving toward sustainability with hopefulness, one revolution at a time.

"Jim" has nice legs from cycling that he can be proud to show off in shorts instead of a fat ass from sitting in a car.

State Farm is an insurance company that surely knows the high cost of climate change that is going to overwhelm them in the future. It's stupid to be producing ads which denigrate effective action and promote ignorant selfish continuation of bad habits.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

No wonder that account disabled comments on their videos. They would be swamped by a tonne of well-deserved snark.

The cutest guys at my work bicycle to work.  Oh yeah!

Where I live, it's basically me (the eco-freak) and the DUIers who bike for transportation. That's why the only two bike racks in town are in front of the co-op and in front of the bar.

Sigh.

Here's a link to a form to send in complaints to State Farm.

 https://online.statefarm.com/apps/contactSF/pages/commentsSuggestions.asp

I sent them a short note echoing some of the sentiments stated above. Getting them to change attitudes because of this could turn it into a positive event. Until then, I won't do business with them.

Peace, Eric Hacker
aptronym (AP-troh-NIM) noun A name that is especially suited to the profession of its owner

Thanks for the link for complaining directly to State Farm!

It's one thing for us to bitch to each other here on this semi-isolated blog (what is the sound of one hand clapping, anyway?).  But it's quite another thing to bitch directly to the perpetrator.

So I send my complaint to State Farm, thanks to Eric's convenient link. It was a polite complaint -- but also pointed and annoyed.  Haven't heard anything back yet.  

How 'bout the rest of you?

I've had State Farm all my life - my uncle is an agent and I don't know life any other way.

Its definitely interesting that I don't get any noticeable discounts on my car insurance based on how much I bike to work (SF needs pay-as-you-go....badly), but I qualified for the uber-discount on life insurance based on my level of fitness which, at the time that they tested me, was based solely on my bike commuting.

Seems like I, and likely many other bike commuters, are State Farm's dream come true - significantly less risk in car insurance due to reduced miles in a motor vehicle, and less risk in life insurance due to increased fitness.  Still, ads like this portraying bike commuters as pariahs are what we get?!?!?!  I'm sending this to my agent... now.

Jack