The first thing visitors saw when they walked into the consumer bike show at Navy Pier last weekend was a display of three gleaming 2003 Subarus. The automaker has been the title sponsor of the annual event–formally known as the Subaru Chicago Bike Show and Family Fitness Expo–for the last two years. On Saturday afternoon a smattering of people were checking out the vehicles, which included a bright yellow Baja with a bike rack built into its rear bed. Nearby, jerseys promoting the Subaru-sponsored Iceman Cometh Challenge mountain bike race were selling well, and the company’s free blue bike reflectors were moving even faster. “Subaru vehicles are all about an outdoor lifestyle,” a salesperson said. “They’re very environmentally friendly, too.” He pointed out that Subaru bumpers are made from recycled plastic and that the company supports the U.S. Forest Service’s Tread Lightly! program and the U.S. Olympic ski team. “I can’t believe anyone’s bitching.”
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The Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, a group that provides consultants (including Greenfield) to the Chicago Department of Transportation and is devoted to improving the city’s bicycling environment, has boycotted the bike show two years running–ever since Subaru took over as sponsor. “The thing that’s puzzling to me is why the irony isn’t more obvious to people,” says executive director Randy Neufeld. “Our initial response was, this is sort of like Jack Daniel’s being the title sponsor of a Mothers Against Drunk Driving event, or Haagen-Dazs sponsoring a Weight Watchers clinic.”
Neufeld wrote last year in a letter to members that “almost all of our advocacy challenges, both in the city and the suburbs, are battles between the accommodation of automobiles and bicycles. Whether the fight is over space on the roadway, street design that favors nonmotorized traffic, or funding resources, our message is that bicycle use is a better choice than automobile use–for individuals and society.
In previous years at the expo the federation had staffed a booth and made presentations on everything from bike repair to riding safely in traffic. The show’s been going since 1992, and until last year it took place in the suburbs–first at Pheasant Run in Saint Charles and then at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont–and was sponsored by the Chicago Area Bicycle Dealers Association, which also ran the lucrative trade show that made the consumer expo possible. CABDA dissolved in 2001, largely due to changes in the bike industry. “There was a lot of consolidation,” says Greg Byron, the association’s former executive director. “We had to close the trade show because all of these companies [including Schwinn, GT, Raleigh, and Diamondback] were going bankrupt. There was consolidation at the supplier end as well; the suppliers for the most part had decided to just support one large show that was out in Las Vegas. We decided to sell whatever assets we could so we didn’t have to file bankruptcy and stiff people.”
Early in the 2002 show, orange stickers reading “SUcker Vehicle” appeared tucked into the display vehicles’ license plate holders. One Forester was smacked with a fake price tag for the “Deforester” that listed noise pollution, lack of physical activity, greenhouse gases, and 43,000 auto deaths each year as extra features. Wineberg and a representative from Subaru approached the Critical Mass booth to ask about the stickers on Sunday night, just before the show closed.
Solomon returned and asked Green-field to take down the “Why Are There SUVs at a Bike Show?” sign; Green-field compromised by tearing off the bottom so that it simply read “Why Are There SUVs?” Later, while Green-field was off getting lunch, another Critical Mass volunteer grabbed the megaphone and started reading off the “Ten Reasons.” Solomon returned–again–and took the megaphone away.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photos/Robert Drea.
