21st Jun 2008
Drivers Safety Films: I… Like… Bikes!
Ike The Bike is your narrator and guide through the 1978 film I Like Bikes. While its pacing and slow narration seem best suited to grade schoolers than 16-year-olds in drivers ed, it’s clearly trying to warn new drivers about the difficulty of noticing bicycles and the importance of keeping an eye out. Full of bike-car safety lessons and 70’s fashion… and a wee bit of drivel.
The film centers around Lisa, who used to like — nay, love — bikes when she was younger. However, as soon as her license arrives in the mail (yes, kids, the license used to take time to make), she drives over her bike with a car. Yes, she runs it over. No more bikes for her, just that gas-guzzling boat of a Cadillac! But Ike still optimistically insists that she likes bikes, showing many situations in which she has a chance to demonstrate that by watching closely for bicyclists and not running THEM over like she did her own bike.
At about 10 minutes in, Ike goes on a minor tirade about the fragility of bikes. “Little things upset us” can also be read as a caution to the car-driving world — bikes are touchy and swift to anger, do not incur their wrath! That’s the lesson I’d like to leave you with today… some day, bicycles will rise up against their automobile oppressors and retake the roadways of the world. And they’re just the gateway vehicle for the dreaded unicycle riders.
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