Bike Snob Comes Out & Talks about Bike Culture, So?
by anita • March 31, 2010 • Bike Events, News • 13 Comments
This week, Bike Snob revealed himself to be a 36 year old dude named Eben Weiss. Some folks in the bike community are upset but with a new book launch and promotional events in the works, but he has made himself highly marketable. With his newly reveled identity, Eben will be speaking at an upcoming Transportation Alternatives Bike Culture Summit on May 6 with David Herlihy, author of “Bicycle: The History.” Tickets are on sale April 1 on TA’s website. [via NYT]
The event might actually be entertaining, but a part of me sees it as another dry panel with a couple of middle aged white guys talking about bicycles. Is this really more of what our community needs – a guy from the Harvard Cycling Club talking about bike culture? I want to see all type of folks out there on bicycles, and panels like this don’t help change the image of cycling. If TA really wants to get more bicycles on the road, they are going to need everybody so why not start speaking to us all?
The panelists will include Caroline Samponaro, TA’s Director of Cycling Advocacy and a founding member of the Freewheels Bicycle Defense Fund. And folks who come will be able to pose the questions they think are most important. The hope at TA is that this will not be just another dry panel of middle-aged white guys.
There will be 2 white guys and one (probably) white women at least. With this you have around 80% of the city´s population covered. Isn´t that enough? What do you want? Some minorities to give the panel the appearence of a multicultuiral society? Why not just cut the hipocrisy and face your white middle-class reality?
@bicyclesonly It’s my hope too. Glad Caroline with be there. Thanks!
@moita You are brilliant.
The point of ‘bike culture’ is not to make it easier for people to ride bikes, but to make it easier to sell things to people who ride bikes.
For instance, Eben Weiss’s book deal isn’t for sharing his thoughts with the non-bike riding public, it’s kids everywhere to get their Motobecane-riding dads for Father’s Day. I bet next year Streetsblog columnist Sarah Goodyear will have her own book for kids everywhere to get their Raleigh-mounted moms for Mother’s Day.
This is why “bike culture” is so ineffective at reaching out to poor people; poor people aren’t a market for bike-themed books and paraphernalia.
@Jonathan, Great idea, why didn’t I think of it myself? I’m writing the proposal now, thanks!
@Sarah Laughing!
@Johnathan Sarah rides a Surly. You should know better.
I can see it now: “Surly or Not, Here I Come: One Mom’s Quest for Commuting Nirvana.”
Thanks for the heads up. But it’s not about “getting more bicycles on the road,” it’s about letting the ones that are on the road survive without getting smeared all over the pavement.
ha’ Bike snob gets a stick in his spokes on his coming out ,but did i smell a hint of envy there?
…’from Brooklyn with love
Name some speakers that would entertain and inform us all, preferably bicycling-related. Thank you.
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@Moita Actually wiki says less than half of NYC’s population is “white”.
I dropped out of the TA scene years ago because no one was addressing comments from the likes of Moita.
Instead… he’s hailed as “Brilliant”.
@Molita I don’t know for sure, but I’m thinking the author was talking about showing more diversity even within the white race. Look at the pictures from the bottom! They’re all of white men anyway! And no, representing “80%” of a population all the time is not enough. How about having a lesbian representing the dykes on bike-cycles group here in manhattan, or people from different economic backgrounds(of any race) involved in biking? It’s not about having the “appearance of multicultural society,” it’s about being inclusive and making people feel like this panel will be able to provide information that relates to them.