Bike Snob

I'm not a bike snob, as bicycling hasn't been my major means of transportation for a few years now.  Still, I can empathize with Eben Weiss, blogger and author of Bike Snob, especially in his recent blog post about watching a father endanger himself and his child in New York traffic.

I was a courteous bicyclist, familiar with and follower of the bike laws and common sense--stop at stop signs, ride with the flow of traffic, wear a helmet, and don't ride on sidewalks, in crosswalks, or otherwise mistake oneself for a pedestrian.  Knowing my cycling ethics, you can understand why I hate hate hate driving on the U of I campus, where many cyclists have turned into senseless savages, freely whizzing through stop signs, crossing the path of my Malibu, and giving me dirty looks for attempting to drive in the street.

Okay, maybe I am a bit bike snobbish.

After spending so much of this post on my own complaints, it's only fair to offer a bit of the author's voice.  Flipping to page 123 of Bike Snob at random, I stumbled on this passage that cracked me up:

"So once the bicycle became trendy, the migratory pattern of the hipster changed.  Because the bicycle is by far the simplest and fastest way to cover short distances, cycling hipsters soon explored the often fertile areas surrounding their territory.  These were areas they never noticed on public transportation, or that seemed hopelessly far away by foot.  However, what may be half an hour away by foot is only ten minutes away by bicycle, and even the most feeble hipster can ride a bicycle for ten minutes."

He does enjoy humor at the expense of hipsters, both in the book and the blog.  Weiss writes well and is genuinely funny, however, and cyclists of all sorts, even hipsters, will likely find something to laugh at.