Ten Really Cool People I’ve Made Streetfilms With!
Now nearing 1,120 films, I’ve had the pleasure of riding bikes with or producing Streetfilms with quite a few famous people. With our 20th anniversary approaching I’ve been making fun lists so here’s one I’ve never pondered before: the top cool people I’ve made films with. Of course limiting it to ten was real torture, but here they are in no particular order…
#1 - Kate McKinnon, actress & comedian
We made four films featuring Kate, the year before she would go on to massive fame on Saturday Night Live. Above is the first, the second was in our Zozo mockumentary but my favorite was her playing A.U.T.O. lobbyist Veronica Moss (once again) in 2009 while roaming Times Square and cranking out about the new-pedestrianized spaces. All I had to do was give her a subject or a phrase and she converted everything into laughs. I knew it’d be gold once we started filming and let me tell you it was really hard to stop laughing while filming.
#2 - George Hahn, social media star, fashion maven & actor
The Covid epidemic brought an emphasis on being outdoors for recreation to stay healthy & sane which led to outdoor dining, open streets and more biking. I wanted to film something upbeat and I looked no further than my friend George Hahn who was quickly becoming a social media icon talking about the benefits of bicycling - but telling folks they needed to ride civilly and do it with style. With humor of course. George also had no problem a few years later telling drivers to get on mass transit and out of their cars.
#3 - Janette Sadik-Khan, streetfighter, author and transportation visonary
I can safely say Janette Sadik-Khan has more Streetfilms appearances than anyone else (I stopped counting at 50 and gave her the crown.) Of course it benefitted she was NYC’s Transportation Commissioner from 2007-2013, but as we know her work goes well beyond that including making NACTO an engine for better streets. So where to even start? My first video featuring her was when I rode up alongside of her in Tour de Brooklyn just weeks after being appointed by Mayor Bloomberg. Then there was the fantastic debut of NYC Summer Streets 2008 where the streets were already being used at 7am. But my fav collaboration was her turn as a secret-agent turn instructing the public to rise up and prioritize people and communities over car movement!
#4 - Amy Hargreaves, actress & bike rider
Amy Hargreaves has been an actress for just about her entire life. We became friends on Twitter (back when it wasn’t the evil X) and talked about riding bikes together for a profile. First she was busy. Then it was too cold. Then I got hurt. But when we finally synced up to ride one night to an off-Broadway play she was in, well it was dreamy and delightful. We had real chemistry and the conversation easily flowed about NYC and transportation. I just loved our hour together so much!
#5 - Hal Ruzal, bike mechanic & musician
Hal Ruzal is the famous legendary NYC mechanic from Bicycle Habitat who I went on rides with all over the city in early 2000s. He was frequently featured on my cable-access show bikeTV. On rides he often commented how people were so careless with their bike locking. So I flat out asked him if he’d be interested in a film enlightening people while humorously grading their techniques. Well he did four times, including this final one (which coincidentally features George Hahn!)
# 6 - John Bauters, “America’s bike mayor” & health advocate
In the last few years, there have been very few elected leaders as inspirational as former 2-time Emeryville, CA Mayor John Bauters. A no-nonsense fighter for better transportation, biking and planning he’s a beacon to many all over the U.S. When he visited NYC a few years ago he was in high demand including meeting a few dozen fans on this bike ride. A year later, we met up for a personal tour of his city and recent accomplishments.
#7 - Gil Penalosa, Ciclovía innovator, 8-80 Cities founder & indefatigable spirit
I often say that Gil Penalosa was the first world urbanist who believed in me and helped put Streetfilms on the map after a successful 2007 trip to Bogotá that produced a trio of groundbreaking films - including our first video to reach 1 million plays: Bogotá’s amazing ciclovia! Since then he’s appeared in well over a dozen Streetfilms from NYC to Vancouver to Guadalajara to Copenhagen (above). Of all world leaders he’s the one I most look forward to hang out with cause it will always be fun & inspirational (and sometimes exhausting to keep up with!)
#8 - Gabe Klein, former D.C. & Chicago DOT head & agent of change
Like Gil, Gabe has left his imprint all over Streetfilms since nearly the beginning and has appeared in 25 of them. It all started in 2009 with me sitting in the DC DOT reception area hopeful I could speak with him a few minutes on camera. Instead he gave me over an hour (plus a short tour!) and has always been very generous with his time. You can go to Linked In to see list of accomplishments, but I have talked with him on everything from bike share to open streets to his book “Start Up City”. Not many nicer people in the transpo world and proud to call him a friend.
#9 - Norman Garrick, urban planning professor UConn (emeritus), loves Zurich and hates parking craters
At Streetfilms we were/are always looking to find unique policies that are smart and share them. We knew that Zurich was a place which boasted “The Historic Compromise” which has kept the number of parking spaces in the city core at 1996 levels. As I did my research I came across Prof. Garrick’s 2012 CityLab article and went up for an interview. Since then he’s appeared in a few other Streetfilms including our memorable documenting of Parking Craters in numerous cities, including a slow car tour of Hartford, CT - which has now filled in many of those with smart housing and better planning. I also engaged with many of his students for a few years as they essentially made their own “Streetfilms” and helped evaluate them as part of his class.
#10 - Doug Gordon, advocate & co-host “The War on Cars”
Collaborating with Doug has always been a breeze! Frequently he or I have a current streets topic we are mulling and we’re like, “let’s meet up” and I turn the camera on and he talks and we always get good, impactful stuff. Whether it’s this insane video above showing the gridlock misery of what it looked like daily a 1/2 mile from the Holland Tunnel (NOT ANYMORE, thank you Congestion Pricing!) or talking about his idea to give cyclists a head start at lights in NYC or his observations in our recent 1,111th Streetfilm from Ghent Doug is the voice of reason. Of course he also is the co-host of The War on Cars and their new book debuts in October.
