> Cars denote freedom; commuter bikes imply, for better or worse, jerkitude or tweeness; motorcycles are cool; e-scooters are for douchebros.
utter asshole
But I'll at least give his premise one point: We're actually seeing two parallel surges in micromobolity, pedal-assist e-bikes, and electric mopeds. In NYC, we're seeing many folks on what are effectively electric motorcycles taking advantage of bike lanes.
I'm pretty sure it's just a matter of time before I get nailed by one of these heavier beasts, and if their attitude is anything to judge by, it'll be a hit-and-run for sure.
A status symbol needs shared context for it to work. The "other" person needs to know what makes an object "status worthy".
In the case of bicycles, people who aren't particularly interested in the subject won't be able to notice the difference between a $100 supermarket bike and a $10000 Tour de France bike (or however much that costs). Both bikes will simply register as "bike".
So if someone buys an expensive bike for the status, but only ever crosses paths with people not knowledgeable enough, no one will notice it's an expensive bike, so the bike won't be perceived as a status symbol.
Just the fact that people will get on a bike daily to commute to work or get groceries, likely doesn't make them care enough about the finer points of the discipline to notice "status tells".
