Clarence Eckerson Jr. Featured on Active Towns!

At this point in history, John Simmerman has likely set the world record for long podcast interviews with popular urbanists and transportation experts or his Active Towns Youtube channel. And Streetfilms has been lucky enough to get oft-mentioned in some of these chats and director Clarence Eckerson Jr. has been in a few episodes.

John told me recently, “The urbanism and active mobility content creators are the best! I’ve been blown away by all the support and encouragement that you, Mark, and Ryan Van Duzer - just to name a few - have provided over the past decade.”

After many asks to be on, I told John that I wanted to wait until I published my 1,000th Streetfilm (and he made his 100th episode!) so we could celebrate that synergy. I really appreciate this fun archive exists for many reasons. For one: it was fun and shows off myriad clips of Streetfilms and second, one day when perhaps I am no longer on this Earth my son (Clarence, III) can watch this with his family and hear my life journey and how much I loved my career.

Celebrating 1,000 Streetfilms!

But really my favorite appearance came in mid-2024 when I got to ride around Ghent with John and Bicycle Dutch himself Mark Wagenbuur (who is also over 1,000 films!) All three of us were in Ghent at the same time thanks to the Velo-City Conference and also on a social media panel to talk about our experience and lives.

Utilizing fancy modern gizmos and nimble gear, it’s amazing how John captures our three way conversation as we ride. Let me tell ya, that’s no small feat! I remember finishing our loop and thinking how much fun it was but not knowing how well it would “look” due to the complexity. And I was stunned watching it. I’m glad to have that memory on tape.

BicycleDutch and Streetfilms On-bike Interview (at Velo-city 2024 in Ghent)

It’s so awesome that the three of us are so close in age and have experienced that love of our environment and want to make the world a better place!