Casey Neistat Bike Lane Analysis

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“Bike Lanes” is a video by filmmaker and YouTuber, Casey Neistat. In the video, Neistat is seen getting a ticket for not riding his bicycle in the designated bike lane by a New York City police officer. Neistat attempts to explain to the officer that the bike lane is not always the safest place for bikers to be. The officer then tells Neistat that it did not matter and that he must always ride in the the bike lane. Frustrated, Casey Neistat then shows a montage of clips of himself deliberately crashing into obstacles in the bike lane, to further illustrate his point. Also included in the video is audio of Neistat calling into a radio show to talk about his video. During the call, Neistat learns that riding outside of the bike lane is not illegal and exclaims “I wish I knew that before I paid the $50 ticket.” The end of the video …show more content…

These three appeals are Ethos, Pathos and Logos. Ethos is an appeal to ethics or credibility, Pathos is an appeal to emotion and Logos is an appeal to logic. When attempting to get his point across, Neistat mainly used two of these three appeals. By showing the footage of his encounter with the police officer, he hoped the audience, viewers on YouTube which may possibly be other New York City bicyclists would share his feelings of frustration, this is the appeal of Pathos. Although it is meant to be humorous, when Neistat crashes into the many objects blocking the bike lane, he illustrates his point in a very effective manner by showing that there really are many obstacles in a biker’s path. This is the video’s main use of Logos. Another use of Logos in the video is that riding outside of the bike lane is not illegal and that Neistat should not have received a ticket. Neistat’s credibility is that he is a New Yorker who rides his bike everyday as his main form of transportation and who was personally ticketed for not riding in the designated bike