Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists Are Changing American Cities
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by Jeff Mapes
March 2009. 6 x 9 inches. 288 pages. B&W Photographs. Index
ISBN 978-0-87071-419-1. Paperback, $19.95.
Read David Byrne's review in The New York Time Book Review here.
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“A growing number of Americans, mounted on their bicycles like some new kind of urban cowboy, are mixing it up with swift, two-ton motor vehicles as they create a new society on the streets. They’re finding physical fitness, low-cost transportation, environmental purity—and, still all too often, Wild West risks of sudden death or injury.” —from the Introduction
In a world of increasing traffic congestion, a grassroots movement is carving out a niche for bicycles on city streets.
Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists Are Changing American Cities explores the growing bike culture that is changing the look and feel of cities, suburbs, and small towns across North America.
From traffic-dodging bike messengers to tattooed teenagers on battered bikes, from riders in spandex to well-dressed executives, ordinary citizens are becoming transportation revolutionaries. Jeff Mapes traces the growth of bicycle advocacy and explores the environmental, safety, and health aspects of bicycling. He rides with bicycle advocates who are taming the streets of New York City, joins the street circus that is Critical Mass in San Francisco, and gets inspired by the everyday folk pedaling in Amsterdam, the nirvana of American bike activists. Chapters focused on big cities, college towns, and America’s most successful bike city, Portland, show how cyclists, with the encouragement of local officials, are claiming a share of the valuable streetscape.
“Writing from Portland, the hub of the American cycling renaissance, Jeff Mapes, brimming with passion, humor and salutary insight, makes an admirably clearheaded, convincing and, ultimately, humane argument for making more room for the two-wheeler, in our lives and on our roads.” –Tom Vanderbilt, author of
Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)
"Finally, the bicycling movement gets the serious examination that it deserves.”
– Jane Holtz Kay, author of
Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile Took Over America
and How We Can Take It Back
“...great ammunition for those of us who would like to see American cities become more bike-friendly..."
“Pedaling Revolution is easily the best book-length examination of cycling culture and its connection to big-picture issues...”
“You can’t have a revolution (pedaling or not) without information, and this book just might become one of the sparks that fuels biking’s upcoming boom.”
“Mapes puts a passionate and pragmatic face to the ‘new urban bike movement’ while connecting the dots between cycling culture and a host of quality of life issues."
About the Author
Jeff Mapes is senior political reporter for
The Oregonian. He has covered Congress, state government, and numerous local, state, and national campaigns. He is also author of the blog, Mapes on Politics. He lives in Portland, Oregon, where he is a longtime bike commuter.
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