Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists Are Changing American Cities

by Jeff Mapes

Book Overview

Updated Edition includes a new epilogue by the author

In a world of increasing traffic congestion, a grassroots movement is carving out a niche for bicycles on city streets. Pedaling Revolution 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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0870714198
• ISBN13: 9780870714191
• Release Date: March 2009
• Publisher: Oregon State University Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.91 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Inspiring reading for developing cycling culture!

I am a member of a group trying to develop a cycling culture in our town. This book talks about what has worked and not worked in towns and countries all over the world. It seems to be very comprehensive in reviewing the culture and the bicycling leaders from 1900 to the present in the US. The author is a bit wordy and often goes on tangents. However, the basic information you need is there!

Exceptionally well written book that will have you taking notes

This is a very well written and readable book. As others have noted, it is interspersed with a interviews, anecdotes, and other journalistic elements that make for an entertaining read. For a non-fiction book on a relatively narrow topic like bicycling, it's certainly a page turner. I am already an avid bicyclists and a proponent of utility bicycling, but I am also a suburbanite in the not-so bike friendly South-east US. At first this book had me day-dreaming about living in Portland or Williamsburg, Brooklyn, but by the end I am inspired to engage in my own community for more liveable bicycle friendly streets in Charlotte, NC. Thank you Jeff.

Must read- very enlightening

This is a must read. This book provides a great perspective of what can and should be done to support alternative transportation. Other countries are so far ahead of where we are in terms of thinking holistically about bike transportation. Cycling has benefits far beyond the obvious health and transportation benefits. Read the book and you'll see. After reading this book, I feel the mass media and the government has significantly short-changed the cyclists who have endangered their lives to help support alternative transportation. Next time you see a cyclist, instead of thinking why are they going so slow and get out of my way, you should be thinking why didn't I do that.

A must-have for any cyclist

Anyone who rides a bike to commute, train, race or just enjoy time outdoors should have this book. It's well-researched and well-written. Author Jeff Mapes has done what geographically disconnected but well-meaning blogs cannot: tell the definitive U.S. story of the cycling movement, educate readers, and entertain them. "Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists Are Changing American Cities" is a must-have for any cyclist.

Bicycles are okay, but "a tricycle means independence"

A few confessions. First, I fall into the ideal reading demographic for this book. I own bikes. I ride bikes. And I am very interested in transportation issues, particularly as they pertain to bicycles. When Tom Vanderbilt's extraordinary book Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) came out, the first thing I did with it was turn to the index and look up all the references to bicycles. (You say "nerdy" and I say "wonky"!) And I live in the American Mecca (or "Amsterdam") of bicycling, namely Portland, Oregon, as does author Jeff Mapes. But my most dramatic confession is this: I'm only halfway through Pedaling Revolution. (Eep.) But at this point in the journey, the rest of the book could be printed in Swahili (I have nothing against the language, besides being unable to read it) and this would still be a five-star read. Why? Well, in a general sense, Mapes has done a fine job of giving me a historical context for the evolution of the bicycle in our society. Fair enough, but surely other books do the same? They do. But Mapes brings a professional journalist's chops to this assignment. He peppers his account with interviews and human interest angles, and he knows the value of both a well-placed anecdote and statistic. To put it crudely, while Mapes' research was clearly Herculean, he doesn't let you see him sweat. I'll be back to edit this review upon book's completion, but here are a few specifics that stick out in my mind this far: By one UCLA professor's estimate, the sum total of all the parking spaces in the U.S. take up an area about the size of Connecticut. (Remember, that doesn't count roads!) Ouch. Suffragette Belva Ann Lockwood (she twice ran for president in the late 1800s) was often spotted pedaling around Washington D.C. on her largish tricycle. As she said, "A tricycle means independence for women, and it also means health." Along the lines of quotable quotes, try this one on for size: "The more I think about U.S. domestic transportation problems... the more I see an increased role for the bicycle in American life." George H.W. Bush, U.S. ambassador to China, 1975