Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists are Changing American Cities
In a world of growing traffic congestion, expensive oil, and threats of cataclysmic climate change, a grassroots movement is carving out a niche for bicycles on the streets of urban cityscapes. In Pedaling Revolution, Jeff Mapes explores the growing urban bike culture that is changing the look and feel of cities across the U.S. He rides with bike 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. Mapes, a seasoned political journalist and long-time bike commuter, explores the growth of bicycle advocacy while covering such issues as the environmental, safety, and health aspects of bicycling for short urban trips. His rich cast of characters includes Noah Budnick, a young bicycle advocate in New York who almost died in a crash near the Brooklyn Bridge, and Congressman James Oberstar (D-MN), who took to bicycling in his fifties and helped unleash a new flood of federal money for bikeways. Chapters set in Chicago and Portland show how bicycling has became a political act, with seemingly dozens of subcultures, and how cyclists, with the encouragement of local officials, are seizing streets back from motorists. Pedaling Revolution is essential reading for the approximately one million people who regularly ride their bike to work or on errands, for anyone engaged in transportation, urban planning, sustainability, and public health'and for drivers trying to understand why they're seeing so many cyclists. All will be interested in how urban bike activists are creating the future of how we travel and live in twenty-first-century cities.
In a world of growing traffic congestion, expensive oil, and threats of cataclysmic climate change, a grassroots movement is carving out a niche for bicycles on the streets of urban cityscapes. In Pedaling Revolution, Jeff Mapes explores the growing urban bike culture that is changing the look and feel of cities across the U.S. He rides with bike 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. Mapes, a seasoned political journalist and long-time bike commuter, explores the growth of bicycle advocacy while covering such issues as the environmental, safety, and health aspects of bicycling for short urban trips. His rich cast of characters includes Noah Budnick, a young bicycle advocate in New York who almost died in a crash near the Brooklyn Bridge, and Congressman James Oberstar (D-MN), who took to bicycling in his fifties and helped unleash a new flood of federal money for bikeways. Chapters set in Chicago and Portland show how bicycling has became a political act, with seemingly dozens of subcultures, and how cyclists, with the encouragement of local officials, are seizing streets back from motorists. Pedaling Revolution is essential reading for the approximately one million people who regularly ride their bike to work or on errands, for anyone engaged in transportation, urban planning, sustainability, and public health'and for drivers trying to understand why they're seeing so many cyclists. All will be interested in how urban bike activists are creating the future of how we travel and live in twenty-first-century cities.
First to correctly answer all trivia questions wins this book.
Post a comment with the correct answer to the questions below, and I'll send you my well thumbed-through copy of Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists are Changing American Cities by Jeff Mapes. Mapes gives the political history of modern cycling advocacy and is a valuable read for anybody involved in cycling advocacy and transportation issue.
1. In the context of transportation planning: Who is Roger Geller?
2. Jeff Mapes is senior political reporter for which newspaper in which city?
3. The first Critical Mass (as such) was held in what U.S. city in what year?
4. As of today, what three cities have "platinum" status in the League of American Bicyclists Bicycle Friendly Communities program?
5. "Transportation Alternatives" is the chief pedestrian and bicycle lobby in what city?
Bonus. What was your first bicycle?
1. Roger Geller has been with the Bureau of Transportation since July, 1994. He currently works on Bikeway Network Signing, Technical design for bikeways, Bicycle parking, and an update to the Bicycle Master Plan in Portland, OR.
ReplyDelete2. The Oregonian in Portland
3. San Francisco
4. Portland, Boulder, CO., Davis, CA.
5. New York City
Zen dud should still win, he just forgot a date :)
ReplyDelete1. Roger Geller has been with the Bureau of Transportation since July, 1994. He currently works on Bikeway Network Signing, Technical design for bikeways, Bicycle parking, and an update to the Bicycle Master Plan in Portland, OR.
ReplyDelete2. The Oregonian in Portland
3. San Francisco - 1992!
4. Portland, Boulder, CO., Davis, CA.
5. New York City
Bonus. What was your first bicycle? Schwinn Stingray with a banana seat!
Damn it! I forgot. Well. Some other book, some other time..
ReplyDeleteYep, technically Mountain Racer is indeed the winner. Please contact me and send me a mailing address so I know where to send the book to. Congrats!
ReplyDeleteSorry, ZenDude! Almost!