City Cycling

by John Pucher (Editor), Ralph Buehler (Editor)

A guide to today's urban cycling renaissance, with information on cycling's health benefits, safety, bikes and bike equipment, bike lanes, bike sharing, and other topics. Bicycling in cities is booming, for many health and environmental benefits, time and cost savings, more and better bike lanes and paths, innovative bike sharing programs, and the sheer fun of riding. City Cycling offers a guide to this urban cycling renaissance, with the goal of promoting cycling as sustainable urban transportation available to everyone. It reports on cycling trends and policies in cities in North America, Europe, and Australia, and offers information on such topics as cycling safety, cycling infrastructure provisions including bikeways and bike parking, the wide range of bike designs and bike equipment, integration of cycling with public transportation, and promoting cycling for women and children. City Cycling emphasizes that bicycling should not be limited to those who are highly trained, extremely fit, and daring enough to battle traffic on busy roads. The chapters describe ways to make city cycling feasible, convenient, and safe for commutes to work and school, shopping trips, visits, and other daily transportation needs. The book also offers detailed examinations and illustrations of cycling conditions in different urban small cities (including Davis, California, and Delft, the Netherlands), large cities (including Sydney, Chicago, Toronto and Berlin), and “megacities” (London, New York, Paris, and Tokyo). These chapters offer a closer look at how cities both with and without historical cycling cultures have developed cycling programs over time. The book makes clear that successful promotion of city cycling depends on coordinating infrastructure, programs, and government policies.

Genres: Urban, Nonfiction, Urban Planning, Bicycles, Transport, Urbanism, Cycling

416 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2012

Reviews

[Vanessa Wolf]

I really enjoyed this book as a reference manual for how to increase cycling in the city, how other countries integrate cycling, and as a quick reference for statistics. The authors get bonus points from me for mentioning the book "Momo" by Michael Ende (a childhood favorite of mine).

The title is a bit misleading as the contents are less on how to cycle in the city and rather an introduction into making city cycling better. The authors make a great case for cycling which I'm sure will be quoted by many activists. Still I recommend it in addition to "Joyriding," so future activists have an idea of what kind of fight they are in for when they go to implement these measures.

[Su]

I read this partly for work and partly for background reading for my research class this semester. It's full of great stuff. It's full of research into cycling, and not much about the joys or the how-tos of regular bike riding, so if you're looking for either of those things this probably isn't the book for you. It has good information to take to your local city officials, though, in case they're wondering why all these cyclists are turning up in their city all of a sudden.

[Cyrus Molavi]

This was a thorough, methodical, and straightforward summary of the research that exists for cycling as transportation. It devotes a chapter to all the key issues (safety, infrastructure, health benefits, bikesharing, integrating with transit, etc.) and provides steps forward--with reasoning--for each.

The chapter on cycling infrastructure was especially enlightening, and I'm glad I had it recommended to me.

I will be referencing this book in the future.

[Tess]

many research papers surrounding cycling. informative, but dry. Not a narrative like some other books i read this semester.

[Matt]

A great summation of cycling research up until 2012. So it misses out progress on gravel cycling which might make up a whole chapter. More importantly it misses out on the current e-bike revolution that is transforming cycling commuting.

Still filled with great information, every chapter well referenced with dozens of research articles. This is a good primer to help get up to speed on cycling social science.

[Andrew]

A ton of great stats and content. Overall this feels like a really big research paper. It is a fantastic reference for all of the ways to incorporate cycling into a city and what impact that may have.

[Luis]

This should be standard reading for Urban planners and bike planners. It consolidates and organizes the policies and ideas of bike planning across the urban world. The layout and structure of this book makes it perfect for the classroom and should be used as a core book on a class for bike planning in professional classrooms across the world. A must read for anyone interested in biking in urban areas!

[Salem]

Interesting if you want to set or influence policy. Less so if you just want to ride your bicycle.

[Anita Valenzuela]

Si usted de verdad quiere hacer políticas públicas al uso de la bicicleta como medio de transporte en la ciudad, o le interesa saber cómo lo han hecho en otros países, este libro es un must

[Mioshee]

Boring. Dry. Misleading. Blah.

[T_Wragg]

Thorough and with excellent policy suggestions. Anyone in transport policy should read this. Anyone in the highways teams of government should read this!