Bike Battles

A History of Sharing the American Road

 James Longhurst

   “A measure of any book is whether it makes you think beyond its pages, and  Bike Battles did just that for me. My dad used to tell me that if I got only one thing out of a book—an interesting fact, a point of view I hadn’t previously considered, something helpful to my life or just entertainment—the book was worth its cover price. By that standard  Bike Battles is a bargain. It allowed me to see the last 150 years of riding in America like a mosaic on the wall. I won’t look at parked cars the same way again. The book ought to give today’s bicycle advocates a sense of their place in history and make them proud to continue the battle.” Wall Street Journal

   Americans have been riding bikes for more than a century now. So why are most American cities still so ill-prepared to handle cyclists? James Longhurst, a historian and avid cyclist, tackles that question by tracing the contentious debates between American bike riders, motorists, and pedestrians over the shared road.  Bike Battles explores the different ways that Americans have thought about the bicycle through popular songs, merit badge pamphlets, advertising, films, newspapers and sitcoms. Those associations shaped the actions of government and the courts when they intervened in bike policy through lawsuits, traffic control, road building, taxation, rationing, import tariffs, safety education and bike lanes from the 1870s to the 1970s.

   Today, cycling in American urban centers remains a challenge as city planners, political pundits, and residents continue to argue over bike lanes, bike-share programs, law enforcement, sustainability, and public safety. Combining fascinating new research from a wide range of sources with a true passion for the topic, Longhurst shows us that these battles are nothing new; in fact they’re simply a continuation of the original battle over who is - and isn’t - welcome on our roads.

University of Washington Press

March 2015 306pp 32 b & w photos 9780295994680 Hardback £24.99 now only £19.99* when you quote CSL1115TRA when you order

http://www.combinedacademic.co.uk/Book/51486/Bike-Battles