One Less Car: Bicycling and the Politics of Automobility (Sporting)

As a committed cycling advocate, I devour pretty much anything that covers the hobby. So I picked this book up hoping for an evenhanded treatment of all things to do with bicycling politics and culture.Author Zack Furness first takes us on an historical tour which tends to get bogged down quite a bit when he often takes us, tangentially, into French situationist politics and Debordian Marxism. While it's not dreadfully hard-going, it's not exactly page-turning stuff either. The problem is, the author seems very taken by the movements of the 1960s and when he tries to bridge the gap to make it relevant to cycling, it just seems a bit forced. Also, the more the book turns to politics, the more the author's own politics gets in the way. I don't mind an author having a point of view, but when it clouds the issues, that's a problem.And this is the biggest problem I have with the book: when the author comes to deal with the cycling politics of the 1970s and later, he loses it big time. He pretty much gives 'Critical Mass' a free ride (no pun intended), painting them as free-spirit progressive anarchists and blithely ignoring the criticisms that many have regarding their activities. This same radically uncritical attitude is applied to bike paths - the author has his pro-bike path script and he's sticking to it with the fervour of a committed ideologue. But when it comes to Vehicular Cycling, he goes into full-fledged foaming-at-the-mouth attack dog mode. Now Vehicular Cycling (or VC) has its detractors, but in the end it is simply a method of operating a bicycle that is intended to keep cyclists both safe and legal. While some of its advocates have a slash and burn strategy in terms of how they interact with others (they are not the most easygoing bunch), I see no reason to get this riled up about it. Mr. Furness basically equates VC's advocates with the Ku Klux Klan, at one point calling VC 'racist' with little more argument than the fact that the League of American Wheelmen was once (a long long time before VC was ever adopted by the organization) a racist organization. He goes on to paint VC as a philosophy of middle-aged white elitist men. This is totally uncalled for and I basically stopped crediting the author as having anything serious to say at this point. Mr. Furness's apparent rage towards certain cyclist advocates prevents him from giving us any sort of evenhanded assessment of cycling politics during the last 40 years, which is a shame, since that is what the book is trying to be about.While the book is not a complete loss (chapter 2 is not bad), I found the book mildly tedious, extremely doctrinaire, uneven and deeply politically biased. I urge prospective readers to avoid this one.

The most well researched, referenced, and presented work on the politics of cycling in the United States. An inspirational read for anyone hoping to make a difference by riding a bike.

A quick-read, whereas cycling advocates need more serious works like John Pucher's "City Cycling".6 more words required for this review, What would Basho have said if told he needed more than 17 sylables in his poem about the old pond and the frog?Furuike yaKawazu tobi komuMizu no oto.

In the Acknowledgements, the author explains how this book came to be; as an outgrowth of his doctoral dissertation, I would guess in contemporary culture, media, or some similar modern area of study. No one would have much doubt after slogging through the introduction, with it's post-modernist, deconstructionist attempt to show that everything is connected to everything else, and the author wants you to know he sees that.However, once you get past the introduction, this book settles down to an exhaustive and thought-provoking exposition of the bicycle in our car culture. It is well documented, thorough and insightful as the author examines the many cultural idiosyncrasies that make up the original and contemporary history of the bicycle. It is testimony to the power of the most energy-efficient mode of transportation on the planet that it has stimulated such varied, and often bizarre, idolatry across the spectrum of class and culture.However, therein lies the problem I have that keeps me from endorsing this book unreservedly. The focus seems to be on the quirky, subcultural radical fringe - critical mass, the provo in the netherlands, the stunningly perceptive but finally overwrought and dismissive critique of vehicular cycling (note: I'm a vehicular cycling instructor), the absolutely bizarre messenger bike/ fixie culture. I don't mind the anti-capitalist, subversive tone - we can use more of that in current critical thought - but if you want to convince Americans to abandon their cars for bicycles, you might do well to talk about what utilitiarian cycling really looks like in the places where it's practiced, such as Amsterdam and Copenhagen and, increasingly, Portland and Boulder. Compared to careening fixie riders and artisans creating impractical bicycles as contemporary artifacts, cargo bikes and people riding at 8 miles per hour while obeying traffic laws is pretty mundane stuff. However, where bikes are really used in preference to cars, that's what it looks like.This is a great book with the most comprehensive notes and references I've ever seen in any bicycle book other than the engineering texts. Something in it will make you mad, and that won't be the only worthwhile part of reading it.

Endlich ein politisches Buch zum Fahrradfahren, das sich nicht nur mit technischen Gegebenheiten oder Straßendesign befasst. Lesenswert, aber gutes Englisch erforderlich.