The Cyclist's Manifesto

The Cyclist’s Manifesto makes the most powerful case to date for a simple fact: America can no longer afford to ignore the bicycle as a tool for serious transportation. Why we’re entering a different phase in the history of energy, why we can’t afford to ignore it—and why the bicycle provides a uniquely empowering way of dealing with it The Cyclist’s Manifesto makes the most powerful case to date for a simple fact: America can no longer afford to ignore the bicycle as a tool for serious transportation. Robert Hurst takes off his gloves to lay out the case in favor of the bicycle as today’s superior mode of transport—and to voice a resounding call to action for people to use it. Hurst visits a surprising variety of places and historical moments in search of an explanation for America’s dysfunctional love-hate relationship with the most efficient vehicle ever invented. He argues that the American aversion to bicycling for transportation is a unique historical-cultural absurdity based largely on false assumptions and bad information. Written with wit and more than a little exasperation, The Cyclist’s Manifesto paints a tantalizing picture of the potential benefits of an increasingly self-propelled America, and beckons the frustrated driver, transit user, or pedestrian into the streets for a healthier, happier life on two wheels. The basic thesis of the manifesto is as follows: The American aversion to bicycling for transportation is a unique historical-cultural absurdity that is based largely on false assumptions and bad information. As the nation's acute energy predicament intensifies, the most simple and elegant remedy available is the one that almost never gets mentioned. The avoidance of the bicycle in recent public discourse has been conspicuous, ridiculous, and…