What I read on winter vacation (Comments: 8)

So, I was driving along listening to holiday music on WARM 101.3, and on comes John Tesh. (Okay, that’s a sentence you won’t often hear from me.) Anyway, he does these little segments on the radio called “Music and Intelligence for Your Life.” Maybe you all knew about this? Me, if it’s not on NPR or in the Utne Reader, I pretty much don’t know about it. (Well, just so you don’t think I’m a total stereotypical liberal The Socialist Worker makes its way into our household occasionally as well.)

To my surprise, he gave a plug for a book called How to Live Well without Owning a Car by Chris Balish. If you’re reading RocBike, you probably don’t need this book. But if you’re looking to give a nudge to someone in your life who’s looking to make some changes, this is a good book. Recognizing that not everyone is able and/or ready to go completely car-free, he also gives good tips and examples of going “car-lite.”

There are also some interesting factoids, to wit:

–40% of car trips are two miles or less.

–80% are within eight miles of home.

–49% of Americans live within one mile of a transit stop.

–Every time a cyclist makes a four-mile round trip commute by bike rather than car, she prevents 15 pounds of toxic tailpipe emissions from entering the air.

Good talking points for more sane commuting options.

I also read The Art of Urban Cycling: Lessons from the Street, which is linked over there in the sidebar. Our local library only has one copy in all of its branches, and it took me 2 months to get it. Right now 4 people have it on hold.

It was well worth the wait. A former bike messenger, the author contrasts the vehicular-cycling principle (bike as though you’re operating a motor vehicle) with the invisible cyclist principle (assume that no one sees you but acknowledge that you are vulnerable). The first advice I got on commuting was “bike like a vehicle.” But that never sat quite right with me. Most of the time I bike like a vehicle, but there are times when there’s no way I’m gonna share the road with hundreds of people in SUV’s who just got off work and have one thing on their mind…get on 490 and get the hell home. This book made me feel more confident in my urban cycling “style,” and also presented a lot of situations I hadn’t considered that I should be prepared to deal with.

One caveat–this book is not for the new, faint-of-heart cyclist. Had I read it right after my daughter’s accident, I may never have gotten back on a bike. There’s a whole section on injuries, which basically says…you’re gonna get hurt, get ready for it. While that may be a badge of honor to some, I prefer to stay as much in one piece as possible.

He skillfully weaves in cycling history, research about cities and what makes communities work (and how bikes contribute to that), and effective cycling strategies, with a realistic attitude (don’t expect car drivers to change,the modern city isn’t going anywhere fast, deal with it and take responsibility for keeping yourself as safe as possible).

These quotes encapsulate his philosophy: “Bicycling is better. Life is too precious to spend it in a car,” and his last admonition to readers, “Be considerate to other road users, especially the noncyclists, poor fellows. Ride with fear and joy.”

All in all, you should read it…me, I’m going to pay the out-of-print price to have my very own copy.

p.s. What’s up with bicycle tag? Was my picture too blurry? Have you all given up? Has the cold gotten to you? Have I really stumped you?

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