Product Details
The Cyclist's Manifesto: The Case for Riding on Two Wheels Instead of Four (Falcon Guide)

The Cyclist's Manifesto: The Case for Riding on Two Wheels Instead of Four (Falcon Guide)
By Robert Hurst

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Product Description

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.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #97833 in Books
  • Published on: 2009-05-05
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 224 pages

Features

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Author Robert Hurst delivers a vigorous forehead slap to America in this feisty manifesto for the age of 'Peak Oil."

Praise for Robert Hurst's The Art of Cycling:
 
"Robert Hurst succeeds in writing about urban cycling the way that Rachel Carson triumphed with Silent Spring, the seminal work whose publication spawned Earth Day, the Environmental Protection Agency, consumer recycling, and how we look at the world."
 
"This empowering cycling book should come in the glove box of every new car sold" -- Marla Streb, World Champion Downhill Mountain Bike Racer
 
"While it's hard to imagine a book about [urban] cycling could fill over 250 pages, let alone strive to be a near masterpiece, that's just what The Art of Urban Cycling: Lessons from the Street, and all-encompassing how-to book by veteran bicycling messenger Robert Hurst, has accomplished."
 
"With a spot-on foreword written by Luna downhiller Marla Streb and a detailed index of footnotes and bibliography, Hurst has compiled a cerebral but hip manifesto for [urban] cyclists looking to coexist in a system that has left them to fend for their lives."  -- VeloNews, Journal of Competitive Cycling
 
"I would like to highly recommend the book "The Art of Urban Cycling: Lessons from the Street" by Robert Hurst. Not only is it delightfully written (with a sense of humour and a relaxed style) and absorbing ("just a second, dear, I'll take out the trash after I read about curbs"), but it's *dead on*. I've been riding my whole life, never having owned a car, to get everywhere from school to grocery shopping to Canada. And he's *right*. Katherine Stange, Providence, RI (Amazon review)

From the Back Cover

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.

About the Author

Robert Hurst, a veteran bicycle messenger who has cycled nearly 200,000 miles and 20,000 hours in heavy traffic, is a student of history and the author of several FalconGuides, including The Bicycle Commuter’s Pocket Guide and The Art of Cycling. 

Customer Reviews

Good history lesson, less good as an argument4
This was a fascinating book, but it wasn't what I expected. The book does a good job of reviewing the history of the bicycle and the automobile, and how decisions in the 20th Century led the U.S. to focus on the car instead of the bike. The history lesson is well-done and any cyclist would enjoy it. As an argument for more cycling infrastructure, though, it gets weighed down by this lengthy look back. It's a very good book--as a cyclist and a historian I couldn't stop reading it--but if you are looking for something to give to a local opinion leader to influence public spending I'd look elsewhere. Despite the cover blurb, it's not the Silent Spring of bicycling. Still, I'd rate it as one of the best books on bicycling I've read.

Change Your World: The Cyclist's Manifesto5
The Cyclist's Manifesto is the second Robert Hurst book I've read, which should tell you that I like what he has to say enough to continue to buy his books. That, combined with the fact that I've been an avid cyclist my entire life will reveal my bias towards bicycles as a mode of transportation. A bias that Mr. Hurst most definitely shares.

In general I'm against continuing to read things that support what you already believe (what's the point?). It tends to lead to narrow-mindedness and intolerance of foreign ideas. But I do recommend reading this book even if you already toe the party line. He has a way of articulating ideas that really resonates and invigorates. I found it inspirational enough that I've re-dedicated myself as a soldier in the revolution. I learned some new things along the way, but in general it performed the role of a great pep talk, which is exactly what I was looking for.

However many copies of this book get sold my bet is that almost to the reader he is preaching to the choir. This is a shame because I think this book has a lot to offer the bicycle-curious. Some of his rants seem to play a little fast and loose with the facts (while staying true in a general sense). Additionally his hard-line stance (even for a cyclist) may be repelling to some, but in the end his message is truly liberating.

The book begins with the history where cars and bicycles converge (if you didn't already know this, these histories are very much intertwined), continues on with the mess that we've created through political and personal cowardice, and ends with a bang that would likely convert even the hardened, gas guzzling SUV pilot.

Admittedly he provides no easy answers. He even claims that someone who doesn't own a car or even take the bus is still beholden to petroleum, like it or not. I'm left with the impression that if everyone went to bicycles tomorrow it would be an improvement, but still wouldn't solve the energy problem.

Anyone reading this book who converts to a bicycle way of life is unlikely to change the world, but will, however, change their own world. Dramatically. And that, comrades, is where this book truly shines.

Very practical advice for the American cyclist5
The author begins the book by telling us about the early days of cycling. We soon learn in many ways not a whole lot has changed in 100 years.

He then does a very good job of defining the various types of bicycle infrastructure including bike lanes, sharrows, bike paths, and plain old streets. He discusses the pros and cons of them and convinced me that a European-style bicycle network not only isn't practical for North America, but really is quite limiting and gave me more confidence to take to the streets on my bicycle. And speaking of confidence he dissects the auto-versus-bicycle crash data and shows it might not be quite as bad as we think out there.

Whether you're an experienced cyclist or someone considering spending less time in a car, this book is a must read.