Street-Level Thriller

"Travis Hugh Culley doesn't look like an urban theorist or the author of a dense memoir about the uses of space, the intricacies of transportation, and the way we'll live in the future." His novel "The Immortal Class: Bike Messengers and the Cult of Human Power" is a thriller set in the streets and alleys of Chicago and draws on his own experience as a bike messenger. "He praises the public transportation in cities such as Amsterdam...He admires the models of urban planning that require new developments in Copenhagen, Denmark, to be within five kilometers of a train station, to combat the suburban sprawl he sees marring much of America...The Library Journal praised it as 'more than a mere joy ride . . . a window into the bizarre and cult-like world of the bike courier and, more significantly, a passionate plea for more sensible city planning.'"