With so much to learn just by reading a Wall Street Journal book review of "Bike Battles: A History of Sharing the American Road" by James Longhurst, history professor at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, imagine what's to learn by reading the book.
"'Park' became a verb in the early 1900s when there were small greenways—parks—alongside roads, and motorists left their cars there while they shopped or walked, writes reviewer Grant Petersen, a bicycling author himself and bike mail order store owner in Walnut Creek, Calif.
Bike Battles: A History of Sharing the American Road by James Longhurst, Publication Date: April 15, 2015.
Petersen reveals that the pre-auto days of bicycling were rampant with classism and racism.
Bikes were so expensive that only the rich rode—a virtue in the eyes of many, because it allowed showing off and kept out the riff raff. The League of American Wheelmen (now the League of American Bicyclists) wanted bikes to remain high-brow and, in 1894, banned black members...It was a bad start for cycling, and could explain why recreational bike riding among adults in the U.S. is still a mostly white affair.
What's incredible is how quickly the auto changed the American urbanscape. "In the first two decades of the 20th century, roads that had until then been shared by pedestrians, street vendors, cyclists and horse carriages were turned over to cars, making them dangerous for everybody else," writes Petersen. When World War II ended, "our unbridled, auto-obsessed country went nuts designing urban environments and roadways around cars."
However, the best part of the review is Petersen's description of the demographic aspects of bicycling—from a generational perspective—particularly applicable to baby boomers like myself. "After the war, only children rode bikes, so bikes became a symbol of childhood."
No wonder bike riders in the ’50s and ’60s turned to cars as soon as they were of driving age and didn’t look back. Car-favoring laws and road designs have had staying power, and 50 years of car domination have given us generations of motorists who have never known anything else and understandably consider the road their birthright.
That brings up the question of how other generations, such as millennials who are perhaps more comfortable on a bike or bus seat than they are behind the steering wheel of a vehicle they own, will shape roads and the urban landscape.
It was gratifying to find that Longhurst applies his knowledge of bicycling to making the University of Wisconsin campus more bike-friendly. Ditto for the city of La Crosse.
FULL STORY: Grant Petersen on the history of the American bike
Oregon Passes Exemption to Urban Growth Boundary
Cities have a one-time chance to acquire new land for development in a bid to increase housing supply and affordability.
Where Urban Design Is Headed in 2024
A forecast of likely trends in urban design and architecture.
Savannah: A City of Planning Contrasts
From a human-scales, plaza-anchored grid to suburban sprawl, the oldest planned city in the United States has seen wildly different development patterns.
Washington Tribes Receive Resilience Funding
The 28 grants support projects including relocation efforts as coastal communities face the growing impacts of climate change.
Adaptive Reuse Bills Introduced in California Assembly
The legislation would expand eligibility for economic incentives and let cities loosen regulations to allow for more building conversions.
LA's Top Parks, Ranked
TimeOut just released its list of the top 26 parks in the L.A. area, which is home to some of the best green spaces around.
City of Rochester
Boston Harbor Now
City of Bellevue
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of Birmingham, Alabama
City of Laramie, Wyoming
Colorado Department of Local Affairs
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.