A guide to today's urban cycling renaissance, with information on cycling's health benefits, safety, bikes and bike equipment, bike lanes, bike sharing, and other topics. Bicycling in cities is booming, for many reasons: health and environmental benefits, time and cost savings, more and better bike lanes and paths, innovative bike sharing programs, and the sheer fun of riding. City Cycling offers a guide to this urban cycling renaissance, with the goal of promoting cycling as sustainable urban transportation available to everyone. It reports on cycling trends and policies in cities in North America, Europe, and Australia, and offers information on such topics as cycling safety, cycling infrastructure provisions including bikeways and bike parking, the wide range of bike designs and bike equipment, integration of cycling with public transportation, and promoting cycling for women and children. City Cycling emphasizes that bicycling should not be limited to those who are highly trained, extremely fit, and daring enough to battle traffic on busy roads. The chapters describe ways to make city cycling feasible, convenient, and safe for commutes to work and school, shopping trips, visits, and other daily transportation needs. The book also offers detailed examinations and illustrations of cycling conditions in different urban environments: small cities (including Davis, California, and Delft, the Netherlands), large cities (including Sydney, Chicago, Toronto and Berlin), and “megacities” (London, New York, Paris, and Tokyo). These chapters offer a closer look at how cities both with and without historical cycling cultures have developed cycling programs over time. The book makes clear that successful promotion of city cycling depends on coordinating infrastructure, programs, and government policies.

How to make city cycling--the most sustainable form of urban transportation--safe, practical, and convenient for all cyclists. Cycling is the most sustainable mode of urban transportation, practical for most short- and medium-distance trips--commuting to and from work or school, shopping, visiting friends, going to the doctor's office. It's good for your health, spares the environment a trip's worth of auto emissions, and is economical for both public and personal budgets. Cycling, with all its benefits, should not be reserved for the fit, the spandex-clad, and the daring. Cycling for Sustainable Cities shows how to make city cycling safe, practical, and convenient for all cyclists.

“Cities are the future of the human race, and Jeff Speck knows how to make them work.” —David Owen, staff writer at the New Yorker Nearly every US city would like to be more walkable—for reasons of health, wealth, and the environment—yet few are taking the proper steps to get there. The goals are often clear, but the path is seldom easy. Jeff Speck’s follow-up to his bestselling Walkable City is the resource that cities and citizens need to usher in an era of renewed street life. Walkable City Rules is a doer’s guide to making change in cities, and making it now. The 101 rules are practical yet engaging—worded for arguments at the planning commission, illustrated for clarity, and packed with specifications as well as data. For ease of use, the rules are grouped into 19 chapters that cover everything from selling walkability, to getting the parking right, escaping automobilism, making comfortable spaces and interesting places, and doing it now! Walkable City was written to inspire; Walkable City Rules was written to enable. It is the most comprehensive tool available for bringing the latest and most effective city-planning practices to bear in your community. The content and presentation make it a force multiplier for place-makers and change-makers everywhere.

This is an urban and commuting cyclist's handbook, both inspirational and practical, showing us how to live safer, more enjoyable and healthier lives, both physically and mentally, while reducing our impact on the planet. Author of numerous bestselling bike books, Chris Sidwells, begins with a brief introduction which shows how cycling is already forming a crucial part of future urban transport, good for the environment as well as our health. Current urban transport models, heavily dependent as they are on cars, are unsustainable both in terms of our health and the environment. Cycling offers the perfect mass transport, health and wellbeing solution. As well as being an easy way to improve the fitness of the whole family, with some simple know-how, which Chris shares in this book, it can be perfectly safe even in busy cities. Increasingly, local authorities are seeing the essential role that cycling has to play in transport infrastructure; Chris looks at the many different schemes, both financial and infrastructural, to encourage people onto bikes. Commuting by bike also offers a financial benefit to individuals and societies. Chris shows how to get the right bike for you for commuting and urban cycling, whether that's an electric-assisted bike or pedal-powered only, and how to adjust it properly for your unique build. He looks at cycling clothing and accessories, including helmets, masks, locks and safety equipment. Chris explains how to keep cycling safely despite inclement weather and the different ways to transport what you need to and from work. A chapter on bike care and maintenance shows how to carry out basic repair jobs like adjusting gears, mending punctures and adjusting brakes. Chris explains cycling skills to give you confidence when cycling, including bike control, braking and how to make the most of your gears. He shows when and how to use the extra power provided by an electric bike and offers encouragement to new and returning cyclists. An extended chapter covers road safety, perhaps the biggest barrier to people commuting by bike. Chris shows how to co-exist safely with other road users and the potential hazards that every cyclist should be aware of. He explains the rules that every cyclist must follow and gives step-by-step guidance on how to carry out manoeuvres on the road. Chris shows how to choose the best route to and from work. He gives details of the various schemes to encourage commuting by bike, including insurance and where to find information. Cycling is regarded by many as the best way to regain and maintain fitness. As well as improving both physical and mental wellbeing, cycling can boost our immune system. Cycling also gives self-sufficiency and enhances self esteem.

A new way forward for sustainable quality of life in cities of all sizes Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Build American Prosperity is a book of forward-thinking ideas that breaks with modern wisdom to present a new vision of urban development in the United States. Presenting the foundational ideas of the Strong Towns movement he co-founded, Charles Marohn explains why cities of all sizes continue to struggle to meet their basic needs, and reveals the new paradigm that can solve this longstanding problem. Inside, you’ll learn why inducing growth and development has been the conventional response to urban financial struggles—and why it just doesn’t work. New development and high-risk investing don’t generate enough wealth to support itself, and cities continue to struggle. Read this book to find out how cities large and small can focus on bottom-up investments to minimize risk and maximize their ability to strengthen the community financially and improve citizens’ quality of life. Develop in-depth knowledge of the underlying logic behind the “traditional” search for never-ending urban growth Learn practical solutions for ameliorating financial struggles through low-risk investment and a grassroots focus Gain insights and tools that can stop the vicious cycle of budget shortfalls and unexpected downturns Become a part of the Strong Towns revolution by shifting the focus away from top-down growth toward rebuilding American prosperity Strong Towns acknowledges that there is a problem with the American approach to growth and shows community leaders a new way forward. The Strong Towns response is a revolution in how we assemble the places we live.

As Evan Friss shows in his mordant history of urban bicycling in the late nineteenth century, the bicycle has long told us much about cities and their residents. In a time when American cities were chaotic, polluted, and socially and culturally impenetrable, the bicycle inspired a vision of an improved city in which pollution was negligible, transport was noiseless and rapid, leisure spaces were democratic, and the divisions between city and country blurred. Friss focuses not on the technology of the bicycle but on the urbanisms that bicycling engendered. Bicycles altered the look and feel of cities and their streets, enhanced mobility, fueled leisure and recreation, promoted good health, and shrank urban spaces as part of a larger transformation that altered the city and the lives of its inhabitants, even as the bicycle's own popularity fell, not to rise again for a century. --Publisher's description.

NACTO's Urban Bikeway Design Guide quickly emerged as the preeminent resource for designing safe, protected bikeways in cities across the United States. It has been completely re-designed with an even more accessible layout. The Guide offers updated graphic profiles for all of its bicycle facilities, a subsection on bicycle boulevard planning and design, and a survey of materials used for green color in bikeways. The Guide continues to build upon the fast-changing state of the practice at the local level. It responds to and accelerates innovative street design and practice around the nation.