This book offers an interesting and new (to US residents) look at bicycle infrastructure. The author suggest a build it and they will come philosophy to bicycle infrastructure. I whole-heartedly agree with this and 90% of what he offers in the book. My one major complaint is his stance on bikes. I feel they have a place and get more people on bikes. Anything that does that is a plus in my book.
The US has different challenges that the rest of the world, getting butts in saddles is one of the things we need to change. While the COVID-19 pandemic definitely sold bikes, it did not increase the amount of people doing everyday activities, like running errands and grocery shopping on bicycles. At least not from what I see daily. Commuting is also down, so commuting via bicycle at least for those already working from home didn’t change.
What we may have increased with the pandemic is recreational riders and not those who ride because it is the easiest way to get around which is what Mikal talks about in his book. For this to change in the US it means that we need to drastically change our infrastructure. Mikal talks about a lot of different ways to do this. If you want to see what needs to change in the US and places like it to make them more bicycle friendly, then this is a great book.
I loved this book and it only loses a star because of his stance on ebikes.
