If you haven’t read Roads Were Not Built For Cars yet, grab it and grab it now. We’ll have a formal review in the future, but suffice to say it’s an incredibly interesting read that is perhaps the most thoroughly researched and footnoted book around. And the “clicky flicky” iPad version, as author Carlton Reid likes to call it, is the way to go if you want interactive images, videos and other bonus content not found in the print editions.
And you should have enough time to finish it before the sequel, Bike Boom, is published.
Like Roads before it, Boom is being funded through Kickstarter, and it’s already surpassed its goal of £6,000. But, the more Reid raises, the better the book will get, and the more copies will be sent to traffic planners, transportation department managers and the like, which may just help all of us see a bigger boom in our own communities.
Curious? Check the video and more below…
From the Kickstarter page:
Bike Boom will aim to dig down into historical sources to find out how the Netherlands built a world-class network of bicycle paths – and much of the rest of the world didn’t. (It will also have interviews with) the bicycle advocates and planners of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s (and today) to hear their stories, and learn from their successes and their mistakes.
It could also generate a great deal of interest in the mainstream, especially as bicycling is now rising up the political agenda, and the next generation of planners are being taught to plan for mass mobility for growing populations not just mobility for motor cars.
As for Roads, Island Press will be publishing a fresh round of printed versions that’ll ship in April (preorder here). And go ahead and back Bike Boom on Kickstarter here.
