Architecture critic Jane Holtz Kay of Boston sold her car
six years ago when she began writing the book "Asphalt Nation: How
the Automobile Took Over America and How We Can Take It Back."
She figured it would be hypocritical to keep driving while
she blasted the car culture for all the ills it has wrought: perpetual
gridlock, air pollution, suburban sprawl, the erosion of neighborhoods
by highways, the isolation of the elderly and infirm, the insurmountable
distances between poor people and jobs, and the annihilation of the landscape
for what she calls "the architecture of the exit ramp" -- public and private
spaces designed to accommodate cars, not people.
Kay calculates she saves about $6,500 a year, or $20 a
day, by not paying for gas, parking, insurance and all the other costs
of a car, and she doesn't miss the aggravation of being a road warrior.
She gets around by foot and mass transit -- subway, train, bus -- and the
occasional taxi.
Kay is all for bicycling but finds it "risky around here,"
she said last week in Boston, over the sounds of the Big Dig grinding along
beneath her window. "Asphalt Nation," published in April, goes a
long way toward explaining how our highways and secondary roads and even
side streets have become so unfriendly for biking.
The history gets particularly interesting when Kay looks
beyond "the romance of the road" and lays bare the political and
economic decisions that shaped the growth of highways, malls and garages
and the evolution of errand-running, kid-ferrying "soccer moms."
"When you take an objective look at how we transport ourselves
in this country, it just makes sense to have a bicycle," Kay said.
"Half our trips are under five miles ... Why don't we bike, then?
It's not because we're 'car potatoes,' but because the trips are dangerous
and unpleasant."
A big part of the solution, Kay said, is the new style
of road design called traffic calming. The idea is to slow down cars
and ease the way for pedestrians -- both goals that also can make cycling
more attractive.
"Asphalt Nation" suggests methods that have worked in
one Toronto neighborhood where parents wanted their kids to be able to
walk safely to school: "Grass over a small section of road, plant
a tree. Create a bend in the road to slow down speed by cutting off
the driver's sight line. Swell the sidewalk out at the corners.
Set a median in the middle. Throttle movement at the entry where
cars and people intersect. Surface the street with bumpy pavement
... Raise the road, and you have a speed table, or speed level; a less
jarring intrusion than the speed bump, it is an encumbrance but not a threat
to motorists."
"I have found the bicycle activists the most passionate,
militant and thoughful advocates," Kay said, of what she calls in the book
"making the landscape fit for human mobility."
But because she has high hopes for the resurgence of rail travel,
she has "a lot of reservations" about one solution many bicyclists have
embraced: converting rails to trails. "I think the trails are
great; sometimes, clearly, the trails preserve the open space," she said.
However, "I'd like to see the energy go into the rails."
~~~
Also on the recommended reading list for bicycle buffs
is "No Hands: The Rise and Fall of the Schwinn Bicycle Company, an American
Institution" by Judith Crown and Glenn Coleman. Published last fall,
this book by journalists from Crain's Chicago Business is a business case
study, a family history and a chronicle of the evolution of bicycles.
Schwinn shaped and dominated consumer tastes in bicycles
for generations, but ultimately descended into bankruptcy and takeover
by an outsider. The chapter "Just Being a Kid," which relates the
1970s adventures of mountain bike pioneers Gary Fisher, Joe Breeze, Charlie
Kelly and Tom Ritchey in the hills of northern California, is a roaring
ride down the rocky slope that played a big part in Schwinn's undoing.
Schwinn came late to the mountain biking craze, the most important bike
trend of the 1980s, and proved unable to meet the challenge.
~~~
TIP OF THE HELMET -- To Sean Cahill from Uxbridge,
who's leading the expert men's 19-34 division in the Nike ACG New England
Mountain Bike Championship Series. Cahill, 24, is working this summer
for his race sponsor, Don's Cycle in Fairfield, Conn., while finishing
college. He hasn't won a race in the Nike series but has the most
points, from consistent third-, fourth- and fifth-place finishes in May
and June at Pedrostock, Jack Rabbit Run, Wrath of SunValley, The Arcadian
and the Northfield Power Circuit.
The series continues Aug. 9 at Killington, Vt., and the final
race is Sept. 6 at Nashoba Valley Ski Area in Westford. Michael Broderick
of Chilmark, winner of the Wrath of Sun Valley race, is seven points behind
Cahill overall.
Cahill, who ran cross-country at Fairfield University
and was a T&G All-Star runner at St. John's High School in Shrewsbury,
is in his third year of mountain bike racing and moved up from the sport
category to expert last year. He also won the Down Under race at
Yawgoo Valley Ski Area in Rhode Island in this year's Trail 66 mountain
bike series and is leading the Jamis Connecticut Point Series.
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