Had the opportunity to attend Jeff Mapes free lecture that was very well attended at our Downtown Library last Thursday night. Jeff's message was encouraging, but not entirely sugar coated positive spin, with regards to the rate of progress being made in providing Americans with a viable option to driving their car everywhere for every purpose. His premise was that ideally people would be free to choose the right tool for the right transportation job, not be forced into using an automobile exclusively. Quite often for Jeff and more and more Americans (urban dwellers especially) this freedom to choose more and more means using a bicycle for local trips instead of a car or SUV. Jeff traveled the world to observe and report on the topic and he commented that a relatively modest investment in bicycle related infrastructure can pay huge dividends to community's quality of life by reducing traffic and polution while improving the health of citizens.
I did pick up a copy of his book and am part way into it, so far it's been a very worthwhile read. I'll follow up with another post once I've gotten through the rest of his text.
