This is short notice, but avid bicyclists and bike enthusiasts might be interested in a presentation tonight by UW La Crosse professor and historian James Longhurst, who will be talking about his book Bike Battles: A History of Sharing the American Road. He will be at Ben’s Cycle and Fitness, 1018 W. Lincoln Ave., Milwaukee, at 6:30 p.m.
Here’s an announcement from Boswell Book Company, which is co-sponsoring the event:
Bike Battles James Longhurst at Ben’s Cycle and Fitness, Wednesday, September 2, 6:30 pm.
Boswell is excited to co-sponsor an event at Ben’s Cycle and Fitness, located at 1018 W. Lincoln Ave. in Milwaukee, with associate professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse James Longhurst, author of Bike Battles: A History of Sharing the American Road. Bike Battles has been called a must-read for those interested in public policy and cycling, already lauded as “a significant contribution to the growing literature on the history of American bicycling and the immense, well-established literature on urban policymaking” by Car Country’s Christopher Wells.
Americans have been riding bikes for more than a century now, so why are most American cities still so ill-prepared to handle cyclists? Longhurst tackles that question by tracing the contentious debates between American bike riders, motorists, and pedestrians over the shared road.Bike Battles explores the different ways that Americans have thought about the bicycle through popular songs, merit badge pamphlets, advertising, films, newspapers and sitcoms. Those associations have shaped the actions of government and the courts when they intervened in bike policy through lawsuits, traffic control, road building, taxation, rationing, import tariffs, safety education and bike lanes from the 1870s to the 1970s.