Book release party for "On Bicycles: 50 Ways the New Bike Culture Can Change Your Life"

Local authors Greg Borzo and John Greenfield celebrate the release of On Bicycles: 50 Ways the New Bike Culture Can Change Your Life at a meet-up for Active Transportation Alliance members and the public.

Greg Borzo and John Greenfield, will read their chapters from this new anthology by Amy Walker, cofounder of Momentum, a magazine which chronicles and inspires urban transportation cycling. On Bicycles (New World Library, 2011) features many of North America’s leading authorities on bike culture, exploring the ways that biking can change, and is changing, people’s lives.

After the reading Borzo and Greenfield will sign copies of On Bicycles while Active Trans members and other attendees mingle and enjoy live soul-jazz piano by Seth Hitsky, plus a raffle for copies of the authors’ other books and other great bike-related prizes.

“Amy Walker has that canny ability to thread the needle of safety, practicality, and looking mightily good on a bike. This book gives you some bright and clever new tools to experience the exceptional convenience a bike can bring, not to mention that big healthy smile we get riding!”
— Mountain biking legend Gary Fisher

On Bicycles topics include:
* cargo bikes * bike parties * a history of bike advocacy * the bike-craft boom * folding bikes * recumbents * biking with kids * handmade bikes * car-free streets * relocalizing * bike style * collective bike shops * women and bikes * and many more

Borzo’s chapter, “Thanks for (Bike) Sharing,” examines the history and expansion of automated public bike rental systems in cities worldwide. This info is especially relevant to Chicagoans since the city plans to launch a bike share system with 3,000 vehicles by next summer, a move that could make this a much more bike-friendly town almost overnight.

Greenfield’s chapter, “Earn-A-Bike Programs: Lessons from Chicago’s West Town Bikes” looks at the growth of bicycle education programs that teach mechanics, bike safety and life skills to underserved youth. Focusing on Humboldt Park’s West Town Bikes, Greenfield talked to four young alumni to find out how their involvement with bikes has influenced their life choices.