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Page added on September 14, 2013
Bikenomics: How Bicycling Can Save the Economy
My book, Bikenomics: How Bicycling Can Save the Economy, comes out in December, and I’m already getting pushback about the title. It makes a bold claim, alright—our economy is in a bad way. I didn’t believe it myself when I first started writing about this topic, but the facts–and my experience—have me convinced.
What’s more, I’m ready to double down. After researching this book, I think the claims should be bolder—bicycling can save our health, our communities, our kids, our cities, suburbs, and towns, our food supply, and our lives. (There’s a reason authors aren’t allowed to design our own book covers; given the chance I would have filled mine with bold text to this effect.)
Of course, “save” is a tricky word. What we have now—whether we’re talking about our whole global economy or our individual transportation habits—can’t be sustained. Life as we know it is changing quickly and irrevocably, landscapes and lives literally shifting in floods and storms. When a creative project goes wrong or gets bogged down, you often need to completely transform it in order to save it—or at least the way you think about it. We’ve all read a lot of books that are unsatisfying or bad because the author got caught in a rut going in the wrong direction and just kept plodding along. Whenever I got stuck writing this book, I had to go back to the outline, to see if I could reinvent the shape of the book to better get at the ideas I needed to convey. I did this again and again. Each time it was terrifying, but each time it saved this book from taking readers somewhere hopeless or confusing.
It helps that the book is largely about people who are able to think outside the ruts our society and our daily lives are in, to envision a better big picture and show the rest of us the way to get there. At the risk of mixing up too many semi-metaphors, bicycles are one of the best vehicles for this sort of creative social change—they move us through our lives and landscapes, quickly but still at a human speed, where we can look around and recognize ourselves and each other. We’ve already entered an era of catastrophic change, but we can move towards it on our own terms, at our own speed, and while building something meaningful.
I wrote Bikenomics not so much because I love and believe in bicycles (though I do) but because I love and believe in the power of people to change our lives and world. Bicycles deliver all that light bulbs, recycling, reusable grocery bags and electric cars promise: They give us the power to transform our individual lives and make real, satisfying, measurable changes in our communities without waiting for anyone or anything else to show us the way.
27 Comments on "Bikenomics: How Bicycling Can Save the Economy"
Wm Scott Anderson on Sat, 14th Sep 2013 11:57 am
test post
Wm Scott Anderson on Sat, 14th Sep 2013 12:21 pm
How about my new book “Walkingnomics” about how walking can save the planet by eliminating the need for all those polluting bike factories that the book “Bikenomics” created a demand for. 😉
If you are self-publishing, I suggest that you self publish through Amazon’s Createspace. It is basically free and you get to design your own cover. I also recommend that you publish on Amazon’s Kindle (also free). I did over two thousand copies on Kindle with my last book, and did only about 4 copies in soft cover. People are not buying as many physical books as they used to, the action is in the electronic book market. You can upload your book in minutes and be published in less than 24 hours at the Kindle site.
My other word of advice, is to have someone proof read your book. Put your book on Createspace and order a few proof copies and have a few friends read them with a red pen and have them highlight all the mistakes. I made the mistake of not doing this myself, I begged a few friends to proof read my book, and they all begged off. I did the best I could, and thought I had it pretty good, and got really slammed in the reviews. So I got a ton of negative reviews for this reason, now if I had done a better job of proof reading, my book probably would have gotten better reviews and sold much better. I have over the last six months gotten my wife to proof read most of the book and I have been learning to be a better proof reader myself and have updated my book file, but having missed doing it right the first time, I probably missed my once chance at getting some big sales. So don’t blow like I did with poor proof reading, make sure you get your book right before you publish.
Beery on Sat, 14th Sep 2013 12:41 pm
Elly Blue has the reputation, in the bike advocacy realm, of being more than willing to put her unresearched musings into print and up for sale. Not that I doubt that she might have a valid point, but when I read a book about how cycling is going to save the world, I’d like to see more of an argument than “Yes it is, really, because it’s great… and awesome!”
rollin on Sat, 14th Sep 2013 2:25 pm
If the laws were changed, various lightly powered bicycle, tricycle and quad types of low weight could be used as personal transport at 1/10 the fuel use. But now the laws just keep BAU going so the big fat cats can keep getting fatter by plunging the world down the toilet. Of course that might slow down the 2 ton gas hogs , we wouldn’t want to do that. Of course they sit in traffic jams now, so maybe it wouldn’t really slow them down much.
There is a whole world of design and use being completely ignored, while we run at the mpg of a model T.
BillT on Sat, 14th Sep 2013 2:51 pm
Ever try riding a bike in ice and snow?
How about 90F+ temps in the sun?
Heavy rain?
Really hilly or mountainous places?
Bikes are great for local and occasional use, but to peddle 10+ miles each way to work? Get groceries?
Bikes are not the answer except for a very few in the right climate and areas. But, if we don’t move town centers into suburban neighborhoods, there is not a future to bike in anyway. If there is no fuel for cars, odds are, cities will not exist as livable systems.
GregT on Sat, 14th Sep 2013 3:10 pm
“If there is no fuel for cars, odds are, cities will not exist as livable systems.”
And odds are, there will be no bicycle factories.
bobinget on Sat, 14th Sep 2013 5:18 pm
Fifty tears ago I went searching for a “Hetchens”
bicycle ‘factory’ in London.
Coming from a small community in Florida on my first trip to Europe, I shlepped my own bike in a bag on the plane with the intention of seeing the UK or at least Southern England. As it happens, the IRA were leaving explosive packages in public which for some reason made me look suspicious peddling about all the major tourist attractions. Usually, showing my USPP and explaining that I rode a bike for fun got me off with a warning. It was then I noticed, working class men in factory towns in England never rode for amusement.
Early in the morning, there they were. heads down,
ruefully peddling away, heavy black bikes with lunch boxes strapped to a rear pannier. At first, as was my custom I waved.
bobinget on Sat, 14th Sep 2013 5:36 pm
(continued)
Quickly, I learned, these dark-overalled workers were riding bikes because they would never be able to afford an automobile. Immediately, I understood why
British Bobbies were harassing me. Who goes out in a November rain riding a bike with no fenders wearing a small back-pack standing up to see over the wall around Buckingham Palace?
My intention was to order ‘from the factory’ a custom made bike. It took me hours but with the aid of
ABC London I found Himself, Mr Hetchens in his ‘factory’. Any American two car garage at the time would have been bigger. After the measuring and him calling me squire for hours, I pushed off in the dark
and rain for Paddington. At 77 I still ride that bike.
J-Gav on Sat, 14th Sep 2013 6:56 pm
Well shizzle my nizzle! Bikes saving the world … or walking, or crawling or some other form of locomotion … or how about just staying home?
Not that I have a bone to pick with any of the above modes of forward movement, it’s just that: 1- The world doesn’t need to be saved, it’s our sorry human asses that do (some would contest even that). 2 – However well-intentioned, over-focused attention given to some detail of future ‘transitional’ adaptation is close to meaningless when it isn’t embedded in some real, living place/tribe/community …
SteveK on Sat, 14th Sep 2013 9:01 pm
Pretty cool, and not that expensive…
http://www.gizmag.com/estrima-biro-removable-battery-electric-car/29055/
kervennic on Sat, 14th Sep 2013 10:56 pm
@BillT
Bike are not the answer but at least are a better answer than what you imply.
I bike a lot. With some Ortlieb packs, I use my bike for everything in every weather. I use my bike to go fishing 20 Km from home, carrying heavy soaked wadders. I use y bike to pick up mushroom, fruits, used them to carry poultry and rabbits over more then 10 km in moutain terrains (massif central), carried 20 kg of wheat on the same distance.
I rely entirely on bike 3 month in winter time and live 5 km from the nearest shop and usually shop heavy loads of food 15 km from there, in extremely rugged terrain. Last year I made it through the winter, with minus ten in the morning, ice and snow. Cars could not start some days. I could shop.
And I am not an exception. People travel from germany or the netherlands to Moscow or Kazakstan. I met some. And form Germany to central sweden. Biking over europe is hugely popular in Germany.
If everything collapse, we will have ultimately to rely once again on hourses and wooden boats. But bikes might stay around way longer than one would suspect. It is a very clever technique and hugely adaptable. It requires skill to fix but not hugely complex material.
Apart from some special parts like the chain, most part can be replaced by crude material like forged iron, wood, bambu (people use nowaday toxic epoxy for bambu bikes, because it is cheap, but I am sure that they can be adjusted via hot iron tubes v tube like when aking wooden barrels), may be bones, home moulded aluminum (though quite polluting). It is far less demanding in term of industrial facilities than cars and much more durable.
So it is definitely a solution to a have a swifter transition.
GregT on Sun, 15th Sep 2013 3:11 am
Kervennic,
Most people now in North America, are so out of shape, that they probably couldn’t ride a bike if they tried, and I doubt that most bicycle tires would even support their weight.
BillT on Sun, 15th Sep 2013 3:37 am
Kerv. I’m 69. How long do you think I would last riding a bike? And I am in very good shape for being an American. BMI of 24 and no health problems. I walk for my exercise and shopping. Bikes will not last any longer than the factories to make them last. Not long after oil is gone.
Arthur on Sun, 15th Sep 2013 3:42 am
Holland has 17 million people and 19 million bikes. Holland and Denmark are the classical bike countries because they both are 95% flat and densily populated (Holland in particular), meaning that you don’t have to go very far to reach a destination. Bikes per capita:
Nederland 1,1
Denemarken 0,8
Duitsland 0,8
Noorwegen 0,7
Zweden 0,7
Japan 0,6
Zwitserland 0,5
België 0,5
Italië 0,5
Verenigde Staten 0,5
Canada 0,4
Oostenrijk 0,4
Groot Brittannië 0,4
China 0,4
Frankrijk 0,3
Spanje 0,2
In Holland the PM and CEOs of multinationals go to work on a bike. Since a couple of years e-bikes are all the rage, 1500$ price, come with battery and smal electro-motor for additional power. Very popular with older people.
DC on Sun, 15th Sep 2013 4:40 am
Wow, a lot of you guys are so sure that anything made of metal will be impossible to fabricate it boggles the mind. Pessimistic even by my standards.
Well, Im pretty sure that unless the amerikans unless there beloved x-tian apocalypse\rapture on the world(in atomic form that is), I think its a pretty safe bet to say were going to be able to keep making bikes in some capacity or other for some time to come. Especially if materials and power currently squandered making shty GM trash cans is diverted to bikes.
Now Im all for a sensible discussion about the future extensibility of the I-Crap world in a PO situation, but I think its really a stretch to say low-tech simple artifacts like bikes will disappear along with SUVs, plastic salad shooters, double decker jet-liners and caribbean cruises.
When you guys start contending bikes ~ to fool-cell vehicles or SUVs or the internet backbone, you all start to worry me a little….
My mountain bike is near 20 years old what it take for it last 20-40 more? A couple sets of tires, some cabling, maybe not even 10-20 pounds of stored material that wouldn’t take up more than a cubic meter or two and some simple hand tools. What would it take to keep a gas-burner or a plane or even an I-junk running 20-40 years after parts and fuel run out or became items prioritized for the gov’t or uber powerful only?
If think bikes will constitute high-tech transport down the road that we wont be able to sustain, then the production of bikes will the least of your worries since youll likely consider bark soup to be a good meal.
Even I dont quite think things will come to that.
Beery on Sun, 15th Sep 2013 4:44 am
Bill T wrote:
“Ever try riding a bike in ice and snow?
How about 90F+ temps in the sun?
Heavy rain?
Really hilly or mountainous places?”
Yes, all of the above. Anyone would think from what you’ve written that such things are impossible. I’ve cycled in blizzards, I’ve dragged my bike miles through snow a foot deep. I’ve ridden with temperatures over 100 degrees. Hills and mountains? I’ve cycled over the Pindos range in Greece, over the Pyrenees and over the Alps. Heavy rain? That’s not even difficult – all you need is a raincoat. Jeez!
“Bikes are great for local and occasional use, but to peddle 10+ miles each way to work? Get groceries?”
10 miles IS local. I cycled 50 miles every other day for a year. 20 miles is nothing on a bike – it takes an hour, two if you want to take it easy. And if anyone’s local grocery store is over ten miles away, they need to move somewhere that makes sense.
All your post proves is that you don’t know cycling.
Beery on Sun, 15th Sep 2013 4:51 am
And you don’t need a factory to build a bicycle. They were building them long before the first bike factory got built.
Why is it that everyone here seems to think the end of the oil age is going to mean that we’re plunged back to the Neolithic era? We’ve had the technology to build bicycles since around the 13th Century.
GregT on Sun, 15th Sep 2013 5:22 am
It would be somewhat difficult to produce a couple of billion bicycles without fossil fuel inputs.
That being said, my wife, myself, and our children, all have bicycles and use them regularly. If not for massive urban sprawl, I would cycle exclusively.
We also have a supply of parts, cleaners, and lubricants, and the tools and know how, to maintain them for a very long time.
Unfortunately, we are in the vast minority.
Arthur on Sun, 15th Sep 2013 8:22 am
Hear, hear, DC. Being worried about the future and preparing for it is good, cultivating doomerism to the utmost is not. The 45 kW car is probably doomed, the 250 W e-bike, making up to 50 kmh is not.
http://deepresource.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/e-bike-enorm-v2-custom-cruiser/
Haven’t been driving a car for months now, the battery is empty, tempted to abandon it altogether. Do everything on a bike these days: driving to the city center: 10 minutes, bringing big boxes to the waste dump: 7 minutes, driving to a forest restaurant with fair weather: 25 or 45 minutes.
My parents of blessed memory never had a car. So my father took me for really big bicycle trips every few weeks or so, up to 140 km on a sunday. Drove at least three times from Holland in five days to Switserland, to Copenhagen in four days, to Venice in seven days (200 km per day, like the Tour de France, including carrying and setting up the tent and primitive cooking and no massage), twelve days to Rome. Including several alpine mountain passes up to 2800m, no walking. After these holidays you will like a God, not necessarily during the trip.lol
BillT on Sun, 15th Sep 2013 12:06 pm
While bike use less energy to produce, they do require a huge infrastructure to exist. Even recycling the metals requires more energy than most think. Old metals cannot just be melted down and made into new bikes. Steel requires additives that come from all over the world.
It takes huge amounts of energy to get steel to melting point. And at one bike per American, you are talking 8,000,000 TONS of steel.
Then there are tires … you can buy anywhere today but where do they come from? Oil wells? Rubber plantations are long gone.
Have you ever considered how delicate the web is that gets a bike to your door? How many hundreds of people and steps and miles?
Arthur on Sun, 15th Sep 2013 2:00 pm
You can recycle bicycles ad infinitum. No, global trade in volumes we have now will decrease substantially during the coming decades, but we had global trade with Portugese, Spanish, Dutch and British ships in 1600, so we will have global trade in 2100. Probably not containers full with end user stuff produced in China for American consumers, but small volumes of steel additives, that will be possible.
Arthur on Sun, 15th Sep 2013 3:21 pm
Weight bicycle 15 kg, most of it steel.
US steel production 2011: 119 million ton.
300 million Americans * 15 kg = 4.5 million ton, or 3.8% US year steel production, or half the increase in steel production compared to 2010.
Peanuts.
Kenz300 on Sun, 15th Sep 2013 9:21 pm
Bicycles are great.
Good exercise and good transportation with no fuel costs. They will help to keep you healthy.
More cities need to become bicycle friendly and less automobile centered. Bicycles have ben around for over 100 years and they will be around for 100 more.
Arthur on Sun, 15th Sep 2013 9:59 pm
Today on the news, bicycle world speed record broken today in Nevada:
133.78 kph (83.13 mph)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHuWINwVvcc
GregT on Sun, 15th Sep 2013 10:29 pm
Peanuts, as long as we continue to keep adding more greenhouse gasses into the environment by burning more fossil fuels.
Arthur on Mon, 16th Sep 2013 4:24 am
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrous_metal_recycling
Interesting statistics… in the US 85% of steel gets recycled. Furthermore, 800 million westerners ‘own’ more than 7 ton of steel per capita. Recycling would be done for economic reasons alone; it is unsurprisingly cheaper to recycle than to mine. In other words, in a declining economy of the future there will be little if any mining, since all the steel you need already is above the ground and cars and high rise buildings will be a thing of the past. Do not worry about bicycles, we all can own ten of them in the future.
jedrider on Mon, 16th Sep 2013 7:10 pm
Bicycles, save the economy? Unlikely. Bicycles, save the planet? Too late.
Bicycles, save ourselves? Beats hari-kari!
Bicycles are very energy efficient and relatively low-tech and so will survive the power-down.
They are not good in winter, so STAY home 😉