Pedal Power

New revised and enriched paperback edition The bicycle is a fast, reliable, cheap, healthy, space-saving, energy-efficient and non-polluting means of transport. For distances between 500 meters and 10 kilometres, it is often the most efficient mode of travel, the most beneficial for society and also the most pleasant. Many users, as well as certain decision-makers, seem to have become aware of these innumerable assets. But when the bicycle is presented as a means of transport destined to develop, we witness an outcry: the bicycle suddenly becomes "vehicle of the poor", "difficult to handle instrument" or "ecological talisman for the dreamy bourgeois". With this “itchy hair” essay, Olivier Razemon demolishes the received ideas that still prevent the rise of cycling and delivers a vibrant plea for a cycling transition. This new pocket edition has been updated by the author, with two new texts: in the introduction, an inventory of cycling in France in 2018; at the end of the book, an overview of French cities that can be considered as the capitals of cycling… and the others. Olivier Razemon breaks down the received ideas that still prevent the rise of cycling and delivers a vibrant plea for a cycling transition.