David Byrne of Talking Heads fame wrote down his idea of a perfect, livable city for The Wall Street Journal. His qualifications for penning such idealism? Miles and miles spent traveling green on his folding bike:
Seeing cities from on top of a bike is both pleasurable and instructive. On a bike one sees a lot more than from a freeway, and often it’s just as fast as car traffic in many towns.
David waxes lyrical about human scale, mixed-use neighborhoods with lots of public spaces — and fewer parking lots:
To be honest, available parking doesn’t matter to me. Parking lots and structures are dead real estate—they bring no life into a city and I’d be happy if there were a lot fewer of them in New York
Read the whole article to see the world through an urban cyclist’s eyes. Want more? David Byrne’s new book, Bicycle Diaries, came out yesterday. Still want more? Read the David Byrne Journal, where David often muses about bicycling — and writes about the places he gets to by bike.
Photo of David Byrne-designed bike rack by A.J. Kandy
