Bike Networks Now!

Bike Networks Now! Audiobook: Chapter 4. “The Lean Startup” and the Scientific Method In 2011, Eric Ries published “The Lean Startup,” a thunderbolt in the startup community, that explores why so many innovation projects fail and how to increase the odds of success. Ries concludes, in essence, that innovation projects fail because they don’t use the scientific method. Read the Chapter

Bike Networks Now! Audiobook: Chapter 3. The “Urban Bikeway Design Guide” Revolution The approach to innovation we propose on the following pages draws on three primary sources of inspiration. This book is a mashup of three texts from disparate fields that, in aggregate, can transform our hamfisted approach to innovation in the public right-of-way and make bike transportation a practical reality f...

Bike Networks Now! Audiobook: Chapter 2. Network First Bike lanes have failed in America because they’re not safe enough and they don’t connect. The solution, at least in the abstract, is simple: build safe, complete bike networks. And not just at some theoretical point in the future. Now. Ezra Klein, the New York Times columnist and author of Abundance says it best “We should be able to deliver d...

This is a conversation with a different type of guest. Tim Jackson spent 18 years as the main advocate for the car industry in Colorado. As the president and CEO of the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association, Tim lobbied for many laws that were passed in Colorado, including with such clever framing as "the freedom to drive." So yes, Car Guy on a Bike Podcast. This show is about how we can make bi...

Bike Networks Now! Audiobook: Chapter 1. Science the Sh*t Out of This In “The Martian,” Matt Damon’s character Mark Watney, stranded on Mars, looks at the camera and says soberly, “In the face of overwhelming odds, I’m left with only one option. I’m going to have to science the shit out of this.” Bike infrastructure is a means to an end: making bike transportation a practical reality for millions...

This is a conversation with Kevin Mayne, who has been described as “the voice of the bicycle industry.” For 14 years, he was CEO of CyclingUK, the largest advocacy group in the UK. In 2012, he became the Director of Development at the European Cyclists’ Federation. And from 2019-2024, he was the Founding CEO of Cycling Industries Europe, CIE, an industry group that represents more than 50 bike com...

Bike Networks Now! Audiobook: Introduction Over the last few decades, there has been a clarion call from voters to make American cities navigable by bike. But despite billions of dollars in investment, no American city has made biking go mainstream, let alone made it a dominant form of transportation. The bike transportation high-water mark in Portland was in 2014. According to the Census Bureau's...

Bike Networks Now! Audiobook: The Organizing Question Why is bike transportation still not possible for most people in American cities, and how can we make it a reality? Despite decades of voter support for candidates who’ve run on the promise of affordable, healthy active transportation and billions of dollars of investment, bike transportation is still not a practical reality in American cities....

This is a conversation with Ruth Oldenziel, an emeritus professor at the Eindhoven University of Technology and an expert on the history of technology. Ruth is the program leader of the Cycling Cities Project, a research initiative to understand what has worked and what hasn't to make bike transportation a reality in cities across the globe. I wanted to talk to Ruth about that research, how some E...

Elizabeth Adams is the Deputy Director of Public Affairs at Transportation Alternatives, the juggernaut advocacy powerhouse in New York City, where she's been involved in everything from bike transportation to bus rapid transit to congestion pricing. What we're here to talk about, however, is something almost absurdly specific: a specific bike facility that I am obsessed with. It's in Brooklyn on...

As much as anyone I know, Sara Studdard has cracked the nut on how to get cities to move fast in the construction of bike infrastructure. Sara is a partner at City Thread and developed the Accelerated Mobility Playbook, a roadmap that helps cities make big progress on bike and mobility projects in general in 24 to 36 months. Sara has worked with cities like Austin, Providence, Pittsburgh, and Denv...

Avi Stopper chats with Mike Lydon, author of "Tactical Urbanism" and one of the 100 most influential urbanists of all time alongside, according to Planetizen. We go deep on tactical urbanism, where’s it’s worked and why it hasn’t become the dominant paradigm in planning. We dive into the challenges cities face implementing this approach from leadership turnover to fatigue, and how a new generation...

In this kickoff episode of Bike Networks Now, host Avi Stopper chats with Randy Neufeld, one of the founding fathers of bike advocacy in America and former executive director of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation. Randy brings his trademark energy and unique perspective on why bike transportation remains impractical for most Americans. We talk about the cultural and practical barriers that prevent...