In the City of Bikes: The Story of the Amsterdam Cyclist
In 2002, the newlywed American author came to Amsterdam to study urban planning for five months. He, his wife, and his son live there still, filled with the relentless optimism that laces this book. Need a work visa in a tight labor market? Just be a janitor at a garbage-processing plant. Low funds and two-room apartments? Who cares when you’re holding your pregnant wife’s hand as she bikes along beside you? That’s right. Everyone bikes in Amsterdam: the elderly, the brief-cased, the ladder-carrying, the ballroom-gowned. All without helmets. No history of bicycles is complete without a history of bike thievery, and Jordan delivers. The long section on the German occupation has isolated strong points but bogs down listing anything that relates to bikes. American cities lack the critical mass of cyclists to earn adequate bike lanes, yet too few cycle if they have to wear a helmet. So it is odd that an expatriate whose dream job is to monitor all forms of traffic doesn’t say much about this quandary or why cycling is more fun for the Dutch. --Dane Carr