 Have you ever wondered about the rewards and challenges of being a transportation planner, especially when it comes to building bike lanes? Well, we got the perfect book for you. And today we'll be going over Jeanette Sadiq Khan and Seth Solomonow's book, Street Fight, a handbook for an urban revolution. Welcome to the Urban Mobility Book Review Series brought to you by the EIT Urban Mobility Academy in collaboration with the Urban Cycling Institute where we uncover the key ideas that keep our cities moving. Each episode picks a book, explains why you should read this book, gives you the big picture, and gives you an outline of what the key concepts are in that book. Today, let's talk about the chapter Bike Lanes and Their Discontents from Jeanette Sadiq Khan and Seth Solomonow's book, Street Fight, a handbook for an urban revolution. This book offers a great perspective from a former head of New York City's Transportation Department, and her experiences cycling around New York City. So in this book, you get the perspective of a bureaucrat who has worked in the system, and also the perspective of someone who has actively participated in how difficult cycling can be in a country where cycling is not promoted. One of the problems is that driving is somewhat elevated to a form of ideology. The cards are the form of untouchable demigods of our transportation system. They are, in fact, the default in most of our street design. So when policy makers mention other modes as an alternative, even though it might not be true in reality, it is true in how we lay out our streets. As the book states, quote, reapportioning streets for any other use than driving or parking is an ideological war on cars, end quote. Street Fight then articulates why cyclists are hated so much. What you see on city streets depends on how you get around. Drivers see the street as territory granted to them that is needlessly interactive by signs, signals, and interlopers. With pedestrians, buses, and other cars, they have always existed. Bikes are new kids on the block. Whether or not cyclists pose any danger, it is still comforting to people who drive in these large Lego blocks that they are at least stuck in traffic together in solidarity. Quote, enter the bike. Drivers and pedestrians may hate each other, but if they agree on one thing, it's that they both hate cyclists. Drivers and pedestrians haven't learned to read the street and see or hear bike riders. Sleek and nimble with great speed. Their agility in traffic space makes them unpredictable in the eyes of other road users. Jeanette Siddiq Khan recounts, quote, I've startled pedestrians on my bike even when I've stopped. I've been cursed for appearing out of nowhere and riding even with a signal in the bike lane. But even when I've done nothing wrong, I can see the fear and instinct for collective punishment are no less real. Bike riders must then exist on a totally different frequency, a frequency that's incompatible with those who drive. This could be literally true in the sense that bikes don't really follow the grid lines, and it is also figured to be true in the fact that cyclists stand out and look very different. When it comes to news reports, the perception and the treatment of cyclists is no more equal than on the street. When a cyclist strikes a person, that news is definitely to make headlines. But when a car runs into a bike causing a collision, then that news almost never makes it to the front page. The book talks about the importance of getting buy-in, not just from the neighborhood, but also from the bureaucrats within the system. This include not just the urban planners, but some surprising actors, such as the fire department, the police, who is influenced by the very design of the street. Fire trucks, for example, would like to fit within the turning radius, and police would like a clear way to enforce driving and vehicle infractions. By changing the street, you're changing the way that these people can do their jobs. The bike, as a new kid on the block, may be great for rethinking how we design the street, but it's also hostile in the sense that people have to think and make up ways to do things differently. That's not always easy, and that could lead to some very big reshuffling, both physically and within the structure of the system. And that's Street Fight by Jeanette Sadiq Khan and Seth Sillimanau. Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Urban Mobility Book Review Series by EIT Urban Mobility Academy in collaboration with the Urban Cycling Institute. For more books like this, and to fill out your bookshelf, hit the subscribe button and ring that bell.