The Cyclist's Manifesto makes the most powerful case to date for a simple fact: America can no longer afford to ignore the bicycle as a tool for serious transportation. Robert Hurst takes off his gloves to lay out the case in favor of the bicycle as today's superior mode of transport--and to voice a resounding call to action for people to use it. In an engaging narrative that takes us from the past to the present and into the future, the author visits a surprising variety of places and historical moments. Hurst argues that America's aversion to bicycling for transportation is a unique historical-cultural absurdity based largely on false assumptions and bad information. Humorous but more than a little exasperated, and strikingly nonpartisan, The Cyclist's Manifesto paints a tantalizing picture of just what the effects of substantially increased bicycle usage might be--the health care savings would be astronomical, for example--and the ways that individuals and governments can go about wresting back control over their energy destiny.