Carjacked: The Culture of the Automobile and Its Effect on Our Lives by Lutz, Catherine and Lutz Fernandez, Anne
Publisher Comments Carjacked is an in-depth look at our obsession with cars. While the automobiles contribution to global warming and the effects of volatile gas prices is widely known, the problems we face every day because of our cars are much more widespread and yet much less known -- from the surprising $14,000 that the average family pays each year for the vehicles it owns, to the increase in rates of obesity and asthma to which cars contribute, to the 40,000 deaths and 2.5 million crash injuries each and every year. Carjacked details the complex impact of the automobile on modern society and shows us how to develop a healthier, cheaper, and greener relationship with cars. http://www.carjacked.org/ Your price $35.99 New Hardcover
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Cyclists Manifesto The Case for Riding on Two Wheels Instead of Four by Robert Hurst
Publisher Comments Why we're entering a different phase in the history of energy, why we can't afford to ignore it — and why the bicycle provides a uniquely empowering way of dealing with it.
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.
Hurst visits a surprising variety of places and historical moments in search of an explanation for America's dysfunctional love-hate relationship with the most efficient vehicle ever invented. He argues that the American aversion to bicycling for transportation is a unique historical-cultural absurdity based largely on false assumptions and bad information.
Written with wit and more than a little exasperation, The Cyclist's Manifesto paints a tantalizing picture of the potential benefits of an increasingly self-propelled America, and beckons the frustrated driver, transit user, or pedestrian into the streets for a healthier, happier life on two wheels. Your price $10.95 Used Trade Paperback
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How to Live Well Without Owning a Car Save Money Breathe Easier & Get More Mileage Out of Life by Balish, Chris
Publisher Comments You don'¬?t need to own a car to live well in America. In fact, you'¬?d probably be better off without one. In this groundbreaking guide, award-winning journalist Chris Balish exposes the true costs of car ownership and shows how car-free living can put anyone on the path to financial freedom. Using the book'¬?s car cost worksheet, first figure out how much owning a car really costs-you'¬?ll be surprised. Then, see how easy it is to transition to a car-free or car-lite lifestyle using Chris'¬?s strategies for commuting, running errands, taking trips, dating, socializing, and more. You'¬?ll also find hundreds of tips and success stories from car-free people in cities and suburbs across America. Without car payments, rising gas prices, and traffic jams to worry about, you'¬?ll have more money and leisure time to spend as you choose. Discover why getting rid of your car may be the soundest and sanest lifestyle change you can make.ReviewsView a video clip from NBC's Today Show: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25609661/ "Chris Balish offers a mix of the practical-a worksheet to figure out a car's total cost and impact-as well as the horrifying: The average American walks just 300 yards a day."-Sierra Magazine "If ever there was a practical inducement to get out of the car trap, this is it. For the multitude of Americans stuck in traffic and spending thousands of dollars a year on their cars, Chris'¬?s lively and pragmatic step-by-step solutions provide a way out."-Jane Holtz Kay, author of Asphalt Nation"Chris Balish's book can help environmentally conscious Americans live their values. If you're concerned about pollution and global warming, follow the program in these pages. There can be life without a car. And a good life at that!"-Ed Begley, Jr., actor and environmental activist"[Chris Balish's] prescriptions are feasible and most important, reasonable."-San Antonio Express News"Even if living car-free or car-lite isn't for you, you'll still learn a lot from this book. I did."-Michelle Singletary, Washington PostListen to Chris Balish talk about living car-free in Los Angeles on NPR's Morning Edition. Trade Paperback
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Farewell My Subaru An Epic Adventure in Local Living by Doug Fine
Publisher Comments In this frank and witty memoir, Ken Ilgunas lays bare the existential terror of graduating from the University of Buffalo with $32,000 of student debt. Ilgunas set himself an ambitious mission: get out of debt as quickly as possible. Inspired by the frugality and philosophy of Henry David Thoreau, Ilgunas undertook a 3-year transcontinental jour ney, working in Alaska as a tour guide, garbage picker, and night cook to pay off his student loans before hitchhiking home to New York. Debt-free, Ilgunas then enrolled in a masters program at Duke University, determined not to borrow against his future again. He used the last of his savings to buy himself a used Econoline van and outfitted it as his new dorm. The van, stationed in a campus parking lot, would be more than an adventure—it would be his very own “Walden on Wheels.” Freezing winters, near-discovery by campus police, and the constant challenge of living in a confined space would test Ilgunass limits and resolve in the two years that fol lowed. What had begun as a simple mission would become an enlightening and life-changing social experiment. Walden on Wheels offers a spirited and pointed perspective on the dilemma faced by those who seek an education but who also want to, as Thoreau wrote, “live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.” Your price $14.95 Used Hardcover
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Driven to Kill: Vehicles as Weapons by J. Peter Rothe
Publisher Comments The charge: first-degree murder. The murder weapon: a 1987 Ford Escort. A car as a murder weapon? In Driven to Kill, J. Peter Rothe unflinchingly examines the use of vehicles in cases of assault, abduction, rape, gang warfare, terrorism, suicide, and murder. What separates an everyday driver from a motorized menace? Read and find out. Yes, Rothe offers a trove of unprecedented research for sociologists, criminologists, policy makers, police, as well as public health, injury prevention, and traffic safety professionals, but his accessible style speaks to our fascination with car culture and true crime stories. Trade Paperback
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Traffic Why We Drive the Way We Do & What It Says about Us by Tom Vanderbilt
Publisher Comments A tour of the worldandrsquo;s hidden geographiesandmdash;from disappearing islands to forbidden desertsandmdash;and a stunning testament to how mysterious the world remains today At a time when Google Maps Street View can take you on a virtual tour of Yosemiteandrsquo;s remotest trails and cell phones double as navigational systems, itandrsquo;s hard to imagine thereandrsquo;s any uncharted ground left on the planet. In Unruly Places, Alastair Bonnett goes to some of the most unexpected, offbeat places in the world to reinspire our geographical imagination. Bonnettandrsquo;s remarkable tour includes moving villages, secret cities, no manandrsquo;s lands, and floating islands. He explores places as disorienting as Sandy Island, an island included on maps until just two years ago despite the fact that it never existed. Or Sealand, an abandoned gun platform off the English coast that a British citizen claimed as his own sovereign nation, issuing passports and crowning his wife as a princess. Or Baarle, a patchwork of Dutch and Flemish enclaves where walking from the grocery storeandrsquo;s produce section to the meat counter can involve crossing national borders. An intrepid guide down the road much less traveled, Bonnett reveals that the most extraordinary places on earth might be hidden in plain sight, just around the corner from your apartment or underfoot on a wooded path. Perfect for urban explorers, wilderness ramblers, and armchair travelers struck by wanderlust, Unruly Places will change the way you see the places you inhabit. and#160; Your price $11.95 Used Hardcover
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Fighting Traffic The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City by Peter D Norton
Publisher Comments Cycling has experienced a renaissance in the United States, as cities around the country promote the bicycle as an alternative means of transportation. In the process, debates about the nature of bicyclesandmdash;where they belong, how they should be ridden, how cities should or should not accommodate themandmdash;have played out in the media, on city streets, and in city halls. Very few people recognize, however, that these questions are more than a century old. The Cycling Cityand#160;is a sharp history of the bicycleandrsquo;s rise and fall in the late nineteenth century. In the 1890s, American cities were home to more cyclists, more cycling infrastructure, more bicycle friendly legislation, and a richer cycling culture than anywhere else in the world.and#160; Evan Friss unearths the hidden history of the cycling city, demonstrating that diverse groups of cyclists managed to remap cities with new roads, paths, and laws, challenge social conventions, and even dream up a new urban ideal inspired by the bicycle. When cities were chaotic and filthy, bicycle advocates imagined an improved landscape in which pollution was negligible, transportation was silent and rapid, leisure spaces were democratic, and the divisions between city and country were blurred. Friss argues that when the utopian vision of a cycling city faded by the turn of the century, its death paved the way for todayandrsquo;s car-centric citiesandmdash;and ended the prospect of a true American cycling city ever being built. Hardcover
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One Less Car by Zack Furness
Synopsis Although millions of people in the United States love to ride bicycles for exercise or leisure, statistics show that only 1% of the total U.S. population ride bicycles for transportation—and barely half as many use bikes to commute to work. In his original and exciting book, One Less Car, Zack Furness examines what it means historically, culturally, socioeconomically, and politically to be a bicycle transportation advocate/activist. Presenting an underground subculture of bike enthusiasts who aggressively resist car culture, Furness maps out the cultural trajectories between mobility, technology, urban space and everyday life. He connects bicycling to radical politics, public demonstrations, alternative media production (e.g., ‘zines), as well as to the development of community programs throughout the world. One Less Car also positions the bicycle as an object with which to analyze and critique some of the dominant cultural and political formations in the U.S.—and even breaks down barriers of race, class and gender privilege that are interconnected to mobility. For Furness, bicycles not only liberate people from technology, they also support social and environmental justice. So, he asks, Why aren’t more Americans adopting them for their transportation needs? Your price $13.95 Used Trade Paperback
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Free Range Kids Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts with Worry by Lenore Skenazy
Publisher Comments Get ready to go out and play
Based on the authors acclaimed Integrated Outdoor Program, Let Them Be Eaten by Bears is Peter Hoffmeisters inspiring guide to helping kids enjoy nature and appreciate the great outdoors. Drawing from his personal and professional background as an educator, guide, writer, and father, and focusing on fun rather than fear, Hoffmeister offers an approachable, fun reintroduction to hiking, camping, and all-around exploring that will help parents and kids alike feel empowered and capable. Whether youre a veteran outdoorsperson, a first-time hiker, or anything in between, get ready to put on your sneakers, turn off your video games, and rediscover the simple, powerful joy of going out to play. Hardcover
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Rumble Strip by Woodrow Phoenix
Publisher Comments Over 1.2 million people are killed on the road each year. By 2020, road traffic accidents could outstrip stroke and HIV as one of the main causes of preventable deaths. Woodrow Phoenixs dry, sometimes painfully mordant wit, backed up by accident statistics, personal observations and case histories, offers a trenchant analysis of the problems of road users everywhere and the risks we all take every day. Rumble Strip surprises, challenges, asks us questions that badly need answers and makes us think about things we may prefer to ignore. But sometimes we all need a wake-up call: Woodrow Phoenix personalises the experience of the commuter, the driver, the pedestrian, the accident victim because any one of them could be you. Trade Paperback
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