Pedal Power, the untold story of how bikes, cars and cities got along

Name a city where bikes are the nom de transportation. Most of you probably said Amsterdam and it is, but it wasn’t always that way. Pedal Power by Allan Drummond is a book that any kid who is learning to ride their bicycle can identify with, but not in the way that you might think.

Rather, Pedal Power is the story of Maartje Rutten, a young mother living in Amsterdam in the 1970’s. She likes to ride her bike around town with her son in the baby seat, but it’s getting more dangerous. Some older buildings are being demolished to make way for new highways and just like any other metropolitan city traffic is getting worse. She wanted a more bike friendly environment that would accommodate all levels of cyclists, not just athletes.

Maartje and her friends started doing small protests that received media coverage and attention from the Dutch Prime Minister. Then one day a young girl was killed while on her bicycle. That girl’s father was a newspaper writer who then went on to create an article about the fact that 500 children had been killed that year; many who were on a bicycle.

With a newfound sense of urgency Maartje organized more protests and a massive bike ride that led them through a tunnel that was for exclusively meant for cars. Because they broke the law the police were at the other end of the tunnel waiting to arrest them. After that she realized that her efforts were starting to make a difference. Maartje and her friends started suggesting ideas to the city, like having special bike lanes on busy roads or putting curves and bumps in some streets that would slow cars down.

Fast forward a couple years and Amsterdam became the bike capital of the world. Name a big city anywhere on the planet and they’ll have elements of the ideas that she suggested. The book also provides bike facts on a couple other cities, like Paris or Shanghai that gives young readers a nice scale as to how many bikes really exist there.

As a reader one of the things I liked best about Pedal Power is that the book is educational, fun to read and not preachy at all. I love my bike. I need my car. Pedal Power acknowledges that cars are needed, but, they also need to make space for bikes. Allan Drummond has two other books with similar eco-vibes, Energy Island and Green City. Based on how well Pedal Power is for ages 4 and up those two are worth checking into also.