Cycling Cities: The Global Experience

Cycling Cities presents to you a series of books that brings together powerful stories of cycling from around the world – spanning everyday riders, policy shifts, and long histories of ingenuity and mobility.

The books – which will be on sale at ICBF 2026 – explore a century of urban cycling across the world: from the rural towns of Aba and Zomba to the bustling capitals of Cairo and Cape Town, and many cities in between. Why did cycling flourish in some of these cities but fade in others?

These richly illustrated volumes trace how colonial planners, postcolonial governments, engineers, cyclists, and community groups have shaped the place of the bicycle in cities over the past hundred years. Written by an international team of scholars, Cycling Cities situates local experiences within wider global debates on mobility, sustainability, and urban life. It reveals how cities have negotiated the balance between pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists – and how these histories continue to inform today’s struggles for liveable streets and equitable transport. A must-read for policymakers, community advocates, planners, scholars, and anyone interested in the past and future of urban mobility.