The Talking Head Rides to the Rescue

"In cities, it seems to me you have a bit more self-determination. You can stop whenever you want."

Soundcheck: Live from the Green Space - WNYC

"Singer/songwriter and avid cyclist David Byrne didn’t want to do the usual audiobook thing when it came to his "Bicycle Diaries." Inspired by years of listening to public radio, he decided to produce each chapter like a piece of audio art."

Byrne, Rochester, and bicycling

"His reflections on other cities and countries are probably also worth a read, especially for those who really enjoy travel."

Road to Somewhere: Bike rocker David Byrne wants transportation policy to start making sense

"He lists ten ideas for improving cycling, including schemes to slow down cars, bike lanes that are separated from auto traffic by barriers and closing a major street to cars on a weekly basis, a la New York’s Broadway."

David Byrne on New Urbanism, Burning Down of Houses at CNU 18

"In his typically quirky way, Byrne proposed his own solution -- bicycles, and the urban forms they embody: narrow, walkable streets (preferably without cars) in Tokyo, Mexico City, New York's Time Square, and the medieval towns of Italy."

David Byrne on bicycles, Atlanta’s sprawl and burying highways

"David Byrne started using a bicycle for his primary means of transportation in the 1980s. And what began as a simple way of getting around New York City turned into what he considers the best way to explore the world’s great (and not so great) cities."

David Byrne and the Termite Towers

"Then, pictures of what's possible: lively street scenes in Buenos Aires and Mexico City. Bike parking on the streets of Portland, Oregon. Protected bicycle lanes along urban streets in Berlin and New York."

Biking is good for us, good for the Earth, and plain fun

"On the street, every parking meter, every tree, every upright of every sort had a bike or two attached to it."

“Biking à la Byrne means ecology, geekiness, a way of piercing into the world”

"So much for neutral observer Byrne: there’s also plugged-in Byrne, international art scene Byrne, whose connections in each city tend to be deep in that city’s culture sector."

Conversation: David Byrne Rides and Writes

"Exactly. Yeah. I've been riding a bike, in New York mainly, for almost 30 years just as a way of getting around, starting off just getting around downtown to clubs, art galleries, dinner with friends, whatever. And then, I started taking it along on music tours usually, and I would explore different cities that we passed through."

Books Briefly Noted: Bicycle Diaries

"Since the nineteen-eighties, Byrne, the co-founder of the band Talking Heads, has been using a folding bicycle to get around the world’s major cities, and his new book is both a travelogue and a reflection on gentrifying urban landscapes."

PopMatters - Bicycle Diaries

"Now take a closer look: why, if you didn’t suspect any better, you’d swear that was David Byrne.

Oh wait: that is David Byrne."

“Part flâneur, part Zen master, Byrne’s writings feel like haiku for urbanists.”

"Here, he plays the part of a bicycle advocate, and indeed he has appeared on his book tour in some cities along with bicycle planners and politicians."

“Our perception of urban living is changing.”

"In Bicycle Diaries, Byrne describes the experience of cycling in several cities, including Berlin, London, Buenos Aires, Istanbul and New York, augmented with a fair amount of musing on cultural and aesthetic concerns. Byrne started cycling about 30 years ago in Manhattan's Lower East Side for no other reason than it seemed the most efficient way to get around."

“I just look at things and go ‘um’”

"The bike is simply a constant in Byrne's life and his travels, ever since he started riding around New York's downtown when he was still fronting the seminal post-punks the Talking Heads. Since then, Byrne has routinely taken a folding bike on tour with him, checking out local cultures and art scenes on a more relaxed, human level."

David Byrne: Talking treads

"Back in his home city Byrne has become a celebrity spokesperson for cycling. Last year he designed a series of site-specific bike racks for New York - think a dollar sign for Wall Street, or a high-heeled shoe outside upscale department store Bergdorf Goodman."

Book Review: Byrne, Bikes, Buenos Aires, Oh My! Musings from Off the Stage and On the Streets

"Throughout his diary entries, Byrne is unabashedly intellectual, yet he lets his curiosity wander without being too academic. Much of the potentially numbing pedantry is massaged out by his humor and singular mastery of all that is ironic and esoteric."

David Byrne’s Wild Wild (Biking) Life

"It is a crisp fall day, and David Byrne is worried about helmet hair."

NPR Weekend Edition

"In his new book, "Bicycle Diaries," David Byrne writes that bicycle riding is faster than a walk, slower than a train, and slightly higher than a person."

David Byrne Turns His Book Reading Into Bicycle Advocacy Primer

"Still, Byrne and his guest panelists delivered an entertaining ninety minutes for everyone, no matter how familiar they were with urban cycling."

David Byne: Writing head, too

"He seems to have a great hope in human kind to evolve and adapt."

Two-Wheeled Tour With a Talking Head

"Hitch a ride with Talking Heads front man David Byrne as he bikes around Detroit, Istanbul, London, San Francisco, Manila, New York — you name it."

See David Byrne Ride

"In many of these chapters, Byrne seems intrigued and slightly fascinated by the foreigner’s clearer — and always wiser — perspective on our own American culture."

Book Review: David Byrne’s “Bicycle Diaries”

"I wish there were a term halfway between the pejorative "dilettante" and the weighty "Renaissance man" to classify people like David Byrne, former Talking Heads frontman, visual artist, documentary film maker, essayist, environmentalist and ... um ... avid bicyclist."

Bike-Seat Philosopher

"For Byrne bicycling is partly a means, partly an end. It helps him get places, makes him feel more connected to life on the streets, and also serves as a 'form of meditation' that keeps him sane."

Packed House Applauds Bicycle Diarist and Friends

“We’ve gone through eight or ten years of a bully culture — on Wall Street, in politics. I think we’re turning a corner.”

David Byrne’s Chicago Biking Revelations

"David Byrne always seemed like the watchful sort—good posture, steady stare."

Road to Somewhere: David Byrne’s Energizing Bicycle Diaries

"The book's obvious charm for most Portlanders is in getting to geek out with an international celebrity who just happens to be actively interested in the impact of sensible transportation planning."

Review: David Byrne’s New Book, Bicycle Diaries

"Throughout the book, the most frequently asked question is: What do humans show each other by what they do and make?"

Musician David Byrne charms with ‘Bicycle Diaries,’ a globe-pedaling tour

"The times they are a-changing back, or so it would seem. We've traded instant Sanka for slow-drip, factory-farmed for free-range, and all over the world, city planners are starting to unbuild the systems that made it so hard for anyone but automobiles to navigate urban streets."

David Byrne peddles his philosophy worldwide

"No proselytizer by nature, Byrne has found himself increasingly taking a public role as bicycle advocate, organizing a forum in New York that surrounded talks by planners with music, video and performance art."

‘Bicycle Diaries’ by David Byrne

"If you've lived in New York some time during the last three decades, you might have seen David Byrne on his bike — long legs pedaling, bright eyes watching."

Travel - Book Review: ‘Bicycle Diaries’ by David Byrne

"Anyone who grew up listening to David Byrne’s songs may have trouble adjusting to the pitch of his writing voice. While his lyrics reveal an intensely knowing sensibility, easily bruised and a little unhinged, this book and his genial blog present him as an unflappably normal guy, whose preferred mode of transportation keeps him grounded."

Big Wheel Keeps on Turning

"If David Byrne were a young man today, there is no telling what weirdness he might get into."

Pedaling his musings about life, music, art, community

"And so Bicycle Diaries—a collection of musings about art and music, about urban ecology, history, social behavior, and politics—is Byrne working things out."

‘Bicycle Diaries,’ by David Byrne

"In most cities he travels to, Byrne visits art museums and artists, which takes him into some extended meditations on the role of artists and how they fit into the economic life of cities."

Musician Byrne maintains balance in ‘Bicycle Diaries’

"His passion inspired his latest book, Bicycle Diaries, which prompts an interview conducted, in part, on two wheels."

Book Reviews: Bicycle Diaries

"Occasionally, Byrne lapses into fuddy-duddiness: Witness his reliance on the adjective funky to mean just about everything cool or unexpected, ever."

Cycle killer: David Byrne on the joys of cycling

"I cycled when I was at high school, then reconnected with bikes in New York in the late 70s. It was a good way of getting around the clubs and galleries of the Lower East Side and Soho. At that time almost no one else was riding, but I didn't care what people thought."

Bicycle Diaries by David Byrne

"This is not the place to come if you want to know how to fix a puncture or what kind of bike to buy, though the appendix does offer some cursory tips on security and maintenance. It may, though, make you want to buy a fold-up bike, which is Byrne's preferred mode of exploration when he is touring the world as a musician."

Booklist

"Not only did he find it exhilarating to cruise the city streets but also it was fast and efficient."

David Byrne: speaking in tongues

"The sun has just melted into the distant purple mountains on a sweltering Italian night when David Byrne starts speaking in tongues, throwing his arms skywards and doing his signature knock-kneed chicken dance. The crowd go mental. This is what they came here for."

Publishers Weekly

"Byrne is fascinated by cities, especially as visited on a trusty fold-up bicycle, and in these random musings over many years while cycling through such places as Sydney, Australia; Manila, Philippines; San Francisco; or his home of New York, the former Talking Head, artist and author (True Stories) offers his frank views on urban planning, art and postmodern civilization in general."