David Byrne of Talking Heads fame wrote down his idea of a perfect, livable city for The Wall Street Journal. His qualifications for penning such idealism? Miles and miles spent on his folding bike:

Seeing cities from on top of a bike is both pleasurable and instructive. On a bike one sees a lot more than from a freeway, and often it’s just as fast as car traffic in many towns.

David waxes lyrical about human scale, mixed-use neighborhoods with lots of public spaces — and fewer parking lots:

To be honest, available parking doesn’t matter to me. Parking lots and structures are dead real estate—they bring no life into a city and I’d be happy if there were a lot fewer of them in New York

Angelenos may be a bit sad to know David doesn’t look too kindly on Los Angeles. It’s simply not dense enough — which according to him, leads to strange behavior:

If a city doesn’t have sufficient density, as in L.A., then strange things happen. It’s human nature for us to look at one another— we’re social animals after all. But when the urban situation causes the distance between us to increase and our interactions to be less frequent we have to use novel means to attract attention: big hair, skimpy clothes and plastic surgery. We become walking billboards.

He also points out that “The healthy neighborhood doesn’t empty out at 6 p.m., as most of downtown L.A. does.” If it’ll make you feel better, David also rules out San Francisco, sort of. It’s too small, so people are all in your biz –

Read the whole article to see the world through an urban cyclist’s eyes. Want more? David Byrne’s new book, Bicycle Diaries, came out yesterday. Still want more? Read the David Byrne Journal, where David often muses about bicycling — and writes about the places he gets to by bike.

Photo of David Byrne-designed bike rack by A.J. Kandy; photo of book via davidbyrne.com

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