In the past, Taras Grescoe has hit the road for books about about illicit substances (The Devil’s Picnic), the tourism industry (The End of Elsewhere), Quebec’s cultural history (Sacré Blues), and most recently, the ethics of seafood consumption (Bottomfeeder, which won the Writers’ Trust Non-fiction Prize in 2008). Now, Grescoe looks at how we get around in Straphanger: How Subways, Buses and Trains Are Saving Our Cities from the Empire of the Automobile (HarperCollins Canada, $31.99 cl., April). The book draws on encounters with cyclists, subway engineers, urban planners, and a host of others in the people-moving biz to present alternatives to car-based lifestyles and explain how they’re changing our cities.
