Life on two wheels

Right from the back of the book In the City of Bikes, line after line of the book seemed improbable. As I kept reading about the motivation of the author, an urban planner to visit Amsterdam, I felt that this will make a good gift to a freshly minted urban planner.
The book is funny with anecdotes of situations of throngs of bicycle and people treated as swarm of various animals. While reading the book i recalled a white bike left at an accident site in memoriam of it. The book calls it ghost bike. The only ghost bikes are the ones I know from childhood stories where a person feels like he is carrying a double on the back seat which is heavy because of an invisible ghost. This story wouldnt happen in amsterdam as it is illegal to ride double there.
Tons of info on biking history in the book.