David Byrne just isn’t one of the most influential musicians ever, from his landmark work with Talking Heads to his solo oeuvre to his exposure of unexpected musics from all over the globe via his Luaka Bop record label: he’s also an avid cyclist, too. What’s not surprising about that is that renaissance man Byrne uses his bicycle as yet another entrée into perceiving culture – in particular, as a vehicle, figurative and literal, to explore his fascination with the evolution of cities. “As someone who has used a bicycle to get around New York for about 30 years I’ve watched the city—mainly Manhattan, where I live—change for better and for worse,” Byrne writes in a fascinating first-person essay he recently published on the Wall Street Journal’s website. “During this time I started to take a full-size folding bike with me when I traveled so I got to experience other cities as a cyclist as well. 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.”

Byrne’s bicycle obsession has led to him even publishing an lucid, intelligent new book, Bicycle Diaries, where he uses his two-wheeler travels as a starting point to discuss all manner of intriguing topics.

As a result, it makes perfect sense that he’s hosting a unique, important event on Los Angeles’ “future as a bike-friendly city” on October 2nd at the Aratani / Japan America Theatre in downtown L.A., he’s moderating a panel called Cities, Bicycles, and the Future of Getting Around with a number of knowledgeable guests hailing from both academe and the street. Joining Byrne on the future of cycle culture are Jimmy Lizama, one of the founders of L.A.’s amazing non-profit collective Bicycle Kitchen devoted to the art of building and fixing bikes (which KSPACE followers already know about from our HelMel feature); also on the panel is Michelle Mowery – the Senior Bicycle Coordinator for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation – and Donald Shoup, a distinguished professor of urban planning at UCLA. (Naturally, Byrne will also be signing copies of Bicycle Diaries, too.) With Byrne at the handlebars, such a collection of bike brainpower looks to be quite an informative ride…