The Bicycle and the City
AWhen the first pedal-driven bicycles appeared in France in the 1860s, few observers imagined that they would reshape urban life. Early models, nicknamed ‘boneshakers’, had iron-rimmed wooden wheels and were notoriously uncomfortable on cobbled streets. They were also expensive: a single machine could cost several months of a factory worker’s wages, which confined cycling to wealthy young men who treated it as a fashionable sport.
BThe turning point came in the 1880s with the ‘safety bicycle’. By placing two wheels of equal size on a diamond-shaped frame and driving the rear wheel with a chain, designers produced a machine that was far more stable than the towering high-wheelers of the previous decade. When pneumatic tyres, filled with air, were added in 1888, the ride became smooth enough for ordinary roads, and within a decade mass production had cut prices dramatically.
CThe social consequences were considerable. For the first time, working people could travel several miles to a job without paying for a train or tram. Historians have also linked the bicycle to changing roles for women: cycling required lighter clothing, and many women valued the independence of travelling without a chaperone. Not everyone approved, however; some newspapers warned that the activity was unhealthy for female riders.
DCyclists soon became an organised political force. In both Britain and the United States, cycling clubs campaigned for smoother roads, and in the United States the ‘Good Roads Movement’, founded largely by cyclists, persuaded local governments to pave routes that had previously been left to horses and carts. Ironically, these improved surfaces later made it easier for motor cars to spread.
EBy the middle of the twentieth century, the car had pushed bicycles to the margins of many cities. Planners in North America and much of Europe widened roads and built car parks, and cycling came to be seen as a childhood pastime rather than a serious form of transport. A notable exception was the Netherlands, where public protests in the 1970s over road deaths, many of them children, led to large-scale investment in separated cycle lanes.
FToday, cities from Paris to Bogotá are reconsidering the bicycle as a response to congestion and air pollution. Bike-sharing schemes, electric-assist bicycles and protected lanes have all contributed to rising numbers of riders. Critics point out that infrastructure alone does not guarantee success; in cities where lanes are fragmented or poorly maintained, cycling rates have remained low.