In his 1968 book Black Top: A History of the British Flexible Roads Industry J. B. F. Earle (a former commercial director of Tarmac Ltd., and first chairman of the Federation of Coated Macadam Industries) wrote: “The first concerted pressure […]
Continue ReadingIn its Victorian heyday the satirical magazine Punch (1841-2002) poked fun at bicyclists and automobilists: both were guilty of “scorching” (speeding) and both ignored the prior road rights of pedestrians. However, by the 1920s, ‘Motor Mania’ had seen to it […]
Continue ReadingWhen, in 2010, US Transport Secretary Ray LaHood promised “we are holding Toyota’s feet to the fire” over the accelerator-pedal car recall of that year he likely didn’t know there was a back-story to this fiery phrase, and that – […]
Continue ReadingWhen high-wheel bicycles are seen at fêtes, or on telly, or on posters for TfL competitions, it’s ten to a penny (farthing) that the gents riding them will be prim, proper and of relatively advanced age. Top hat. Waistcoat. Long […]
Continue ReadingFrom The Times, London, 5th September 1878 “The bicycle has come to the front, and is fighting for existence. Dimly prefigured in the mythical centaur…the bicycle has now surmounted the difficulties of construction, and adapted itself to human capabilities it […]
Continue ReadingBritish, cycle-themed recruitment posters, c.1913 and 1912. “Without doubt the most important feature in this year’s [Stanley] exhibition is the number of machines fitted up for war purposes. Since the successful use of cyclists in the Easter manoeuvres last year […]
Continue ReadingLast month I ran a posting featuring the group photograph below. I suggested that one of the men pictured looked rather feminine and, perhaps, was a woman impersonating a man. A 19th Century woman muscling in on a man’s world […]
Continue ReadingUse of cars – unfettered individual motorised transport – plays a big part in man-made climate change. Cycling can make urban transport greener, almost as green as walking, and bicycles will play a key role in the cities of the […]
Continue ReadingA 1923 census of traffic by the UK’s Department of Transport showed there were more bicycles on the road than any other vehicle. Within just a few years the situation was much different. In 1923 there were 383,525 cars on […]
Continue ReadingThe cyclists of the 1890s were a pushy lot, demanding better roads on which to ride their “wheels” (this was the US term for bicycles, hence League of American Wheelmen) and they were also an inventive bunch. While refinements such […]
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