Commuting - Bikes and Suburbanization in the early 20th Centurry

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Slartibartfast
02-17-05, 11:47 AM
I thought ya'll might get a kck out of this. It turns out that in 1906, bikes ENCOURAGED suburbanization. Puts a little perspective on things I guess ...

http://www.bikeit.eclipse.co.uk/cyclingprelycra/memorabilia/whycycle.htm

bostontrevor
02-17-05, 12:02 PM
Yes, but so did streetcars. There's quite a difference in location and density between a streetcar suburb and conventional postwar suburb. I'm just saying.
Slartibartfast
02-17-05, 12:21 PM
Yes, but so did streetcars. There's quite a difference in location and density between a streetcar suburb and conventional postwar suburb. I'm just saying.


Exactly. It was just interesting how that article put in to perspective how much the idea of an (American?) city has changed in 100 years. The things we now look to to solve our problems were once problems themseves while the things we see as problems were once seen as solutions. History makes my head hurt.

jnbacon
02-17-05, 12:40 PM
Exactly. It was just interesting how that article put in to perspective how much the idea of an (American?) city has changed in 100 years. ...

British, I'm thinkin'. Note the "car boot sale."
PaulBravey
02-17-05, 01:08 PM
Yeah, it's British, English to be precise. Barrow-In-Furness is halfway between Liverpool and Carlisle on the north-west coast of England.
halfbiked
02-17-05, 01:19 PM
Exactly. It was just interesting how that article put in to perspective how much the idea of an (American?) city has changed in 100 years. The things we now look to to solve our problems were once problems themseves while the things we see as problems were once seen as solutions. History makes my head hurt.

Ding! Ding! Ding! Example (of former problems becoming solutions): those pesky streetcars were all torn up from the Minneapolis / St Paul area by the mid 50s - presumably because they were in the way for all the new cars on the road. Now they're viewed as a solution to the congestion problem. Go figure.
77Univega
02-17-05, 02:27 PM
"The cycle is, today, a universal vehicle, transporting its votaries from point to point swiftly, surely and inexpensively..."

- - Thank you for posting this positive and insipiring tribute to bicycling.
jnbacon
02-17-05, 02:37 PM
Ding! Ding! Ding! Example (of former problems becoming solutions): those pesky streetcars were all torn up from the Minneapolis / St Paul area by the mid 50s - presumably because they were in the way for all the new cars on the road. Now they're viewed as a solution to the congestion problem. Go figure.

Same in Phoenix, except today it's called light rail.