BICYCLES: Are They the Future of Transportation?

Bicycles make me happy. They may make you happy, too. Why? Maybe it’s the visceral joy of riding a bike, propelling forward silently through the summer air fast enough to remain visually interested but slow enough to engage with other humans. Maybe it’s their extraordinary efficiency. Bicycles move you forward four-times faster than walking, with 20 percent of the effort. Or maybe it’s the beauty of the bicycle itself. I mean, it’s kind of the perfect object, isn’t it? Two equally sized wheels held together by two triangles, meshing perfectly with the human form. It could also be the childhood memories that make me smile -- my beloved red Schwinn Sting-Ray was my first taste of freedom, every bit as exciting as my first car, and right up there with my first kiss. 

All of this I knew before talking with Jody Rosen, author of the new book Two Wheels Good: The History and Mystery of the Bicycle. What I didn’t know is how interesting the story of the bicycle turns out to be. 

The technology and engineering knowhow you need to build a bicycle has existed since the Middle Ages, yet the earliest proto-bicycle didn’t come onto the scene until 1817. That’s 15 years *after* the invention of the steam engine. The bicycle as we know it today — with two equally sized wheels, pedals, and a chain — was not invented until 1885, the same year Karl Benz built his first Motorwagen! What took so long?

When the bicycle did arrive, though, it was, as Jody puts it, “kind of like the internet has hit our era. It was a completely transformative technology.” 

Before the 1890s, if you wanted to move quickly over land, you had to have money to own your own horse or to hire a hackney cab. Then came the bicycle. For the first time in human history, personal mobility was available to millions, not just the wealthy. By the end of the 19th century, Jody says, “everybody had a bicycle available to them, and this ran across class lines, and it ran across gender lines. Middle-class Anglo-American women, whose personal mobility was very circumscribed prior to this point, suddenly had a means of personal mobility that could get them wherever they wanted to go unchaperoned.” For some, the bicycle was a beacon of hope. For others, it was a threat to the social order.

Fast-forward to 2022. What is the future of the bicycle? Is it still that beacon of hope, or is it an endangered species? Will New York and other American cities follow the model of Copenhagen where bikes outnumber cars? Could trading in our gas-guzzlers for e-bikes help us tame climate change? 

To hear Jody’s answers to those questions, listen to the episode below, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

And please tell me in the comments below:

• What was your first bike?
• Are electric bicycles the future or a form of cheating?
• Should our cities allocate more protected space for bicycles? Should they eliminate street parking? Should they ban cars altogether?

I look forward to discussing with you below. :)

Episode Notes

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