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Old June 24th 19, 01:58 AM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
jOHN b.
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Default When Cyclists Made Up an Entire Political Bloc

On Sun, 23 Jun 2019 14:06:48 -0700 (PDT), Chalo
wrote:

In the early days of cycling, it was the pastime of rich fux, which gave it a certain implied legitimacy. Then for a time, it was the leading edge of high tech, to the point that the US government opened a second patent office just to serve cycling-related patents. So when this coalition of rich fux and tech boffins (and folks who aspired to be them) asked for some decent pavement, we started to get decent pavement.

It was the moral equivalent of today's public resources being thrown around to develop 5G, or yesterday's public resources being squandered to subsidize jet travel or freeways or railroads. Then as now, the rich and influential can use other people's money to get what they want. Sometimes it works out for those who pay the cost, and sometimes it doesn't. In the case of Good Roads, I think it worked in favor of almost everybody.



That makes a nice story but I did research the subject at some length
and yes, cyclists did complain loudly about the rough roads but the
real reason for making smooth roads in the U.S. was due to the rapid
growth of automobile ownership in the early years of the 20th century.
https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of...-roads-4077442

As for bicycles being used by the rich, I believe that exactly the
opposite is correct as the tremendous growth in bicycle use in the
very late 1800's and early 1900's must have been largely a growth in
use by the middle class. In fact I would suggest that "rich folks" as
a class were probably among the lowest participants in the cycling
craze. After all, one had the coachman and a horse and carriage, why
would one want to ride a bicycle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bike_boom
https://patch.com/minnesota/southwes...e-of-the-1890s
--
cheers,

John B.

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