How the Bike helped bring Auto Industry to Detroit

A wonderful, photo filled, essay on the subject was published in the Detroit News a few months ago.

It was no accident of history, no mysterious collision of cosmic forces, that caused the auto industry to take root in the city of Detroit. It was bound to happen here sooner or later.

The reasons? The bicycle, for one.

In the late nineteenth century, the young city of Detroit was already obsessed with wheels. It was home to a myriad of small shops making carriages and bicycles. These shops were filled with tinkerers for whom the simple idea of adding a motor to a wheeled contraption seemed obvious.

Early precursors to the bicycle had emerged in Europe in the first half of the last century, and by the 1890's bicycling was the craze in Detroit.

Faded clippings from the newspapers of the day suggest that the use of bicycles was almost universal, with 80 percent of the city's population racing around town on them. Outnumbered pedestrians feared crossing the roads.

The collection of photos accompanying the piece are a wonderful trip down back through history.

Cyclists even risked the Wrath of God as seen from this Shakespeare quote by an angry preacher:

"Out, out, thou strumpet Fortune!
Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel,
And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven
As low as to the fiends!"

Other preachers, though, put bike racks out in front of the church! ;-D

When Motorists whine about how the streets were meant ONLY for cars you can point to this article, and and the fact that...

"Historians attribute the automobile's explosion of growth in Detroit to the network of superior roads built for bicyclists."

We Cyclists can proudly, and LOUDLY, brag that WE invented the Traffic Jam! ( Check out the collection of photos for picture proof, if you doubt that claim. )

Hee, hee. ;-D

THE DETROIT NEWS: How the bicycle put Detroit on wheels By Vivian M. Baulch.

A long delayed Tip of the Hat to Fritz, of Cyclicious.

He sent me a note back in February in response to this story I reported on:

The "counterculture" etching was boneheaded, destructive, and counterproductive indeed. The streets, however, were originally built for bicycles and they continue to be funded by and built for multiple users, not just car drivers.  Even outside of this historical context, cycling is a superior way to get around in NYC.

A superior way to get around most great American Cities.

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