Positive Cycling Propaganda from Arlington Country (Virginia)

Typically the word "propaganda" is not given a positive spin - Wikipedia says, "While the term propaganda has acquired a strongly negative connotation by association with its most manipulative and jingoistic examples . . . propaganda in its original sense was neutral, and could refer to uses that were generally benign or innocuous . . . " and that "Propaganda is a form of communication aimed towards influencing the attitude of the community toward some cause or position by presenting only one side of an argument. Propaganda statements may be partly false and partly true. Propaganda is usually repeated and dispersed over a wide variety of media in order to create the chosen result in audience attitudes."



It seems pretty clear that Arlington County wants this new video it has produced to influence community attitudes towards cycling. Yes. The video is described here.

As Arlington's bicycle program, BikeArlington's mission is to get more Arlingtonians biking more often, whether they're commuting, shopping, or just having fun. We do this through encouragement as well as education, and what better way to educate our community on bicycling in Arlington than with a documentary on everything that we do to achieve that goal?

Overall the video is well done, although it is a little heavy on County employees (so called "County staff") as talking heads. In particular it would have been nice to have some graphics showing some of this growth in cycling they are talking about and perhaps a map. Also, as someone who lives in south Arlington I note that the outdoor shots are almost entirely from north Arlington (which is where the County admin types work and perhaps focus more of their attention?). One shot of south Arlington, along Four Mile Run (that is on my regular work commute by bike) at 4:58 through 5:05 and again 5:43 through 5:48 shows part of the trail that I know is in Alexandria, not Arlington, because of a recent question I sent to the Arlington bike coordinator about the zig-zag trail that is being installed there (and that is shown in the video). Oops.

Addendum 10/16 -- the mention of Crystal City and the video of streets scenes there, including aerial shots of Boeing's local HQ and the like is in south Arlington but I would suggest is quite different from the rest of it - also, it seems that Crystal City is mentioned since the big corporations gave $250,000 to start Capital Bikeshare there. (Which I didn't know. Interesting.) Anyway, the more I think it over, the more I am (slightly) annoyed that they couldn't do a little better to show more of the cycling infrastructure further than a few miles from their offices in north Arlington.

Addendum #2 10/16 -- at 8:30 the talking head person says that "the goal is [for Arlington] to become the best biking city on the east coast; the Country board set the goal for staff [i.e., the Country employees] . . . " - as a goal, I find this disappointing. Really, we are conceding leadership to Portland or Seattle or ??? What the heck. Why.

"Pleasure-Cycling" - a How-to Book From 1895

In 1895 the publisher deposited a copy of this book in compliance with copyright law at the Library of Congress - and it has been digitized and made available online.

LC control no. 04011762
LCCN permalink http://lccn.loc.gov/04011762
Type of material Book (Print, Microform, Electronic, etc.)
Personal name Clyde, Henry.
Main title Pleasure-cycling, by Henry Clyde.
Published/Created Boston, Little, Brown & co., 1895.
Description 186 p. illus. 18 cm.
Subjects Cycling.
Additional formats Also available in digital form on the Internet Archive Web site.
LC classification GV1041 .C64
http://archive.org/details/pleasurecycling00clyd


Title page - the free spirit (mostly) approach to cycling

This book is a fairly low-key introduction to cycling:

Ti this little book, the writer, looking back to his own days of inexperience in cycling, has endeavored to furnish some useful information and advice to those who intend joining the army of wheelmen, or who, in their first season on the road, are beginning to appreciate the healthy pleasure which cycling brings. The book being especially intended to aid the amateur rider of the safety bicycle in the intelligent use of his wheel, the writer has kept that purpose closely in view, and has not included matters aside from it; such, for example, as the history of the development of the bicycle, and training for track and road racing.

The LC copy still has its original cover, although a bar code sticker has (sadly) been applied to it.


Cover


A somewhat minimalistic explanation of what the parts of a bike are

Note what is missing - no brakes (or even a single brake)! This was a fixed gear bike, so mostly you would stop it by slowing down your pedaling. You could also apply a foot to the front wheel.

Chapters:
I. The Poetry of Motion .... 11
II. Choosing a Bicycle 31
III. How to Ride 63
lY. Taking Care of a Bicycle . . . 103
V. Dress and Equipment 123
VI. Cycling and Health 141
VII. On the Road 165


Sample illustration

Cycling gratifies the love of adventure which is latent in everybody. You may make a little journey into the world on your wheel, and, although you travel but a hundred miles from your home, you will be surprised to find how much of interest and amusement you meet along new roads, and among fresh faces and unfamiliar landscapes.

At less than 200 pages, this is a nice introduction to how cycling would have been introduced to a new rider in the 1890s.

Portland Oregon and Politfacts Not So Much

Here I generally find cyclists assume that the folks in Portland (Ore) and Seattle are advanced in their thinking about cycling - but when examined more closely, it doesn't always seem so.

For example, here the Oregon version of Politfact looks at how many bicycles can fit in a single parking place (for a car).

The Oregon Politfact analyst doesn't care for the citation that Congressman Blumenauer's office used - somehow that seems like a less important question than whether the statement is factually accurate or not.

So 12 is the highest number of bicycle anyone will see in an area the size of a parking space. Two-tiered bike racks are available online but are primarily designed for commercial storage and retail bike storage and display. Several commercial racks hold as many as 20 bikes in 20 feet, but they need to be mounted to a wall or ceiling and aren’t really designed for outdoor use.

Actually there is no particular reason why this discussion should be limited to outdoors - the question is how many bicycles can fit into the same space that would be taken up by a car, not whether it is indoors or outdoors.


Public parking in the Netherlands that provide high density with two levels of bikes parked in space where there would be one level of cars

There is nothing that technologically complex about this, but it does reflect a recognition that in the Netherlands there are so many bicycles to be parked that it makes sense to have such parking available. Whether that makes sense in the US or not is separate from whether it is possible.


An example from Brazil - a managed facility using simpler technology that is nevertheless fairly high density (although perhaps not 20 per space)

I was surprised to see a blog post from the Seattle Bike Blog extolling the virtues of a new segment of bike lanes near where I used to live (before 1990) - really, this is a big advance?


This isn't very impressive, Seattle

At 10 seconds in, the cyclist in the picture looks over his shoulder with great attentiveness since he must change lanes - the bike lane on this portion of roadway is ending and to continue with the bike lane (that from here is about three blocks away) he has to switch lanes to the left while traveling uphill with zippy car traffic coming up from behind. Then he travels a long block on 75th that is described in the video as "not bike-friendly" which is accurate (I have been back riding there since 1990~), finally turning onto Roosevelt to enter the new segment of bike lane. Which the video notes has been labeled by NIMBY residents as an effort to destroy that neighborhood - with all of ten blocks of bike lane!

OK, I'm being overly negative - but it is somewhat deflating that Seattle that is supposed to be advanced in this area still has struggles over improvements that are not terribly impressive. But that's a partial picture - I am particularly impressed (at a distance) by the implementation of dedicated bicycle "greenways" such as one in Ballard (a neighborhood in northwest Seattle).

Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb?

So here is an item from the Library of Congress with more quite a lot of metadata, but somehow I had not noticed it while searching for "bicycles" but found it while searching for "cycling" - the title is "cycling" so it came right up. (I confess, as photographs go, it isn't much . . . ) If I understand the "summary" correctly, this item is likely a posed photograph in order to create the cover of some sheet music.

Alas despite all this metadata, one searchable term is misspelled - "tandem" bicycle is rendered as "tanden bicycle" - when (or it feels like, if) I get back to working I will suggest it is corrected. (Somewhat to my surprise, we have a photograph of Danny Kaye riding a tandem bicycle from 1958 available publicly. Anyway, a search on loc.gov of "tandem bicycle" does bring up results, just not this one.) The digitized item showing a couple riding in front of Grant's tomb was made from a copy negative - that is, it is a copy of a copy - which explains some, but I suspect not all, of why it isn't a digital image showing much detail.)


Riding in front of Grant's tomb

Title Cycling
Creator(s) Scott & Van Altena, copyright claimant
Date Created/Published c1907.
Medium 1 photographic print.
Summary Lantern slide proof print, probably for a song. Photograph shows a smiling young couple on the road riding a tanden bicycle near Grant's Tomb in New York City; the young woman at the front looks partially back towards the man.
Reproduction Number LC-USZ62-21830 (b&w film copy neg.)
Rights Advisory No known restrictions on publication.
Call Number SSF - Bicycles and Tricycles [item] [P&P]
Repository Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Notes
* No. 10.
* Copyright by Scott & Van Altena, New York, N. Y.
* Title from item.
Subjects
-Bicycles & tricycles--New York (State)--New York--1900-1910.
-Cyclists--New York (State)--New York--1900-1910.
-Cycling--New York (State)--New York--1900-1910.
-Tombs & sepulchral monuments--New York (State)--New York--1900-1910.
-General Grant National Memorial (New York, N.Y.)
Format
-Lantern slides--Reproductions--1900-1910.
-Photographic prints--1900-1910.
Collections Miscellaneous Items in High Demand
Bookmark This Record: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2011661553/

Oral Histories and Early Cycling

I'm still trying to understand some of the new search interface on the Library of Congress site.

I found that that the full text of interviews in the Folklore Project, Life Histories, 1936-39 of the U.S. Work Projects Administration, Federal Writers' Project is searchable - this includes interviews about "transportation," which is interpreted rather loosely.

I found one interview, for example, with one "Art Botsford" of Connecticut - the interview was performed in 1939 but the subject is mostly cycling, apparently in the 1890s.

I had a lot of fun on that old bicycle. Guess I told you about some of the trips I took didn't I? When I got through with that bike I sat down and figured up my mileage, and I found out that I'd been clear around the world, if I'd gone in a straight line.

“Yessir, I'd been over twenty-five thousand miles. Went over three hundred and sixty-five miles one week. Never did a century run, though I could've, easy as not. Some fellers used to see how many of them they could run up. A great trip was up to Springfield and back. That's fifty miles each way. You were supposed to make it same day, of course.

“I got out the shop one day at four o'clock. At twenty-six minutes after, I was down in Dexter's drug store in Waterbury, drinkin' a sody. How's that for scorchin'?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Back in ' ninety-three I was down in Washington, D.C., time they had the convention of the League of American Wheelmen. They was three-four fellers stayin' in the same hotel with me from Springfield, had those Eagle wheels.

“One mornin' they got an old tomato can and got out in the street in front of the hotel and batted that thing around with their wheels just like they were playin' polo. Boy, I tell you they was good at it. They'd practiced it to home, you see. They had a crowd of people around watchin' ‘em before they got through.

“Some people here in town had them Eagles; others had the ones with the big wheel in front. I remember one lad, I'm not goin' to tell you his name. He used to get so drunk he couldn't stand on his feet, but put him on a wheel and he'd ride as straight as you please.

“Of course if he hit a bump he was apt to go tail over spindle buggy and when he fell off, he couldn't get up. Somebody had to help him on the wheel again, then he was all right.

“I see some of them take some nasty falls. Roads was pretty bad in them days, and it paid to use brakes comin' down a hill. Bidwell's hill was one of the worst. It was sandy as hell at the bottom, and when you hit that sand you was apt to go right over the handle bars.

“I come down there with a feller from Naugatuck one time, a new rider, I told him he better use his brake, but he said no, he didn't want to. He hit the sand and off he went tail over spindle buggy. Him and the wheel landed over in the bushes. Front wheel just crumpled up like paper. I pulled him out and he was groanin' and cussin'. Had a busted arm, I got him down to the nearest house and they went for the doctor.

“Great times, great times, on the bicycles. Then the automobiles come along . . . . .

And Now We're . . . . . Back. On the Internet. Hmm.

At first my employer, the Library of Congress turned much of the LOC.gov website off (other than Congress.gov and Thomas.loc.gov that are legislative information for and about Congress).

Anyway, by October 3 it was already decided that wasn't necessary (or something) so now you can go and search for bicycles among the online collections of LC to your heart's content while the staff are on furlough.

Hmm.

Kickstarter Your Solution to Cycling's Dangers

I wasn't intending to do consecutive posts on Kickstarter bicycle-related projects, but I bumped into a news item that brought another example of a bicycling related Kickstarter to my attention:

"Rideye is a black box for bicyclists-There are ways to get from point A to B other than driving a car. There’s the bus, walking, or bicycling . . . The most dangerous method of the aforementioned list though, is riding your bike."

Rideye solves this by providing evidence of motorist bad behavior for your future court case- you know, after you are injured. The story goes on (since it a "coolest gadgets" site) to talk about the many technical attributes of the device (that I'm not much interested in - and I'm not going to address the "most dangerous" statement, which is based on ???).


This oversubscribed Kickstarter makes a compelling argument for a product to insure your safety - well, actually not so much

The device's main claim to being a "black box" rather than simply a GoPro Hero clone is that it has a crash sensor that stops the recording (in the event of a crash ~) - this may seem superfluous except that since the device records in a 2.5 hour loop, if it didn't shut off when there is a crash, it could easily record over your evidence. (I personally find this the weakest aspect of the whole idea - if I'm going to video what happens on the chance of an accident, I for sure want video of what happens after the accident, like audio of the driver when he/she jumps out of their car and shouts, "oh my God, I didn't see you! It's all my fault." Oh well. You don't get that with this because it will have shut down.)

I get the idea that if a motorist does something illegal and you record it on video you have some better chance in court, but I don't get how that helps with safety in the usual sense. While aviation blackboxes are in part about assigning blame they are mostly about trying to prevent future crashes by understanding past ones. How a blackbox that helps assign blame helps making a particular cyclist who buys one more safe is not at all clear. The Kickstarter states, "Last year my friend was seriously injured in a hit-and-run doing the thing he loved most, and I promised him he would never have to ride with that fear again." If by having a camera to record your crashes you somehow feel better protected against the physical injuries you might suffer, there is some logic working there that I don't get. At all.

Not to say that video isn't useful for legal cases involving cyclists who are involved in accidents that are not their fault - it can be. There is a very long (and depressing) blog post on GreaterGreaterWashington that described in detail how a cyclist used Metro DC police video to show he was not at fault (and despite police assumptions that he, the cyclist, was at fault). So if you want to have video of you riding for that reason, for evidence, that's great - but it does nothing for safety. The Kickstarter's statement, "Let's make cycling safer for everyone" is simply baloney.


In the first few seconds sample Rideye camera records copious evidence that will cause no end of legal troubles if he later crashes

Where I live and ride (Virginia and also ride in D.C.) we have contributory negligence - in fact, we have pure contributory negligence, which means that if my negligence as a cyclist contributed to the accident even 1 percent, I may be unable to get $ from someone whose 99 percent of negligence caused me harm. So if I was going to use this device, it would be important to record my own legally pristine cycling behavior at all times, or else what's the point? In the above "sample video" at 22 seconds, the cyclist rides between a parked car and a car in a traffic lane - so if the car door opens or something else happens, what is the defense? "The space was wider than my handlebars, so going into it at 12 to 15 mph made excellent sense."


From Russia, without the slightest love, a bike crash video from a bike cam - it's ok, he survives apparently with no serious injury

As a completely different way to think about this, I would point out that for cars, Russia leads the way with dashboard cameras used in this sort of blackbox let's-record-possible-evidence-in-case-we-crash kind of way. (And to my surprise, I found the above example of a bike cam video from Russia, too.) Doesn't this validate the Rideye Kickstarter? Well, sure, if you want to agree that for cyclists America = Russia. And based on the GreaterGreaterWashington blog post, maybe that is true. But keep in mind what the situation is in today's Russia - if you don't have video evidence, the first problem you have is with police bribery (not the courts) - in other words, you want to have video evidence so that you don't get in a bidding war with other drivers over how the accident is described by the Russian traffic cops. "But officer, my video shows . . . " And of course none of this Russian dash board cam stuff has improved the safety as far as how Russian drivers operate their vehicles even one iota - search "russia dash cam crash compilation" in Google if you don't believe me. (Also, you can look at the relevant portion of the entry in Wikipedia about Russian transportation - hey, didn't I get a master's degree about transportation in that country? No, since it was 30 years ago it was about Soviet transportation, so a different country. But . . . same Russians.)

Is it really that bad here? And is this really useful for cyclists?

Personally my impression from comments on the videos is that mostly people look at this and compare it pricewise to GoPro Hero products - they want video of their cycling, not possible evidence.

Kickstarter - Not a (Bike) Store. Really??

I once saw one of the founders of Kickstarter speak at a conference. He was quite charismatic, in a laid-back hipster kind of way. But then I'm old.

About a year ago I noticed that Yancey and some of his other Kickstarterizing colleagues had a blog post to make absolutely positively clear that Kickstarter is not a store!!! "It's hard to know how many people feel like they're shopping at a store when they're backing projects on Kickstarter, but we want to make sure that it's no one."

Well, maybe. But in less than two minutes I found evidence otherwise. Searching for projects using the simple keyword "bicycle."

First off, we have "Fortified" that will kickstart a company to sell bike lights that last forever. Actually, they already kickstarted a theft-resistant bike light that I blogged about, which was a success (apparently) but now they are ready to move from theft resistant lighting to lasts-forever lighting - as an anti-capitalist attempt to keep big companies from selling us cyclists more crappy lighting (and other stuff - but they are starting with lights).


Fortified - kick in some $tarter money and you'll get some lights - but remember, it's not a store!

Mostly I have no problem with this product per se - in particular, the idea of fighting big corporations that sell people crap (so that they can sell it to us again later, again) is appealing. I am somewhat surprised that it is apparently appealing to others since this Kickstarter is over-subscribed by four-to-one and still has time to go. Wow!

But keep in mind, my comment today is that Kickstarter claims it is not a store. But here, other than nine people who signed up for a T-shirt, all the backers of this Kickstarter (and there are 845 of these supporters as of today) are backing at levels that insure (in theory) they got some of the early lights produced. Isn't signing up early to buy stuff something you can do at a store? (Like Amazon.)

My counter example is of a project that has effectively zero support because (I think) it isn't selling anything that anyone wants.


This is a good idea for developing world cyclists, but not so popular with Kickstarter "shoppers" (or however we are to refer to them)

In fact integrated shift-brake units are annoying and increase repair costs. My 1982 road bike with separate shifters on the down tube that are mechanically not much more complicated than what she is suggesting are very low maintenance, particularly compared to the combined Shimano 6700 Ultegra "brifters" (combined brake-shift units) that regularly eat shift cables and one stopped working altogether on one bike, requiring replacement. Ugh!

This simple easy to manufacturer, one-size-fits-all shift unit would be great for developing countries.

So, how much support for this project that could easily simplify life for thousands of Africans, how much support is there? Well, as of today, she has reached two (2) percent of her $10,000 goal with 31 days to go. She has four friends (one assumes) who have signed up at a funding level that would give them a "collectible bike shift lever" but . . . it just isn't as exciting an opportunity, apparently, as buying dramatic lighting systems for one's own bike.

Arguably regardless of what Kickstarter's principals wrote on this topic, it appears there could be some confusion among visitors of the Kickstarter site and some relate to it as a store.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sidebar comment about "last forever" bike lighting - bicycle lighting in this country is getting better steadily - a little slowly in some respects (I think) but the problem with saying a light would "last forever" is that it suggests that in a couple of years you won't want something else simply because better stuff has come on the market. I myself am in this situation, although I am trying to not be wasteful and buy some new thing when the old one works OK - but still, I have a 100 lumen light that has a rather substantial separate battery that was typical four years ago and now the whole thing could be the size of the light unit. And twice as powerful - but I'm not sure I even want that much light.

The "Fortified" lights are fine for lumens and battery power (I suppose) but I suspect that they are typical for how narrow and focused the light beam is - which is, not very. This is incredibly annoying as more and more cyclists trundle along trails at each other seeing who can blind whom first. The Fortified 300 lumen headlight, as the company itself puts it, "lights up the whole road" - well, great, but actually that isn't what is wanted. In Germany I'm told they have standards for such things - anyway, it is hard to imagine that we have reached bicycle headlight nirvana today and that whatever I buy today, at any price, I would want forever.

Russian Boy Madly Cycling, 1977

On my Flickr account where I keep images of cycling from various public domain sources I also have been uploading digitized photos from when I was in Russia, in Leningrad mostly, in the 1970s.

I only seem to have a few that involve bicycles, and all are of children on bikes.


Taken when I was living in then-Leningrad in spring, 1977

This little boy probably wasn't happy that I was taking his picture, so perhaps that explains his rush. This generation of urban Russians probably included many who didn't learn how to ride a bicycle - Russia is a much smaller market for purchase of bicycles than the U.S., even today - something like 4 million bicycles sold in 2012 versus close to 19 million in the U.S. (including kids' bikes). While at first glance it looks like a reasonable little bike, it is actually rather sad - I don't think those can be inflatable tires but are rather solid rubber (or something) so it would be a fairly rough ride. Everything about it looks under-built. On the plus side, it cannot have been particularly heavy, which is the downfall of most modern kids' cheap bikes - overbuilt of cheap heavy metal so that a kid's bike weighs as much as an adult's bike


For Lenin's birthday, Soviets would do a public spring cleaning on one weekend in April

This photo, also taken in 1977, shows two children with what appears to be better bicycles - small wheels but with inflatable tires, at least. (The second one is towards the middle and facing away from the camera.) So perhaps for some "upper middle class Soviet urban folks" (or whatever one would describe them as) of that period, having a bicycle for one's (usually only) child was not unusual.

How Not to Drive a Bus

It has been more than two years since I had a blog post about crummy bus driving from Dillon's Bus Co., the folks who in my view provide the best (or worst) examples of how not to operate a transit vehicle in the District of Columbia.


Having cut me off, the bus ends up occupying two lanes

Here is my email sent to Dillon's yesterday after I encountered the bus shown above on my commute home:

Complaint: Your bus, I believe 9167 but the license plate is clearly visible in the attached, was following me on my bicycle on Independence Ave SW heading west around 4:30 pm. Between 3rd and 4th he moved to the left lane, to pass me on my bicycle. Moving at around 20 mph. However a passenger was waiting for him at 4th so he then moved back into the right lane, cutting me off.

I will grant he signaled his lane change. I could see the person who was waving him down, so it was no surprise to me that he was going to try to move into my lane.

This left his bus, as shown in the photo, with the back end occupying almost all of the second lane out and the front end occupying the curb lane, blocking traffic at the light (before it changed). I rode around him to take this photo.

* If you have a bus stop in the next block, is it really wise to try to pass a road bike? I am legally entitled to my lane.

* Isn't blocking two lanes while stopping to pick up passengers frowned on by Dillon's? It should be. If the driver had stayed in his lane behind me he would have arrived at the stop approximately 2 seconds later than he did and been completely in the curb lane where he and his bus belong.

Thanks for your attention.

Yes, I have written before. I am aware that people who complain more than once are often ignored as "serial complainers" - fine. Have it your way, if that's your way.

I added the last part because after my first email Dillon's stopped answering - but I only write like once a year, so this is hardly that often. If their drivers drove buses safely I wouldn't have to write at all.

I was a city bus driver for 12 years, although this was quite a while ago. Still, I know poor driving when I see it.

Stereographs in Twitch Mode - Example

GIF made with the NYPL Labs Stereogranimator
L. A. W., bicycle race, safety, the finish. 1865?-1880? 1890

A little random cycling fun from New York Public Library - for more, look here.

Yikes.

Dear Abby, Cyclists, and the Law

In a recent column titled "Bicyclists need to follow the laws, too," the syndicated advice maven Abigail Van Buren (who it turns out is her daughter, who owns the rights to being Dear Abby, per Wikipedia) answers a typical complaint of the "those lawbreaker cyclists!" type.

The thing is copyrighted, so I can't reproduce it here. The Chicago Times has it here if you want to read it.

The main point of the writer is, "Bicyclists are supposed to abide by the vehicle codes, too, but they rarely do — and that includes not wearing protective gear." The writer then list some illegal acts of cyclists, such as texting while riding and failing to stop at stop signs. So what is her question to Abby? "How many lives must be destroyed or lost before the police start enforcing penalties for the danger these people cause to others?"

Abby doesn't offer a guess as the number. Of lives that will be lost. Or offer anything of use or related to reality. On this planet, anyway.

In the typical meme of contemporary journalism (of a sort) she suggests that perhaps the lack of enforcement is a conspiracy - that police are instructed to go out and fail to enforce traffic laws for cyclists. She asks for law enforcement officials reading the column to comment on that aspect.

I guess one should give Abby credit for possibly being concerned about the lives of the cyclists, since she seems to think many of them are suicidal for wearing dark clothing when riding and even riding after dark! Apparently typical state laws concerning bicycle lighting requirements are unknown to Abby. She more or less ignores the danger that the writer is referring to, which is to those others than the cyclists.


Due to a law non-enforcement conspiracy, this scofflaw cyclist is not being ticketed for crossing against the light - but it's OK with Dear Abby; he has protective gear and a high visibility vest on.

As cyclists who ride a lot know, often enough the way law enforcement works is to have goal-oriented projects, which can and do include, "go out and write X many tickets for cyclists at location Y." I myself got a $50 ticket on Hains Point for running a particular stop sign. (Which was fine - we don't have an Idaho bicycle stop law here.) The Park Police officer told me, "my boss told me to go out and write tickets for cyclists failing to stop at this stop sign so I can't give you a warning." He thanked me for not complaining but didn't stop writing the ticket.

So there is some good and some bad to Abby's response - she doesn't appear to buy into the "scofflaw cyclists are a huge threat to others" point that the writer makes (that's good) but then appears to open a new subject, which is that cyclists who get into accidents may well bring it upon themselves by not wearing the right color clothing (which is absurd). And she suggests that the police are under orders not to ticket cyclists (presumably out of some kind of political correctness?) which is hilarious.

Hmm.

Tuesday Congressional Bike Ride

During the summer, several times on my commute to work on Tuesday mornings I would see groups like this of riders escorted by U.S. Capitol Police on their mountain bikes escorting folks who are presumably members of Congress and staff members (or other guests). The numbers varied. This was on Tuesday September 10.


Terrible cell phone photo

On this occasion they and I were sitting on opposite sites of the street waiting for the light. Apparently this is a good weather Tuesday morning regular thing for those who are interested. In this case, you have three riders escorted (accompanied?) by five police on bikes. The Suburban SUV behind them is apparently their SAG wagon.


A high level U.S. diplomat commuting to work in 1914

It isn't clear to me when members of Congress might have taken an interest in cycling - that would require some research, I suppose. I do know of this fellow (shown above), Alvey Adee, was one of the highest government officials of the early 20th century who was known for his cycling prowess, riding to and from work into his 70s. He also took trips to Europe where the purpose was to cycle through France and the like.

Cycling & the Law, 1890s

I was reminded that JSTOR now makes available U.S. journal articles published before 1923 that are in the public domain -- I searched on "bicycle." I was very surprised by the number of articles retrieved in legal journals about bicycle cases. I also found a review of the book The Road Rights and Liabilities of Wheelmen, (by George B. Clementson, of the Wisconsin Bar. Price 5o cents. Chicago: Callaghan & Co., 1895). The review states, "The bicycle as a means of locomotion has evidently come to stay. This essay is therefore opportunely published to define the status of the wheel and to give information to riders of their rights and duties in respect to the public highway. Mr. Clementson has made a successful and exhaustive collection and digest of the decided cases and where there are none upon important points he has ably reasoned from analogy. We commend the book to every wheelman."


This bucolic view of cycling doesn't represent all the potential legal ramifications . . .

It is possible to see the full book that has been digitized from the University of Michigan in Hathitrust.
http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001611925

The road rights and liabilities of wheelmen, with table of contents and list of cases.

Preface - The bicycle as a practical vehicle is comparatively recent. Only within the last decade has this means of locomotion and travel assumed an importance which justifies the statement that it is to-day one of the principal agents of passenger transportation. Its comparative novelty of course precludes the wheel from very extensive notice, as yet, by the courts. Yet bicycle law is not lacking, and is constantly receiving accessions. Many important questions in regard to the rights and liabilities of bicyclers are daily arising, and a solution of these is frequently sought by resort to the judicial tribunals. Few of these suits ever reach the courts of last resort; and in consequence the reported cases are not rich in bicycle law, though they contain enough upon the subject to pretty clearly define the status of the wheelman.

Notwithstanding the absence of much case law, the book runs on for 200 pages. The amount of discussion of which roads are available to riders and why alone makes one feel like perhaps the problems we have now aren't so bad.

Human Powered Flying Glider-Bicycle

Pre-WWI French "Aviette", from the Library of Congress

It can be amusing to look through the Flickr Commons doing searches for keywords (like bicycle!) to see what is available. People often add more searchable tags so that photos with bicycles in the background will be part of the search result that otherwise would be missed.


Photo in Flickr Commons identified as having a bicycle in it - but pretty hard to find!

What to Avoid in Cycling - 1895 Article

An 1895 article concludes regular cyclists may suffer from a general vibratory condition which is mischievous and may develop an intoxication of movement among other problems. . .

The usually fee-based JSTOR has articles that are in the public domain loaded in the Internet Archive text section which is nice but they aren't particularly searchable, other than minimal metadata such as journal title, article title and author.

For example, I bumped into the article "What to avoid in cycling" from the North American Review, published in 1895. For whatever reason, the Internet Archive only gives the volume number (161) that tells you this was published in the 161st year that this journal was published, but not what year that was - then I realized you can go to the same article in JSTOR where there is better metadata.

The author Richardson is a medical doctor but his observations are a little broader than what one might expect. He also uses a somewhat extreme version of the kind of prose you meet if you read much from this time period.

From the first my impressions have been always in favor of cycling, and, to some extent, the expression of that favor on certain public occasions has, I think, helped to popularize the movement. I believe the exercise has been of the greatest service to large numbers of people. It has made them use their limbs; it has called out good mental qualities, and it has taken away from close rooms, courts and streets, hundreds of thousands of persons who would otherwise never have had the opportunity of getting into the fresh air and seeing the verdant fields and woods, the lakes and rivers, and the splendid scenery that adorn our land.

So far so good, assuming one can live with this sort of writing style. He soon transitions from positive comments about cycling, however . . .

There are dangers from cycling. The first is the danger of teaching the practice to subjects who are too young. Properly, cycling should not be carried on with any ardor while the body is undergoing its development — while the skeleton, that is to say, is as yet imperfectly developed. The skeleton is not completely matured until twenty-one years of life have been given to it.
. . . . .
We see these errors particularly well marked in the young, now that the cross-bar system of the cycle has come so generally into use. The tendency in riding is for the body to bend forward so as to bring itself almost into the curve of the front wheel, and in this position many riders hold themselves for hours, and the spine more or less permanently assumes the bent position. In plain words, the column becomes distorted, and through the whole life affects the movements of the body.

This rider from the 1890s looks like she could be exposing herself to health risks of various kinds, according to Dr. Richardson

But wait! It gets better - I particularly like this . . .

There is often developed in the cyclist a general vibratory condition of the body which is mischievous and is shown in various acts of movement and thought. There are certain unconscious or semi-unconscious movements of the body which become sensible to the subject himself at particular moments when great steadiness is called for, as, for instance, when sitting for a photograph. There is also shown an over desire for rapidity of motion, as if it were necessary at every moment to overcome time and curtail distance by labor of an extreme degree. Lastly, there is developed a kind of intoxication of movement which grows on the mind by what it feeds on and keeps the heart under the impression that it is always requiring the stimulation of the exercise.

New Video Player to Embed from Library of Congress

Title Stanford University, California

Created/Published United States : Edison Manufacturing Co., 1897. Format Film, Video Dates 1897 Location California, Palo Alto Language English Subjects Bicycles, California, College Buildings, College Students, Cyclists, Palo Alto, Palo Alto (Calif.), Stanford University, Stanford, Leland, Universities and Colleges From the Library of Congress, http://www.loc.gov/item/00694307

From F.Z. Maguire catalogue: Taken at the above University, noted the world over, being the personal gift of the late Senator Leland Stanford. The view shows an immense arch in the background through which are seen coming groups of students, some walking, others on bicycles. The figures show life size, clear and distinct. The ivy covered walls of the building form the background to a pleasing picture.

The video doesn't have much cycling action, but the whole thing (not including the LoC "bumpers" (ie, branding) doesn't last a full minute. There are two cyclists seen at the beginning, casually riding with those on foot, and one just barely visible at the end.

This player has "embed" code available directly from the LoC site, which is nice. I guess. But it isn't a player that works with an iPad, so I am actually not so crazy with it, particularly since the same video is available on the LoC YouTube channel and can be more easily embedded from there and plays on an iPad.

Same video but from YouTube

Single Ad for Cycle Shop & "Metadata"

In searching the many websites that provide digitized materials from the 1890s (of particular interest to me) I can say that the amount of "metadata" provided by different organizations for digitized "content" (stuff from their collections) can vary widely. In particular as to whether there is anything relevant to cycling history.


From Путеводитель по Киеву и его окрестностям с адресным отделом, планом и фототипическими видами Киева (Guide to Kiev and its environs . . . 1890)

Thanks to extensive annotations, the World Digital Library generally has more searchable target terms available than many sites. Here is the "description" of the digitized Guide to Kiev and Its Environs, Including an Address Section, Map and Phototype Views of Kiev (1890)

This 1890 guidebook provides comprehensive information for visitors to Kiev. It includes a history of the city and details of places of interest, such as Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, the cathedrals and other churches, historical monuments, public gardens and wooded areas, public and administrative buildings, and bridges over the Dnieper River. Included is useful information for travelers, such as timetables for trains, steamships, and other passenger transport and a directory for hotels, restaurants, doctors, banks, stores, baths, libraries, clubs, and city and church authorities. The guide anticipates by 24 years Baedeker’s guide to Russia and is much more detailed. Also included are maps showing key attractions and local streets. The guide was published at the time when Kiev was becoming a significant industrial center, which is reflected in the directory and advertising section. Pages of advertisements are devoted to various agricultural machines, equipment for steam and water mills, pipes, steel for building railroads and bridges, steam engines and boilers, and other industrial products. More personal items on offer include fabrics, bicycles, hats, wine, fruit trees, furniture, and teas.

I was hoping to find several such ads, but it turned out there was just the one ad for a bicycle shop, B. Kaul'fus (as rendered in Cyrillic, here transliterated). Although Ukraine became the center of bicycle production in the Soviet Union, the bicycles for sale at this time in Kiev are said to be imports from Germany and England. This was very early in the days of "safety bicycles," that is bicycles with two equal sized wheels and use of a chain to transmit power from pedals to rear wheel rather than a "penny farthing" high wheel bicycle. It is somewhat remarkable that for a single ad bicycles are mentioned in the annotation.

Of course there are costs to everything - with its lengthy detailed annotations in seven languages, there are only somewhere just over 8,000 items in the World Digital Library. Few have anything to do with cycling history. But what there is can it seems be found.

75,000 Pageviews

This is for 433 published blog posts starting in May 2007.

When I started this blog, my main interest was in acquiring some firsthand experience using Blogger and Flickr to present interesting (hopefully) historical information I would find related to cycling in the 1890s in online digitized collections at the Library of Congress and similar institutions, sometimes making comparisons to present day cycling. As it has worked out, I have sometimes blogged about present day cycling with no reference to historical aspects of cycling and have also blogged about periods other than the 1890s. But other than this (and one other) 'meta' blog post that is about blogging (but blogging that is about cycling) my posts are all about cycling, at least.


As of this morning, this blog has had 75,000 pageviews (says Blogger)

I don't really understand my traffic over time. My pageview numbers were increasing fairly steadily until early 2011, and then the growth stopped and in fact the numbers fell off quite a bit. On some level of course it doesn't matter - I don't have any advertising. But I was still pleased that more people were looking at the stuff I had assembled. (The numbers were not and have never been influenced for this blog by "referer spam" overall - from time to time one of those sites will appear briefly in my stats, then disappear after a few days. The falloff can't be attributed to that.)

This blog is a little different than most because on a typical day I get most of the traffic from Google searches - that was true at the pageview high point and is true now. People are mostly not visiting because the are regular visitors of this blog but because they did a Google search on "Conan Doyle bicycle" and came to the blog post I did on his statement about the benefits of cycling. (My main contribution is that I extracted from the Scientific American article everything he said and not just the line usually quoted plus I show you the page as published.)

For a while I would try to be clever and come up with blog posts that I thought would be appealing for some other "bike bloggers" who are vastly more popular to link to - as a result, the Washcycle blog appears in my "all time" stats - but the decrease in the traffic can't be (much) attributed to my not doing that any more, either.

I find it hard to believe that the amount of searching for bicycle related topics that brought traffic to this blog has fallen off - my observation would be that the appearance of certain search terms in my "stats" has been remarkably consistent - so I have to wonder if my not taking up the many (insistent, pesky) offers from Blogger to use Google Plus to support my blog has a negative effect in that those bloggers who do use it get a higher page rank in Google search. I suppose I could have been aggressive about trying to connect with people through Google Plus but it seemed pointless for a blog that relies on search.

In the end, I can't know what the reasons are for this. I still blog at least once a week and I still find things to blog about that seem to attract enough pageviews over time to motivate me to keep at it. I still learn about cycling history and about the resources available on the Internet. And I continue to be pleased to see a fair amount of traffic from many other countries.

Cheers.

Bicycle Poster from 1896 / D.C. Bike Theft (Also 1896)

Stormer bicycle poster from the Library of Congress

"As good as money can buy" - from the Acme Manufacturing Co. of Reading, PA. Stormer is referred to as the "model" name rather than the brand of the bicycle.

Title The Stormer Bicycle Recommends Itself
Date Created/Published Cincinnati & New York : Strobirde & Co. Lith., 1896.
Medium 1 print (poster) : color ; 213 x 102 cm.
Summary Young woman in plaid dress rides a Stormer bicycle.
Reproduction Number LC-USZC2-131 (color film copy slide) LC-USZ62-24633 (b&w film copy neg.)
Call Number POS - ADV. 19th c. - Bicycles. S778, no. 8 (in 3 parts) (D size) [P&P]
Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002719901/

As usual with digitized posters, this was digitized not from the original but from a color transparency (slide) made of the original some years ago. The quality of the digital image, if you look closely, is not great if you wanted to print a version, but otherwise fine.

I don't know why the Library hasn't made the images readily downloadable offsite - the item is clearly labeled as published in 1896. I created this JPEG directly from the TIFF and didn't use the relatively low resolution JPEG provided on site at LC.

I don't find much mention of the Stormer Bicycle in digitized newspapers of the time, although the Washington Times includes one in a weekly list of stolen bicycles from Washington DC (!).
Washington Evening Star, September 19, 1896, Page 18

BICYCLES STOLEN - Theft of Nine Wheels Reported During the Week.

During the week ending yesterday the theft of nine bicycles was reported at the police headquarters. At this rate it would seem as though on an average 500 wheels are made away with by unscrupulous persons a year, and, in spite of the rewards and the efforts of the police, a large percentage are never found. Thieves have found bicycle stealing to be a profitable and easy business, owing to the owners leaving them unguarded and unlocked. It is almost a matter of impossibility for policemen to trace stolen wheels unless the latter posses some marked peculiarities. The victims during the week are:

George D. Harning, Central building, 9th street and Pennsylvania avenue, Fowler bicycle. No. 22951.

Ernest H. Elliot, 145 Q street northwest, Victor bicycle, No. 88679.

Wade Luckett, 66 H street northwest. Telegram bicycle. No. 8753.

Willis A. Madden of Howard University, Stormer bicycle, N. 26278.

Horace H. Brower, 9A 9th street. a Horseman bicycle. No. 3336.

Harry W. Higham, Jr., 476 Pennsylvania Avenue northwest, Wilhelm bicycle. No. 242.

Fred Busch, Florida avenue northwest. Crescent bicycle, No. 188727.

A. G. Randall, 800 A street southeast. Wilhelm bicycle, No. 26771.

Allan Baeschlin, 1826 Half street northwest, Elmore bicycle.

Although it is stated that the bicycles are not easily identified, numbers are given for all but one - are these serial numbers or license numbers? Not sure. I suppose mostly like serial numbers.

Guides du cycliste en France: de Paris à Toulouse et aux Pyrénees (1895)

The Internet Archive text archive (mostly books) has a great deal of interesting material, mostly published during the early 20th and late 19th century, but the assignment of subject keywords is not entirely regularized - one often finds surprising gems by trying different things. "Bicycle touring" for example returns only 18 hits - some of the items are advice about how to (do bicycle touring) while others are about particular bicycle tour experiences, although clearly most books in the later category have not been assigned this subject keyword pair (since there would be far more hits).

Among those 18 items I found this French guide from 1895 - Guides du cycliste en France: de Paris à Toulouse et aux Pyrénees published in 1895. My French is fairly poor but I can get a sense of what is being discussed (usually).


The well-preserved cover of Guides du cycliste en France ... from Boston Public Library


Advice on Hygiène

Le voyageur

Hygiène

Les règles d'hygiène que doit s'imposer le touriste cycliste sont fort simples et des moins gênantes; Porter de là flanelle, et en avoir une de rechange pour l'étape. Prendre le plus souvent possible une douche froide très courte ou un bain chaud.

S'abstenir d'alcool : absinthe, liqueurs, chartreuse, apéritifs, etc. Proscrire l'alcool même dans le café.

Ne jamais partir à, jeun. Ne pas fumer en route.

Par les grandes chaleurs de l'étc, porter des conserves en verre fumé pour préserver les yeux de l'éclat éblouissant de la route.

Se faire un couvre-nuque avec un mouchoir pour se préserver des insolations.

Ne jamais forcer l'allure ni chercher à monter des côtes que l'on sent au-dessus de ses forces.

Google Translate renders this thus:

Hygiene rules should impose cycling tourists are very simple and less intrusive; Wear flannel there, and have a spare for the stage. Take as much as possible a very short cold shower or a hot bath.

Abstain from alcohol: absinthe, liqueurs, chartreuse, cocktails, etc.. Outlawing alcohol even in coffee.

Never leave an empty stomach. Do not smoke while driving.

By the great heat of étc, wear canned smoked glass to protect the eyes from the blinding light of the road.

Getting a neck guard with a handkerchief to protect against sunburn.

Never force the pace or trying to climb hills that we feel over its forces.

While there is a certain fractured nature to Google's rendering, generally it is clear enough. The exact advice might be updated in various ways but the issues remain, not surprisingly, the same.


Map of the region of France relevant to this guide

Keating Cycles Poster, 1890s

There is no particular reason to blog about this but why not.


From the Library of Congress

Title Keating cycles. 365 days ahead of them all / Keating Wheel Co., Holyoke, Mass.
Date Created/Published Phila. : Ketterlinus, [189-?]
Medium 1 print (poster) : color.
Summary Man on bicycle, and winged woman with wreath alongside him.
Reproduction Number LC-USZC4-3028 (color film copy transparency)
Library of Congress - http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/94508248/

As is often the case (if not always) with digitized posters at LC, this is not digitized directly from the poster but rather is digitized from a color transparency (slide) that was produced at some point. So the quality is not as good as it would be if digitized directly from the original with the right device. I have cropped down to the poster, leaving out the color bar that is in the image as provided by LC. Also, the online presentation at LC only provides the thumbnail offsite but since the item is clearly in the public domain I have created a derivative image from the TIFF that is better than a thumbnail (and also better than the two JPEGs available if you were at LC) available if you click on the image above.

I am not that knowledgable about art, but I think this poster is mostly noteworthy for the somewhat risque approach used to sell bicycles with the "winged goddess" in a state of semi-undress. There seems to be something not quite right with the perspective so that it appears her nose is buried in the fellow's armpit. Also, the bike is rendered somewhat oddly, for example the headtube appears to be exceptionally long while the chainring is too small - presumably in error.

Video Looking at Cycling in Amsterdam vs NYTimes Depiction

I don't think of Amsterdam's cycling environment as a model for what American cities might aspire to as far as integrating cycling is concerned because after all, let's be realistic - there are just too many differences. Nevertheless it can be interesting to think about the extent of cycling infrastructure there and the use of bicycles for routine trips that Americans typically use cars for and what can be learned, if only piecemeal.


Bicycles in Amsterdam, from Flickr user Scott Rettberg

Lately the NYTimes has had much more extensive coverage of cycling related issues than usual - this is (one assumes) partially a result of the new bikeshare system that New York City has started (that turns out to be hugely successful, but that's a separate conversation). As is often the case, NYTimes coverage is a little peculiar, looking for some "angle." (During the recent Tour de France one of the longest articles about the race in the NYTimes was about the switch to English from French as "the language" of the Tour. Not about the race per se, and not about doping.)

Notwithstanding the apparent growing popularity of cycling represented by the use of the new NYC bikeshare system and other indicators, the NYTimes in effect argued for caution with an article that suggests that "a sea of bikes swamps their capital." Uh oh!! The Video producer "Streetfilms" has done a video response. (I found reference to this on the Seattle Bike Blog.

Are there really too many bikes in Amsterdam? from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

One of the comments for the video points out that the depictions in this video of central Amsterdam make cycling there look particularly chaotic and gives links to other video, on YouTube, of different locales in the Netherlands where there is plenty of cycling but it doesn't look quite so intimidating (to American eyes, at least).

The video has a number of different soundbite length interviews with different folks - one of them is Pete Jordan, the author of "In the City of Bikes" that I read (and reviewed) recently.

Leadership, Cycling, and Putin

President Obama, riding a bike with family while on vacation

President Obama rides a bike from time to time while on vacation - in that bicycling-as-family-activity (that isn't golf but is vaguely sporty) sort of mode. And that's fine. Not an apparent declaration of "manliness" however. (Also fine.)


President Putin (while prime minister), presented a bike in Austria

By comparison, sometimes President, sometimes Prime Minister Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin likes to put on shows of manliness. If he isn't leading Siberian cranes while piloting an ultralight he could be tranquilizing Siberian tigers or God knows what. This article in the New York Times gives some highlights of his manly achievements.

In 2010 the prime minister of Austria tried to give (then) Prime Minister Putin an appropriately manly gift and came up with the mountain bike (shown above).

Later, in 2011, Putin and then President Medvedev went for a bike ride together - however unlike most Putin staged events, this was not very manly. Photographs of President (then prime minister) Putin and Prime Minister (then president) Medvedev - their outing on bicycles. The whole thing seems a little forced - really, they needed to go on a bike ride together? Someone at least decided that they shouldn't ride matching bicycles, so Medvedev has a kind of hybrid thing and Putin has a (nominally more manly) mountain bike - although not the one the Austrians gave him. (The Austrians were perhaps sad about this.)


President Putin shown on Russian television catching a big fish

This sort of thing, wearing camo and out in the wild, is more Putin's idea of manliness that one assumes he thinks maps to leadership in the mind of the average Russian. Of course at this point, Putin has kind of spoiled his brand in this area for more intelligent Russians because so much of this sort of thing is obviously staged. In particular, in August of 2011, a scuba dive in which he brought up ancient amphorae was revealed to have been a set up, with the items he "found" having been put there for him in advance.


Russians are reminded of this Soviet movie in which a character catches a fish that is put on the line for him

So when Russians saw that he had caught a huge pike in a YouTube video or on the evening news, many doubtlessly were reminded of the above scene in a classic Soviet film where a fish is put on the line for someone to catch. Is this that manly? (By the way.)

Of course, there are different kinds of leadership - an article appeared recently about Pope Francis: "Avoid fast cars and ride a bike instead pope tells trainee priests"

Pope Francis revealed that it pains him when he sees a nun or priest driving an expensive car, and he praised the beauty of the bicycle, noting his 54-year-old personal secretary, Msgr Alfred Xuereb, gets around on a bike.

Pope Francis seems OK with bicycles.

People who have nothing better to do than be interviewed on CNN have been worried that he doesn't ride around in a sufficiently tank like vehicle as pope - while in Brazil, a former Secret Service agent in a whiny tone explained that the Pope's "handlers" much be crazy to allow the people of Brazil so much close access to him - and that he used a car and not the armored "PopeMobile." (See this item for example.)


Then President Bush, a more serious mountain bike rider

Different leaders find manliness in different places, though. President Bush (II) was an avid mountain biker.


President Obama attempts to prove something by being photographed firing a shotgun

A bicycle would certainly not have solved this problem (whatever it was) for President Obama. Someone found him a gun. Someone else got a camera.

So perhaps there is no connection between leadership and cycling.

Bicycles, Motorcycles and Old Photographs

Peirce Mill in Rock Creek Park 1918-1920, two cars, one motorcycle, one bicyclec

From the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog
Title Rock Creek Park
Date Created/Published [between 1918 and 1920]
Medium 1 negative : glass ; 4 x 5 in. or smaller
Reproduction Number LC-DIG-npcc-00028 (digital file from original)
Rights Advisory No known restrictions on publication.
Call Number LC-F8- 1543 [P&P]
Link - http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/npc2007000025/

Subjects
Pierce Mill (Washington, D.C.)
Bicycles & tricycles.
Automobiles.
Men.
Women.
Water mills.
Rock Creek Park (Washington, D.C.)
United States--District of Columbia--Washington (D.C.)--Rock Creek Park.

While there quite a few subject headings assigned to this photograph, the person who looked at it was not able to distinguish the motorcycle on the left and the bicycle on the right - early motorcycles were much closer to bicycles in appearance, reflecting their direct evolution from bicycles. Also, it seems clear these are police officers - you can see badges on their jackets and they have the right sort of uniform hats. (See the detail photo below.)

Given where Peirce Mill is in Rock Creek Park in Washington DC, one wonders how it happened that the two officers are together with their different modes of transportation. Are they connected with the women and the cars, and the person just visible in the back of one of the cars?

Peirce Mill has not operated commercially for years but apparently still can be operated for demonstration so in a sense is a working mill - it is used for school programs by the National Park Service and is open for visitors. So, the folks in the photo were on an outing? With policy escort? Another mystery of an old photograph.


Detail showing the two police officers, one with a motorcycle, one with a bicycle

Oddly the Library of Congress has the Mill's name as "Pierce Mill" but the National Park Service web site makes clear it is "Peirce Mill" - I will have to suggest that it be corrected in the LoC database.

"He Jumped" - 14th St Bridge Commute

This week has been pretty warm in the DC area - leaving my house to ride in at 6:30 it has already been 80 degrees (27 C) or higher and fairly humid. I consider these "two bottle" days since instead of just one bottle of Gatorade, I have two bottles, one of which I take frozen from the freezer - by the time I am half way to work, it is drinkable and I'll finish it before arriving.


Taken a different day and of the other end of the bridge, this gives a sense the layout of the pedestrian area on the bridge

This morning I got to the 14th St Bridge that connects Arlington to Washington around 7 AM. Riding onto the bridge, I am on the fenced in pedestrian area that is for foot and bicycle traffic in both directions - it isn't terribly wide given how many cyclists use it these days. About 100 yards (meters) on to the bridge, I saw a backpack sitting on one side, more or less blocking bicycle traffic heading towards me. I have noticed that I don't necessarily transition from "bike thinking" that is mostly reactive and instinctive to other problem solving; anyway, a woman outbound stopped next to the backpack and said something and I shot by in the other direction - then after about ten yards, stopped, turned around, and went back.

"He jumped off the bridge," she said. I was stunned - what?!? This bridge may be 50-60 feet (20 meters) above the water, so as a suicide jumpoff location it isn't suitable, so to speak. And for that reason, one assumes, the fence keeping one from jumping off is fairly low (as shown in the photo). I had not seen this, but the woman had seen some guy who put down his backpack and promptly climbed up and jumped over, just as I approached from the other direction. (How I didn't see this, I still don't understand.) Sitting next to his backpack was his wallet, almost ready to slip over the edge under the rail into the Potomac.

We look over - we see nothing. No guy. So, I mean, what is one to do? A guy drops his stuff and jumps off a bridge, so you call 911. So I did. The 911 operator and I did not have a terribly successful conversation - she seemed amazingly unaware of how the 14 St bridges (there are five of them, including rail bridges) are laid out. Eventually she said that (a) she was sending the police, even though by now we could see the guy, happily swimming (remember, is was quite hot out) not below us but off to one side and studiously ignoring us, above, yelling at him, and (b) that I could leave this location and didn't need to wait for the police.

So I continued on my way to work. The woman, for whatever reason and I have no idea how long, stayed. I also don't know if the police really showed up, or what else happened.

I don't know what my lesson-learned from this bizarre experience was. I mean, sure it was hot, so taking a swim in the Potomac may be a semi-sensible thing to do, but leaping off a bridge in rush hour and leaving all that stuff behind where it isn't exactly possible to keep track of it? So my guessing he just wanted to cool off would be a little counter-intuitive. I think.

I ride by a cyclist who is stopped along the trail on my commute, I ask, "got what you need?" I have given away a couple of inner tubes and pumped up a few tires, and of course encountered any number of situations where I could be no help whatsoever (since I only care so many tools in my little tool bag). Hmm.

In the City of Bikes: The Story of the Amsterdam Cyclist (Book Review)

In the City of Bikes: The Story of the Amsterdam Cyclist by Pete Jordan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I liked this book very much, both because the subject and the way it was handled was appealing (to me) and also because I think it is well written. I was confused however by title - I only understood what it meant properly after I had read 50 pages or so. In particular, "the story of the Amsterdam cyclist" can be understood as "a social history of cycling in Amsterdam" - "the Amsterdam cyclist" is meant to indicate Amsterdam cyclists in general from the 1890s to today. (Probably this confusion is just my problem.)

The blurb on the back cover states, "Part personal memoir, part history of cycling, part fascinating street-level tour of Amsterdam, In the City of Bikes is the story of a man who loves bikes-in a city that loves bikes." But really 90 percent of this book (which is almost 400 pages of text plus 40 pages of notes) is a history of urban cycling as transportation in Amsterdam, and to some extent in the Netherlands more generally. There is some comparison to cycling (and use of cars) in the United States, but not so much as to seem polemical. The "tour of Amsterdam" referred to in the blurb is, I think, incidental to the history of cycling for the most part (and that's fine).

The personal memoir aspect is ten percent or less of the book and mostly at the beginning and end of the book and the beginning and end of chapters. The transitions from the memoir portions to the more purely historical narrative are smooth and the style is consistent and at least for me; I was just as interested in both parts. Everyone has read a nominally "travel" book where it feels like the author is padding his or her experiences with "historical context" and the shifts from the personal travel anecdotes to the "history" portions are clunky - there is none of that here.

In fact, even though this could have been reworked as academic work on cycling history, it is far more pleasant (and just as instructive) to read the way it is, with the unobtrusive memoir sections providing helpful context by providing an understanding of "where the author is coming from."

When I got this book in my hands, I was a little doubtful - looking at a 400+ page book entirely on cycling in Amsterdam I wondered if it could really be something I would be drawn into and enjoy. Well, that turned out to be no problem - I liked it a lot.

My only slightly negative comments are minor. The chapters about cycling in Amsterdam in World War II are interesting but of the entire book it was the one part that seemed a little long. It was somewhat surprising that the "modern era" (the 1980s on) is dealt with in about twenty pages at the end (although there are mentions of modern Dutch cycling throughout, when I think about it). Having read this, I somewhat oddly feel I can tell you more about policies for Dutch cycling in WWII than today. Hmm.

It was also odd that the author's one previous book credit is writing a "memoir" of his experiences washing dishes (professionally!) in all fifty states. I regard such "listicle" type books as an artifact of our time (although I'm probably wrong about that) and not a good one. That doesn't mean I don't read such books from time to time, but many of them seem like clever ideas and don't read well - anyway, it wasn't exactly a hint in my mind of what is in this book.

For an American reader interested in cycling for transportation as an alternative, this book is a gentle (and I guess extensive) historical introduction or overview. While it is obvious that the author has a point of view and what that point of view is, the book is not written to hit the reader over the head with that.

The Publishers Weekly blurb states, "the readers will understand that the bike is to Amsterdam what the car is to America" - yes, and will understand in a helpful way why.





View all my reviews on Goodreads of cycling books

Laurel MD Race Track Used for Cycle Racing (1925)

Apparently this 1.1 mile track in Laurel Maryland was primarily used for auto racing but was also used for bicycle racing from time to time (in 1925). Here are some photos of the track in both "modes" in 1925.


The track on July 11 of 1925 for auto racing

Title: Laurel Race, 7/11/25
Date Created/Published: [19]25 July 11.
Medium: 1 negative : glass ; 4 x 5 in. or smaller
Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-npcc-13958 (digital file from original)
Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
Call Number: LC-F8- 36387 [P&P]
Library of Congress
www.loc.gov/pictures/item/npc2007013957/



The same wood track being used for a bicycle race a week later

Title: Laurel bicycle races, 7/18/25
Date Created/Published: [19]25 July 18.
Medium: 1 negative : glass ; 4 x 5 in. or smaller
Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-npcc-14017 (digital file from original)
Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
Call Number: LC-F8- 36590 [P&P]
Library of Congress
www.loc.gov/pictures/item/npc2007014016/


One of the individual racers

Title: R.J. O'Conner, Laurel bicycle races, [7/18/25]
Date Created/Published: [1925 July 18]
Medium: 1 negative : glass ; 4 x 5 in. or smaller
Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-npcc-14014 (digital file from original)
Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
Call Number: LC-F8- 36587 [P&P]
Library of Congress
www.loc.gov/pictures/item/npc2007014013/

If you Google "laurel race track 1925" you come up with blog posts and various sites selling images, none of which mention that the image comes from the Library of Congress. Peculiar. These are from the National Photo Company Collection at LC, digitized from glass plate negatives.

Comparing Cycling in the U.S. and the Netherlands - Valid?

I am reading In the City of Bikes: The Story of the Amsterdam Cyclist" that turns out to be more of a history of this subject and less of a memoir than I was expecting. I will write a review of it when I am finished.

As someone who reads and thinks about how cycling could be better supported in the U.S., the Netherlands comes up as a model often, although I have to wonder about its validity as such. In some cases, people make comparisons or talk about aspects of cycling in the Netherlands and it isn't clear if they are holding the Netherlands approach up as a model or simply an example of how it can be different than it is here. The later seems more useful to me since the likelihood of our ending up with anything vaguely like what the Netherlands has to support urban (and interurban) cycling absent their 100+ history in this area along (not to mention all the other factors) seems rather low.

With that in mind, however, it can be interesting to look at examples of this "conversation."


Cycling in the US from a Dutch perspective from this blogger

The above video provides a quick understanding of how at least one Dutch cyclist views the American approach to cycling. I don't disagree with any of this analysis as such but in a short overview like this he presumably includes those points that he considers most significant and leaves others out. In my own experience, it has been difficult to transition from an automobile-centered way of thinking to actually using bicycles for more routine day-to-day transportation needs. I have several bikes that I use for commuting the 20 miles round trip (~34 km) to and from work, but these bikes have pedals requiring special shoes and as road bikes are not very good for riding a mile to the grocery store or library for those kinds of errands. So for many years I have ridden a bike consistently to and from work over a fairly long distance, with special clothing and appearing to be in a great hurry (since this doubles as my exercise program) but then I drive very short distances to do things where I would want to arrive wearing street clothes. Kind of strange.

Recently I have started using another bike that is a much more upright one, with a three speed hub shift (and therefore incapable of speedsterish activity), to ride back and forth to places a mile or less away to do errands, without changing into some special cycling clothes. I have been surprised and I suppose a little amused at how enjoyable this is.


Capital Bikeshare arrives in my extendedneighborhood, but closer to my typical destination for short rides-still, nice to have it around

In a roundabout way of thinking, I feel that bikeshare programs, such as the Capital Bikeshare program here in the Washington DC area, are very helpful with modeling and enabling this kind of cycling.


"Infamous" video of bicycle commuters at an intersection in Ultrecht (not Amsterdam) illustrating the level of cycling in an urban setting in the Netherlands

This video serves as a counterpoint to the first video looking at cycling in the U.S., illustrating the significant differences in the scale of cycling as an activity. While I don't think the Netherlands can be our "model" for where we want cycling in the U.S. to end up, it certainly illustrates that cycling on a scale that rivals and even exceeds use of motor vehicles is possible and that specialized infrastructure (or as the video's narrator says, "infra") can be created to support that level of activity. (It's noteworthy that the Dutch observer in his video takes the benefits of specialized infrastructure to support cycling as a given - no "vehicular cycling" for him.)

It's also interesting to see how the Dutch cyclists comply with their traffic signals in this video, for the most part. At a few points there are riders who ignore the light, but the vast majority comply.

This syncs with a recent report that in Portland stoplight cameras studied showed that there was 94 percent compliance with stop lights by cyclists. What?? Really?? Yes. Of course the obvious reason for why this could be true in Portland (and not quite what I observe around here) is that they have a larger number of cyclists and that as a community they act to informally enforce or support good (or anyway legal) behavior while in situations that I see often here of one or two cyclists and a zillion cars, it is much more tempting or attractive not to.

"The Prudent Buyer Selects The Shirk"-1890s Bicycle Poster

I found the poster in the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog - The Prudent buyer selects the Shirk, the latest, neatest, and lightest bicycle in the world - It cures the blues. It saves the shoes. It brings content and merriment.

The full record for it is here.


My cropped version of this poster from the Library of Congress

Even though the Library of Congress has determined with reasonable certainty that this item was published in the 1890s and is well out of U.S. Copyright coverage (that is, before 1923) it is still not made available off the LC campus for some reason (other than a thumbnail). However various businesses that publish reproduction posters have had someone visit the Library in person and copy a high resolution file and although I can't make the 4.5 megabyte tiff available here I can at least provide a better image than the tiny thumbnail gif.

The colors as shown in this image are probably not accurate - below is an uncropped version where you can see a color strip but I can't interpret that since I don't have an original one handy to compare to. The main problem here is that this is a scan of a color slide made of the poster and not a scan of the original poster. In other words, a reproduction of a reproduction. It's better than nothing (much better!) but not as good as it could be.

LC record
Title The Prudent buyer selects the Shirk, the latest, neatest, and lightest bicycle in the world / Ottman, Chic.
Date Created/Published [189-]
Medium 1 print (poster) : color.
Summary Woman riding bicycle.
Reproduction Number LC-USZC4-3017 (color film copy transparency)
Call Number POS - US .O87, no. 1 (B size) [P&P]

One reason I was surprised to find this poster was that it is for a bicycle company I had not heard of before - generally bicycle posters from the 1890s seen now are for companies that were relatively well known then and anyone (like me) reading a bit about cycling in those days would know of them. I had not heard of the "Shirk" bicycle company.

To see if I could find any references to it, I searched The Wheel and Cycling Trade Review volume for 1897 and found passing two mentions of it (in 1,088 pages of text) - one was this somewhat amusing description of a suspicious bicycle sales company, where Shirk appears in a list of bicycle manufacturers of the day available from that dealer.

IN THE CAPITAL OF THE NATION.
The New York Cycle Co., of 434 Ninth, don't seem to care to talk very much about where they get their wheels or about their business methods in general. They offer "unredeemed" bicycles at "one-third" value, but just what they mean is past guessing. Among the cycles noted are Columbias, Syracuse, Pacers, Rambler, Spalding, March, Worlds, Flyers, Niagaras, Shirk, Liberty, Victors, etc., men's, women's and children's wheels. They also exchange or buy outright and take wheels for storage. Their advent has caused some under-surface speculation among the "regulars," and their plans are carefully noted, as this is about the first time, so far, that anything of the kind has been observed here.

Full article is available here.

At this distance in time (and given the relatively small amount of research I have done) I can't understand who the main target audience for this bicycle company was - the bicycle is described as the "latest and the neatest and the lightest" - would these have been considered particularly good sales values for women, since the poster features a woman rider? Other than "it saves the shoes" it makes no mention of this particular bicycle being a good value, which was often a theme of bicycle ads at this time. A puzzle.


Version as presented uncropped by the Library of Congress