Bicycle Baggage Bill(s)

It seems than in the late 1897s, cyclists lobbied their state legislatures to get laws that would allow them to take their bicycles on trains as luggage for now cost - apparently railroad companies were charging almost as much for the bike to ride as the passenger.This article from the Louisville Bicycle Club describes the situation in Kentucky, for example~

Cyclists used to get around the worst stretches of country road by getting on a train, and trains seem to have been plentiful in the late 19th century. But some of the railroads levied a heavy surcharge for taking bicycles on board, and cyclists resented it bitterly. A Louisville group headed for the Kentucky Division’s annual meet in Cynthiana in 1897 encountered heavy rain at Versailles, and proposed taking the train on to Lexington where they’d stop for the night. The fare on the Southern Railroad was 36 cents. But it was another 25 cents for each bike. And as they stood there considering, a salesman took two 75-pound trunks on free. They rode on through the rain and mud rather than knuckle under to slimeball railroads. The next year’s session of the legislature passed a “baggage bill,” making bikes free baggage. Gov. William O. Bradley, Kentucky’s first Republican governor, vetoed it.