The cycling city: Bicycles and the transformation of urban America
Item
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Title
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The cycling city: Bicycles and the transformation of urban America
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:59a272eeca37:11017
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identifier
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11252
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Creator
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Friss, Evan,
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Contributor
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David Nasaw
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Date
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2011
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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American history | Transportation | Bicycles | Cities | Cycling | History | Planning | Urban
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Abstract
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This dissertation examines the rise and fall of urban cycling in the 1890s. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, bicycles invaded American cities. Millions of cyclists reveled in the utilitarian and recreational uses of the machine, pedaling to work, exercising their bodies, and escaping the chaos of the city. In the process, cyclists and a broad group of city reformers, politicians, and engineers redrew the blueprints of the American city. They imagined, and actually began to build, a city in which smooth asphalt stretched across the entire metropolis, specially designed bicycle paths and roads promoted and facilitated bicycle transportation, and traffic regulations accounted for the rising number of cyclists and the complications that they added to the urban network. Likewise, doctors dreamed of a cycling city defined by the improved health of its citizens; sanitarians of an environment devoid of horses, filth, and disease; women of a completely accessible city. Indeed, as a practically noiseless, non-polluting, health-inducing, liberating, and private vehicle, the bicycle offered the promise of a revitalized, healthful, clean, and moral urban environment. In short, it offered the chance to make the modern city more livable.;As the first private vehicle affordable to the masses, bicycles began to satisfy an established desire for a private transportation option as urban Americans celebrated mobility, independence, and flexibility. As cycling became democratized, a coalition of cyclists and their allies coalesced into a powerful group that influenced the city-building process. To a startling degree, they succeeded in implementing "bicycle-friendly" planning techniques, incorporating bicycle paths, bicycle valets, and laws favorable to cyclists. At this moment in history, American cities were the leaders in accommodating urban cycling. Although cycling in European cities would persist far longer than in the United States, American cities had laid the path toward a future in which cycling would remain a critical component of the urban transportation network. Yet suddenly, by the turn-of-the-century, the popularity of cycling in the United States dropped dramatically. That Americans developed an unrivaled taste for automobiles and that city planners would follow suit was not a foregone conclusion.;In all, bicycles reshaped both the physical design of American cities and the lives of their inhabitants. Although its lifespan was brief, the bicycle was a transformative instrument.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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History
