Why We Love Bicycling
From Austin Bicycle Helmet Law
"People like to travel: that is why the grass is greener over the fence. We are walkers --- our natural means of travel is to put one foot in front of the other. The bicycle seduces our basic nature by making walking exciting. It lets us take 10-foot strides at 160 paces a minute. That's 20 miles an hour, instead of 4 or 5... It is not only how fast you go --- cars are faster and jet planes faster still. But jet-plane travel is frustrating boredom --- at least the car gives the pictorial illusion of travel. Cycling does it all --- you have the complete satisfaction of arriving because your mind has chosen the path and steered you over it; your eyes have seen it; your muscles have felt it; your breathing, circulatory and digestive systems have all done their natural functions better than ever, and every part of your being knows you have traveled and arrived."
John Forester, Effective Cycling, Chapter 22
"Anywhere is high adventure, the walls come down, the cyclist is a loner, it is the only way for him to meet other loners. And it works. One seldom exchanges anything but curses or names of insurance companies with another driver, the car inhibits human contacts. The bicycle generates them; bikes talk to each other like dogs, they wag their wheels and tinkle their bells, the riders let their mounts mingle."
Daniel Behrman, The Man Who Loved Bicycles, Chapter 6
"Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. It has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives a woman a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel...the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood."
Susan B. Anthony, New York World, February 2, 1896
"The bicycle is just as good company as most husbands and, when it gets old and shabby, a woman can dispose of it and get a new one without shocking the entire community."
Ann Strong, Minneapolis Tribune, 1895
"I would not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum."
Frances E. Willard, How I Learned To Ride The Bicycle, 1895
