bicycles

BICYCLERS DEMAND RIGHTS

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

How interesting that the debate over bicyclists in Santa Rosa has not budged much in a century. In 1905, pedestrians accused “riders of wheels” of being inconsiderate jerks who acted as if they owned the sidewalks; today, motorists accuse bike riders of being inconsiderate jerks in traffic. Sic semper.

The 1905 newspapers almost never ran letters to the editor, so this offering would be unusual for that alone. But pro-bicyclist author “R. A. H.” wrote one of the longest commentaries ever to appear in that period, only about one-third of it transcribed here. It concludes with proposals for nine clauses to be added into the sidewalk ordinance, requiring license plates for bikes, a ban on youths under 16 from riding on sidewalks (“children are reckless”), a rule that bicycles must be “propelled solely by muscle power without machinery,” and a complete ban on sidewalk riding “in the business part of town,” which seems to undermine the author’s other argument that the streets are in such lousy shape that a “right to ride” must be granted posthaste.

Editor Republican: I believe that the better judgement of our people is in favor of granting some reasonable use of our sidewalks for riders of wheels…The most common objection to an ordinance permitting the riding on sidewalks is that of those who say it would be all right if complied with but that riders will pay no attention to the limitations of the privilege. There are two replies to this objection. In the first place that reckless and lawless class of riders daily violate the law now in force, and the public is already subjected to the evils of reckless riders. In the second place, the present law is not respected…

…Practically every progressive city in the State permits the riding on sidewalks, subject to reasonable restrictions. The right to ride them in Santa Rosa in winter time is an urgent necessity to many people. We have a city of 10,000 inhabitants, without street car service and with streets that for many weeks in each year cannot be ridden with a wheel with any reasonable convenience. Nine out of every ten miles of our sidewalks are practically vacant every day in the year. Quick and convenient transportation and communication are elementary requisites of progress. Every lot in the outlying portions of the city would be more valuable when made nearer the business center by the constant use of wheels. Property decreases in value from the center of a city simply because its utility is lessened by its remoteness.

It is not right to require a laboring man or a business man to spend twenty minutes in walking a mile to his work over vacant sidewalks while his wheel could take him there in ten minutes. If there are one thousand people in Santa Rosa that would each save ten minutes in one day by the use of the wheel on the sidewalk, that represents a daily saving of seventeen days’ labor for one man [sic]. In the course of one rainy season it becomes a matter of great importance.

The sidewalk ordinance is not asked for by those who sport up and down the highways crippling and maiming women and children, as some would have us believe. But the demand comes from the laboring man, the clerk, and the merchant, whose time is his capital…It is true that it might be a little more pleasant for the selfish pedestrian who is not willing divide anything, not to have his serenity in any way disturbed by a silent wheel, but we are all inevitably compelled to submit, occasionally, to the inconvenience of the presence of others…

(Signed) R. A. H.

– Santa Rosa Republican, September 23, 1905

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OH, YOU TRUSTING FOOLS

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

Following the earlier 1905 report of a bicycle kidnapping, we now learn that there was a virtual crime wave of pilfered “wheels” that year, and all because too-trusting Santa Rosans didn’t lock up their ride.

Interesting is this aside: “This has long since become a matter of frequent comment among the policemen, newspapermen and others whose duties keep them abroad on the streets in the early morning hours.” It’s understandable that a cop or two would be on duty all night, but why would a newspaper in a farm town of 9,000 souls have someone prowling the dark streets? This wasn’t a city of all-night debauchery, like San Francisco. And what’s with counting up all the unlocked bikes? Is this another one of Editor Finley’s Queeg-like obsessions?

THROW DOWN BARS FOR UNINVITED RIDE

NO WONDER THAT BICYCLES ARE FREQUENTLY REPORTED MISSING TO OFFICERS
Hardly a Night Passes but What a Score of Bicycles Are Left Where They Can Be Purloined

Hardly a week passes but several reports are brought to police headquarters regarding missing bicycles. There is no doubt that in many instances the carelessness of the owners of the bicycles is responsible for the loss. There is hardly a night passes but what fifteen to twenty bicycles — one night recently twenty-four were counted — are left in racks, or leaning against sidewalks, buildings, and posts on Fourth and other streets. This has long since become a matter of frequent comment among the policemen, newspapermen and others whose duties keep them abroad on the streets in the early morning hours. It is a great wonder that more bicycles are not stolen. Thursday morning, about half past two o’clock, within two blocks on Fourth street, more than a dozen bicycles had been left by their owners in positions as described above. Owners of wheels should not forget that while hardly an instance can be given in which a Santa Rosa resident has been known to steal a bicycle, that at a this time of the year there are many strangers passing through town who would take a wheel, ride out of town either for “keeps” or to give trouble in finding it.

– Press Democrat, June 23, 1905

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THE CHEEKY BICYCLE THIEF

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

This sounds more like a bike kidnapping than outright theft, but then again, maybe there was a bicycle chop-shop in 1905 Santa Rosa, stealing “wheels” and busting them down for parts. The “Carrie” referred to in the note is, of course, Carrie Nation, the hatchet-wielding prohibitionist, who was much in the national news at the time.

Here PD editor Ernest Finley took on his “stern schoolmarm” persona to warn that judges and cops were itching to make an example of wayward youths, much as he did in reporting the city’s orange peel menace.

THIS THIEF LEFT A VERY CHEEKY NOTE
STOLE WHEEL AND THREATENED, IF OWNER “HOLLERS,” TO BREAK IT WITH AN AXE
Young Lady’s Bicycle Taken From the Porch of a College Avenue Residence – Police Are Investigating

“I will leave your wheel at P. O. at about 3 p. m. and if you holler I will smash it with an axe — Carrie.”

This is the note written on a piece of a cardboard box that Professor Van der Linden found left at his residence on College avenue in the place where he had left his bicycle on Monday, and the thief had failed to return the property even to the “P. O.” mentioned in the note. The owner has reported his loss to the police and Chief of Police Severson has the cardboard writing in his possession.

Last Saturday night some one wandered to the rear of the Porter residence on College avenue and when they or she, as the case may be, departed, they took Miss Bess Porter’s bicycle, which she had left on the porch away. The wheel is also among the list of “missing” at the police station. The officers are endeavoring to recover the property. A few days ago a bicycle thief was given three years in the State’s prison by Judge Burnett, and the practice goes on.

– Press Democrat, February 22, 1905

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