TWO-WHEELERS WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR MANY AUTO DEVELOPMENTS.(CAPITAL REGION)

Byline: Jon Van Chicago Tribune

News of people injured by horses frightened by performing bears was hot stuff a century ago for Bicycling World magazine as it argued that horses, not bicycles, were major hazards to the public right-of-way.

The biking enthusiasts were countering sentiment that their vehicles were a dangerous menace that frightened horses and threatened pedestrians.

In the days when bicycles and sewing machines embodied humanity's most advanced technology, bemoaning two-wheeler popularity was a growth industry. The bicycling craze was changing society rapidly and in ways that many people found to be disquieting and economically threatening.

Furniture makers said that young women were buying bicycles with money that they had been saving for parlor-sets. Barbers saw the custom of daily shaves wane as young men went bicycling after work instead of visiting their shops.

And the slumping hat industry had a bill introduced in Congress requiring all male cyclists to buy two hats annually.

Had they but known that the bicycle was an advance agent for the far more potent motorcar technology, champions of horse-era tranquility no doubt would have …