By Hilary Beaumont
This month there will be two, not one, Critical Mass events in Halifax. Usually once a month, cyclists mount their steeds and parade down the streets to both celebrate bike culture and bring attention to the dangers they face on the road.
Bike Week, May 31 to June 9 this year, is in its 14th year. Cafés say they’ll offer people wearing bike helmets discounts on coffee during this year’s week of bike-related events.
Buses have bike racks on the front. Bike parking is sprouting on sidewalks. We’ve got a one-metre rule, even if it’s not always followed.
Meanwhile, business is booming for bike shops and rental companies, prompting more competitors to enter the local market over the last few years.
An increasing number of people are embracing bicycles as a legitimate form of commuter vehicle that does less harm to the environment than cars and also encourages exercise.
Halifax hasn’t witnessed bike mania like this since before cars existed.
Since 116 years ago.
In April 1897, the Halifax Ramblers sponsored a four-day bike show at the Masonic Hall, with “a magnificent display of bicycles and everything pertaining to the wheel on a scale never before attempted in the Maritime Provinces.”
The show was open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. An Italian string orchestra played. Trains brought tourists to the city from rural NS. Admission was 10 cents and patrons were entered into a draw for a new bike.
That year, the Halifax Chronicle wrote, “1897 will be known as the year of the bicycle craze.”
We know this thanks to Heather Watts’ 1985 book “Silent Steeds: Cycling in Nova Scotia to 1900.” Unless otherwise noted, this article owes its historical information to Watts.
Between 1890 and 1900, bicycles were all the rage, Watts writes. Bike clubs organized races and paraded down the street during “fancy” rides. Hotels and other businesses offered discounts to cyclists. Bike shops thrived. The pro-bicycle culture attracted tourists to Nova Scotia.
The first bikes to reach Nova Scotia were the velocipedes in the late 1860s. Noisy, heavy and difficult to steer, they were iron-framed beasts with wood-rimmed wheels that would rub against and chaff the rider’s legs. Cyclists wore tight pants, which weren’t trendy at the time, to avoid catching material in the mechanism.
In 1868, after a New York acrobatic act featuring velocipedes toured NS, five Halifax gymnasiums opened their doors for velocipede lessons so riders could avoid the embarrassment of falling in the street.
Around 1870, high wheels also became popular in NS. This model featured a large front wheel sometimes five feet in diameter, and a smaller back wheel. They were faster, travelling at a maximum of about 27 kilometres per hour versus the velocipede’s maximum of around 14 kilometres per hour.
Demand for the vehicles prompted a race to patent the most efficient bike. In the 1880s a “safety” model with smaller wheels was invented, closely resembling the bikes we ride today.
Previous to the 1890s, bicycles, high wheels and velocipedes were hobby vehicles for elite club members. But increased competition amongst inventors and distributors lead to more user-friendly designs at a lower price point. This encouraged women and people earning average incomes to try cycling, too.
However popular and fashionable they may have been, bicycles had their flaws. They couldn’t shield their riders from Nova Scotia’s elements and their air-filled tires burst easily on unpaved roads.
But what really killed the bicycle was the electric car. Around 1900, the elite ditched their bicycles for the latest form of transportation, the electric runabout car —later replaced by the gas-run automobile.
Automobiles made the roads unsafe for cyclists, and relegated them, literally, to the sidelines. However, cyclists may owe credit to the automobile for aiding the eventual resurgence of bike culture beginning in the 1970s.
Early cycling lobbies advocated for better roads and highways, but it was the popularity of the automobile that lead to widespread paved roads, helping bicycles take their place again as a popular commuter vehicle.
“Today we are witnessing what may be the beginnings of a new bicycle boom in Nova Scotia,” Watts wrote in 1985.
Bike Week was declared in HRM for the first time in 1999. Since then, city proclamations have called cycling an inexpensive and healthy way to commute, a globally-recognized form of transportation, an alternate vehicle to the automobile that reduces both health care costs and green house gases, and a priority under active transportation.
From 2008 to present, the total number of bike lane kilometres in HRM has increased from about 50 to 87.
Bike culture still has a long road ahead, however. The tension between bicycles and cars still exists today, raising safety concerns for cyclists. This, and the lack of a continuous network of bike lanes in Halifax, discourages some from cycling.
There’s hope, though. The Crosstown Connector, a proposed bike lane spanning from the south end to the north end, has cleared public consultation hurdles, and the information gathered will help council decide whether the project should go forward, and if so, which route to pick.
Business owners have opposed the route running along Agricola Street, saying removal of car parking would discourage customers. However, the Halifax Community Health Board, the Halifax Cycling Coalition and other groups have said Agricola is already a bike corridor, and a bike lane would encourage active transportation.
Thanks to Heather Watts for her marvelous book, Silent Steeds—a great resource if you want to know more about the history of cycling in Halifax from 1860 to 1900.