THE BICYCLE. - A Remonstrance and an Appeal for the Protection of the Velocipede - Oakland Tribune, 20 Apr 1876, Thu - Page 3
THE BICYCLE.
A Remonstrance and an Appeal for the Protection of the Velocipede
EDITOR TRIBUNE: I noticed last night, while perusing the columns of your welcome paper, that the attention of our City Fathers has been called by a number of our prominent citizens to the monstrous nuisance occasioned by the classic velocipede. Poor bicycle is probably doomed to prohibition. His pretensions to even so small a portion of our wide avenues cannot be entertained by some of our solid men, who, comfortably seated behind a pair of fleet horses, deign not to condescend to occasionally slacken their breakneck gait, in order to allow the humble vehicle to pass. And yet where is the great evil? where are the frightful accidents that have been occasioned by this poor man's buggy? The velocipede has been and is to the present day more or less used in most if not all of the great cities in the world, and while carriage accidents are of almost daily occurrence, I am yet to hear of one that has been the result of this cause. In Paris and London, hundreds of velocipedes are running day and night all through the densest parts of these cities, and even letter carriers are officially furbished one of these instruments. In San Francisco velocipedes are suffered in all the streets, and I have hundreds of times run the whole length of Kearny street, passing in front of the City Hall, without a complaint from, or inconvenience to any one. But our Oakland patricians cannot be incommodated even in thought. The road is theirs and poor people may consider themselves happy to run for their lives, from their dashing equipages.
Hoping that with your usual impartiality, you will publish these few lines, I remain, dear sir, very truly yours,
A VELOCIPEDIST.
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