On Thursday 2nd May 1878, at the Exeter Police Court, before the commencement of the ordinary business, Captain Bent, the Chief Constable, had a word or two to say about bicycles:
"Captain Bent said young men were in the habit of riding through the public streets after dark at the rate of 10, 12, and sometimes 14 miles an hour, to the great danger of pedestrians, for they were unprovided with a lamp or bell, or anything that would give notice of their approach.
"The tires of the wheels of the machines were made of india-rubber, so they came very silently and unaware upon persons crossing the streets, and accidents had occurred and were often narrowly escaped. A case of a death caused in this way had occurred in Surrey, and as many complaints had already been made by citizens, he thought a public caution would be of service.
"....The Mayor said that one day he saw a child knocked down by a bicycle on Southernhay. No serious harm was done but the child might have been killed. He suggested that the attention of the Town Council should be drawn to the matter, so that they might make a by-law to protect the public from such danger."
And did the Town Council make a by-law?
And did the young men (no young women mad cyclists!) take any notice of the by-law? (This was, however, when the streets were policed, - ages before policemen lost the use of their legs,)
Today there are more Exeter by-laws than a dog has fleas but, alas, they are so seldom enforced they might as well not exist.
Tires, of course, have, in the UK at least, generally become tyres.
Source: The Exeter and Plumoth Gazette, 3rd May, 1878.
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