The omnipresence of the bicycle and bike culture in 1890s Toronto far surpasses anything we know today. But remarkably, the political issues associated with cycling are almost unchanged.
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| Cycling club in Toronto, 1900 |
In the 1890s Toronotonians were preoccupied with the question of ‘scorchers’: those riders who traveled too quickly, ignored rules of the road, and endangered pedestrians. Similarly, there was a concerted effort to improve the quality of the city’s streets for cyclists. The ‘Good Roads Campaign’ argued that city council needed to set aside more money to pave roads for the benefit of the bike rider. Though, unlike today, their priority was to make suburban roads more bike-friendly to allow for people to leave the city easily on weekends.
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| A leisurely ride Jarvis Street, 1903 |
Finally, cyclists successfully courted political power. Candidates for both the mayoralty and council made a point of wooing the biking lobby, often showing up at meetings of cyclists to expound upon their respective platforms. If there was an important question in Toronto, the bike unions were sure to be involved somehow.
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| Bay Street, 1907 |
By the end of World War II, however, the cycling heyday was over. Cycling as something like a movement, or aspect of civic consciousness, or popular sport, didn’t really return until the 1980s, and gain serious momentum in the 2000s.
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| Boys cycling across Lakeshore Road bridge at Mimico, 1907 |
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| Walking it up the hill to St. Clair, 1907 |
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| Cyclists occupy the edge of the frame at a busy Queen & Yonge, 1910 |
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| Blocked up steel – Harbord St., 1911 |
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| Apparently the World Naked Bike Ride goes way back, 1912 |
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| University Avenue, 1912 |
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| Yonge Street near Summerhill, 1915 |
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| Cycle Corps, 1915 |
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| Darting across the new Bloor Viaduct, 1918 |
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| Bloor Viaduct, 1918 |
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| Broadview and Queen, 1918 |
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| Trick riders at the CNE, 1920 |
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| North Bathurst hill looking daunting, 1922 |
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| Cyclists lined up for race |
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| Scarborough Beach Velodrome, 1926 |
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| Start of first heat of schoolboys’ bicycle race, CNE Grandstand, 1926 |
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| Where’s Waldo at the new Royal York Hotel, 1929. |
(via Toronto Standard)
