Tonight,BBC 4 : 10:05
Edwardian technology helped the bicycle to become a universal mode of transport.....
And the Royal Family
If the Royals had not taken to the safety bicycle then the middle classes would not have taken it up either.
I disagree. They may have had an effect, but the move to safeties was bound to happen anyway.
Not as quickly and not on the scale that did happen.
The safety bicycle was not cheap at first, as in the case of most new fangled things it was well beyond the pocket or purse of the average factory worker.
To the aspiring middle classes what the Royal family did or did not do was a
big deal in those days. A well off business man or merchant did not need a bicycle, he would take a cab or train - the whole idea of riding one for health and recreation took off because the Royals took to it, then the better off took to it as well. To put it in context - we never used to put up christmas trees, until the Royals started doing it. They were indeed the Posh and Becks of the period and the tabloid press was just as strong before the first world war.
This then meant that manufacturers were turning a profit, this enabled them to increase the amounts of bikes they made and improve production methods, which meant more and cheaper bicycles. A trickle down of technology as we say today.
So we had affordable bikes for the masses, which again were not essential to most workers as they lived and worked in most cases not more than half a mile apart - If you see a terraced housing estate there will most certainly have been a factory/mill/dock or mine within walking distance.
What the safety bike did do though was enhance both physical and social mobility - you did not have to to live in a smokey terraced slum in the bottom of the valley any more if you wanted to work, you could ride in from the village 3 miles away.
