Tonight, we’ll read an excerpt about bicycle etiquette from “Twentieth Century Culture and Deportment for the Lady and Gentleman at Home and Abroad” by Maud C. Cook published in 1899.

Bicycles and horse buggies were the two mainstays of private transportation just prior to the advent of the automobile. The grading of smooth roads in the late 1800s was stimulated by the widespread advertising, production, and use of bicycles along with horse buggies.

By the turn of the century, when this book was written, cycling clubs flourished on both sides of the Atlantic, and touring and racing became widely popular.