Blog Posts tagged as: National Bicycle Month

Brooklyn by Bike: Staff Reflections on National Bicycle Month

Off the Shelf Editorial Staff

There's a learning and comfort curve to cycling in this city that every cyclist understands. There are laws to learn, upfront costs and scary, aggressive drivers. And for those used to traveling by train, there's a whole system of bicycle-friendly routes to learn in order to get started. But despite all of this, there is a magnificent joy that comes from biking around this town. We would not do it, after all, if it weren't for the joy. And there is perhaps no easier time of year to experience this joy than in the month of May when most of the weather conditions that might dampen the…

POTW: Wheeling in the Years: A Slice of Brooklyn Bicycle History

Michelle Montalbano

To close out National Bicycle Month, here's a little a celebration of bicycling in Brooklyn, from 1897 to the present. 

POST_0143, Music Island, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, N.Y., summer circa 1897, Brooklyn Postcard Collection, Center for Brooklyn History
Even now, in the 21st century, I feel a powerful sense of freedom, exhilaration, and agency whenever I'm riding my bicycle around Brooklyn. It must have been truly extraordinary for women in the 19th century, who were newly admitted to the ranks of "wheel riders" in the 1890s. At the time, Brooklyn…