The big red binder sat for months ignored and gathering dust in Essex Media Group’s library until a peek at its contents revealed that history does indeed repeat itself.
Neatly taped to the binder’s pages are article after article about bicycling and the challenges facing Lynn residents interested in making two foot-propelled wheels part of their everyday life. The articles were not written in the 21st century with climate change and alternative transportation ideas driving international debate. They were written in 1974 when Detroit steel still ruled America even as OPEC sought to strangle Americans at the gas pump.
The Daily Evening Item spent the summer of 1974 writing twice weekly under reporter Gail Anderson’s byline about bicycles and challenging readers with questions like, “Where are the best and safest places in greater Lynn to take a bike ride?” and, “Did you know there are an estimated 1 million bicycles in Massachusetts?”
It’s worth noting just to put 46 years ago in perspective that the dominant news of the day included headlines that read, “Nixon: no more tape,” and then-Gov. Michael Dukakis’ pledge to make extending Blue Line rapid-transit to Lynn a 1975 priority.
The Item articles focused on a 1974 law codifying the rights and responsibilities accorded to bicyclists, including “the right to use all public ways,” except highways. The law’s chief legislative sponsor was a state senator whose daughter was killed in a bicycle accident.
The Item dug into the law and ranged across its readership communities to ask what schools and police departments were doing to educate children about bicycle rules of the road. The paper’s reporting highlighted kids riding against traffic and bicyclists ignoring stops signs and traffic lights.
Anderson’s reporting also pointed a cautionary finger at bike daredevils popping wheelies and kids riding double on bikes. The Item stories also focused on regional bike rides, including excursions into Nihan and Breakheart Reservations in Saugus. The stories featured detailed information on the “bicycle ticket” police officers were empowered under the new law to issue pedal scofflaws and detailed incidents of bike theft in area communities.
In an ironic twist, the summer of cycling reports showed photograph after photograph of bike riders, most of them kids and all riding without a helmet.
Almost a half century has passed since 1974 and it is rare to see someone riding a bicycle without a helmet. It is much more common to see bike riders flaunt or ignore the rules of the road motorized drivers are required to obey.
The 1974 law spelled out the rights and responsibilities for bicyclists and there is ample evidence to suggest the responsibility part of the law needs to be reinforced.
I like to ride my bike in good weather and in almost-certain violation of several laws, I stick to sidewalks when I can. Unlike a good share of cyclists, I do not for a minute consider myself an equal to someone driving a two-ton vehicle while surreptitiously texting, smoking, slurping a coffee concoction or engaging in a hands-free argument.
I’m also not a huge fan of bike lanes and I sometimes wonder if they are intended to protect cyclists from themselves or from drivers. But I like ditching my car if only for morning to hop on my bike and I endorse bicycling as a climate-friendly transportation mode that works well with public-transit.
Bicycling’s greatest joy lies in the freedom it gave you as a kid to break away from home and wander around and get in trouble with your friends. There’s no feeling better than the breeze in your face and the way the sun feels when you pedal along Lynn Shore Drive.
But the Item had it right back in 1974 when its enterprise reporting on bicycling focused story after story on bicycles and children. Pulling people out of cars and onto bikes is a fantasy. But making young people bicycle-friendly fans of two-wheeled transportation is easy to do. Back in 1974, propelled by a law written by a legislator who wanted to honor his daughter’s memory, bicycling became a teachable opportunity at public schools and an education initiative for police departments. Lynn residents stepped up and voluntarily inspected kids’ bikes to make sure they were safe and offered to engrave identification numbers on bike frames to make it easier for police departments to recover stolen bikes.
“With the huge boom in cycling, bike education is a must,” Arthur Fiste was quoted as saying in a story featuring the safe cycling class he taught at Connery School.
His words make even more sense today than they did in 1974.
