A Brief History: The First Bike Lane in the U.S.

Ever wondered what the first bike lane in the U.S. was? Well now you can finally know! It’s in Davis, California. Alright, there’s your answer.

#davis #bike #history #ucdavis

Sources:

First Bicycle Lanes in the U.S. – https://www.cityofdavis.org/about-davis/history-symbols/first-bicycle-lanes-in-davis#:~:text=By%20late%20July%201967%2C%20the,existing%20roadway%20meant%20for%20vehicles.
History of Bicycling: A Revolution in Parks – https://www.nycgovparks.org/about/history/bicycling#:~:text=On%20June%2015%2C%201894%2C%20thanks,hand%20for%20the%20opening%20ceremony.
The Small California City Responsible for America’s First Bike Lane – https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-gear/bikes-and-biking/50th-anniversary-americas-first-bike-lane/
The 1967 Beginning of Bike Lanes in Davis, California – http://www.davishistoryresearch.org/5-hosted-in-process-research-projects/The%201967%20Beginning%20of%20Bike%20Lanes%20in%20Davis%2C%20CA.pdf/view

sup nerds I’m Nick you might be asking yourself oh why am I just standing in the middle of the street well I’m not really in the middle of the street I’m more towards the right side of the street I guess but still the question remains why am I standing in the street well I’m actually standing in the bike lane and not just any bike lane the first bike lane that was ever established in the United States isn’t that so cool and guess what it’s right here in Davis California all right so when I say bike lane I actually mean like bike lane not bike path because bike paths have actually been around in the US since I don’t know 1895 I think the first one was in Brookland somewhere somewhere like that but the first actual designated bike lane is right here on this street uh between Sycamore and uh a street on West 8th in Davis California bike Lanes look like this it’s an actual Lane for a bike and there’s typically like a little bike person right here and uh yeah the first one was in 1967 in the summer I want to say July or August it was really cool because no one really knew what a bike lane was at the time and so they were just like well let’s just let’s just experiment let’s just let’s just try to try to figure this thing out it all happened because a random UC Davis professor and his wife went to the Netherlands uh earlier in the 60s and was like Hey man these are pretty cool they have bike Lanes here Davis California is pretty uh bike Central because it’s majority pretty flat weather is okayish so biking here was just like a dead given kind of thing kind of kind of deal so uh the UC Davis Professor came back and was like Hey I want to do this and at the time California state law was like I don’t know what bike lanes are and so um they did a bunch of stuff with the city council and actually uh got bike Lanes established so that’s pretty cool well congratulations you now know a little piece of Davis history I don’t know if it’s actually valuable to you I don’t even know if it’s valuable to me but you now know it I now know it and I think that’s pretty cool there’s so many people biking on this bike Lane right now that’s so sick I would turn the camera for you all to see that but um ha it’s on a tripod he anyways um so yeah um that was the very very brief uh history of the first bike lane in the US here in Davis California okay cool um I got to get home or else my mom is going to kill me uh because I’ll be late for dinner so yeah okay bye [Music]