Switzerland kept soldiers on bicycles until 2003
Long after tanks and helicopters arrived, the Swiss army still fielded a regiment that went to war by pedal power. It was the last such unit anywhere, and it was finally disbanded in 2003, ending a military role for the bicycle that stretched back to scouts in the Second Boer War.
Bicycles took over many jobs once done by horses. Both sides in the Boer War used them for reconnaissance, and in the First World War France, Germany, Australia and New Zealand moved troops on two wheels. When Japan invaded China in 1937 it brought around 50,000 bicycle soldiers, and similar units sped its advance down the Malay peninsula in the Second World War. Britain, meanwhile, dropped cycle commandos by air with folding bikes.
Civilian riding boomed in Europe and North America in the 1890s, and today more than half of humanity knows how to ride. In many countries the most common road vehicle is a plain utility bicycle, with relaxed frame angles that soak up bumps and steer easily at walking pace, plus mudguards, racks and lights for daily errands. Prices run from about 50 dollars to over 20,000, and a custom Madone decorated by Damien Hirst sold for 500,000. Exotic road bikes can weigh just 3.2 kilograms, though racing rules forbid anything under 6.8.
Where people ride depends heavily on how streets are built. Places that handed priority to cars through one-way systems, free right turns and big roundabouts saw cycling shrink, while those that built dedicated infrastructure held steady or grew. Shanghai, where bicycles once ruled the roads, went so far as to ban them from a few streets for a time in December 2003.
The Netherlands sits at the opposite extreme. About 35,000 kilometres of cycle track there is physically separated from motor traffic, equal to a quarter of the entire road network, and where a cycle path runs alongside a road, riders are required to use it. Paris, London and Barcelona have added docking-station hire schemes. In London a day's access costs 2 pounds, with the first half hour of each trip free.
Source: Cycling
