British science fiction writer H.G. Wells once said: “When I see a grown man riding a bicycle, I will not despair for the future of mankind.” Eins also has a famous saying about bicycles, saying that “Life is like riding a bicycle. If you want to keep your balance, you have to keep moving forward.” Are bicycles really so important to humans? How has the bicycle, which most people use today to solve the “last mile” commute, historically broken down barriers of class and gender?

In the book “Bicycle: Wheel of Liberty” written by British writer Robert Payne, he cleverly combines the cultural history and technological innovation of bicycles with his own discoveries and feelings as a bicycle enthusiast and cycling enthusiast, opening up for us The clouds of history have clarified the stories of freedom on the “Wheel of Liberty”.

Around 1900, bicycles became the daily means of transportation for millions of people. For the first time in human history, the working class became mobile—they also had the ability to travel to and fro, the once-crowded shared housing was now empty, the suburbs expanded, and the geography of many cities changed as a result. In addition, women have expanded more freedom and possibility in cycling, and cycling has even become a turning point in women’s long struggle for suffrage.

The popularity of the bicycle has waned somewhat in the age of the automobile. “By the mid-1970s, the cultural concept of the bicycle had reached a nadir in Britain. It was no longer seen as an effective means of transportation, but as a toy. Or worse—the vermin of traffic.” Is it possible for the bicycle to inspire as many people as it has historically done, to keep more people engaged in the sport, to expand the sport in form, scope and newness? Payne feels that if you’ve ever felt joyful and free while riding a bike, “then we share something fundamental: We know that everything is on the bike.”

Perhaps the biggest impact of bicycles is that it breaks down the rigid class and gender barriers, and the democratic spirit it brings is beyond the power of that society. British author H.G. Wells, once dubbed “the cyclist’s laureate” by one biography, used the bicycle in several of his novels to illustrate the dramatic changes in British society. “The Wheels of Chance” was published in the prosperous 1896. The protagonist Hoopdriver, a lower-middle-class clothier’s assistant, met an upper-middle-class lady on a bicycle trip. She left home. , “Travel to the countryside by bicycle” to show his “freedom”. Wells uses this to satirize the social class system in Britain and how it has been impacted by the advent of the bicycle. On the road, Hoopdriver was equal to the lady. When you cycle along a country road in Sussex, the social conventions of dress, groups, codes, rules and morals that define the different classes simply disappear.

It cannot be said that bicycles have instigated the feminist movement, it should be said that the development of the two coincides with each other. Still, the bicycle was a turning point in women’s long struggle for suffrage. Bicycle manufacturers, of course, want women to ride bikes too. They’ve been making women’s bikes since the earliest bike prototypes in 1819. The safe bike changed everything, and cycling became the first sport most popular with women. By 1893, almost all bicycle manufacturers were making women’s models.