When Bicycles Reigned Supreme
The importance of the bicycle in transportation history is often overlooked. For a twenty year period, before mass production of automobiles, the bicycle reigned supreme as the means of transportation. In the 1890s, one-third of all patents and inventions were bicycle related. The city of Minneapolis created an ordinance mandating a 10 mile an hour speed limit for bicycles. More locally, in 1896 future Highway Commissioner Charles Babcock engineered a bicycle path between Elk River and Anoka. According to reports in the Star News , he borrowed a road scrapper from the town supervisor and created a smooth path paralleling the gravel highway. Until 1915, bicycles served as important forms of transportation in Sherburne County.