The Great Bicycle Ordinance
The Great Bicycle Ordinance in Memphis went into effect July 1, 1940. It was created in April 1940 after Joseph P. Boyle was appointed police and fire commissioner by Mayor E.H. Crump.
The result of the ordinance was predictable.
Two 17-year-olds, Kenneth Moreman of Texas and James Moore of 644 Washington Ave., were arrested and fined $10 ($231 in today’s dollars) for violating the Bicycle Ordinance.
Moreman spent the night in jail for not having a seat on his bicycle. His family paid the fine.
Moore didn’t have the required bicycle license, a bell or a seat, nor did he have any money and no one to pay the fine. The 17-year-old was sent to the County Workhouse.[1]
That same day, two other dangerous bicycle violators were arrested for lending their bikes to friends.
The ordinance made cycling legal only when:
- All bicycles will be in proper mechanical shape with:
Taillights and headlights must be visible up to 300 ft. away.
Breaks and a properly mounted seat.
Horn or bell that can be heard 100 ft away.
- All bicycles shall operate on public streets, not on the sidewalk, in any public park way or in a public park.[2]
- All bicycles must ride on the right side of the street as close to the curb as possible, riding single file and no double or tricky riding.
- All bikers shall observe the same rules of the road as motor vehicles.
- Bicycles may not be loaned to anyone else.
In 1939, the year before the ordinance, there were 303 accidents, resulting in 77 injuries. The first year of the ordinance saw 286 accidents, 115 injured and two killed. In 1941 there were 295 accidents involving bicycles with120 cyclists were injured, including one fatality.
The ordinance made cycling no safer.
It installed nonsensical rules that could not be easily followed and likely caused the public to resent the police who were charged with enforcing it.
Resources
- Commercial Appeal, August 28, 1940. Page 20
- Commercial Appeal, Dec. 30, 1941. Page 7
[1] Commercial Appeal, August 28, 1940, Page 6 Editorial: “Sending a 17-year-old boy to the Penal Farm mainly because he didn’t have a seat on his bike is not intelligent police work.”
[2] Was an 8-year-old expected to ride his bike in the street?