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Cycling in Canada’s automobile capital has a long and unique history, predating that of cars.

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During the “bicycle craze” of the 1890s, biking was common in the city and throughout the region. In 1891, the Amherstburg Echo reported: “Go almost anywhere and you will see an aspiring ‘cyclist’ trying to learn the ropes of the wheel.

Cycling began as a sporting phenomenon – largely the preserve of elite Anglo men – promoted by clubs such as the Windsor Wheelmen founded in 1892. However, over the decade, recreational and utility cycling has developped.

Many ordinary Windsorites cycled to work daily, including jobs in Detroit using the ferry. Oddly enough, given the history of manufacturing in the city of Windsor, bicycles were not only common here before cars, they were built here before cars.

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In 1897, Evans & Dodge (yes, that Dodge, two brothers actually) employed 100 people to ride bicycles near the downtown ferry dock. They weren’t the only ones making bikes in Windsor – and in many ways the car grew out of the processes and parts originally designed for bikes.

It would be tempting to write the history of cycling in the first decades of the 20th century as that of a long, slow decline in cycling after the golden age of the 1890s.

Certainly, due to the increased use of the car, street parking has become common and cities have been remade to accommodate the automobile and urban sprawl.

Beginning in the 1920s, street biking began to be presented as a danger and an obstacle to a definition of “traffic” that excluded bicycles and other types of road users, including pedestrians.

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However, the daily use of the bicycle to get to school and to work continued for much of the first half of the 20th century in Windsor. World War II was in some ways a highlight for cycling despite bicycle rationing.

In the post-war period, efforts were made, sometimes through well-intentioned safety initiatives, to keep bikes off the roads.

In the absence of well-organized cycling groups, city authorities, police, courts, columnists and motorist associations were free to blame the death or injury of cyclists for dangerous cycling regardless of infrastructure or dangerous driving.

Culturally, cycling began to be associated with children and bicycles were marketed as toys. But cycling has retained its presence, celebrated in bicycle rodeos and the return, in 1958, of bicycle races to the city through the Tour di Via Italia.

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The ‘bicycle boom’ of the 1970s hit Windsor hard. In 1973, bicycle sales were estimated to be 30% higher than the previous year. This decade also saw the first efforts to organize cyclists and push for better infrastructure.

In 1973, the Windsor Chapter of the Ontario Biking Coalition produced a “Master Bikeway Plan” and presented it to the city. It gathered dust for two years until 1975, when city council reconsidered the report and agreed to commission a “cycle path development concept” to accommodate around 60,000 cyclists.

The Bikeway Plan was modest and geared towards recreational cyclists, but it was a start. The 1991 Bicycle Use Development Study (BUDS), the 2001 Bicycle Use Master Plan (BUMP), and the 2019 Active Transportation Master Plan (ATMP) all shifted the lines and improvements have been made.

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Unfortunately, improvements have been slow, unambitious and patchy. Although cycling facilities are added to Windsor’s cycling network each year, a lack of connectivity between routes (cycle paths start and stop abruptly), lack of physically separate lanes on major commuting routes, and the inability to promote culture change continue to be evident.

The lack of cycling infrastructure in the center was highlighted by the addition of electric scooters. The lack of addition of ‘pop-up’ bike lanes so far during the pandemic, as a diverse group of Windsorites took their bikes in search of recreation and safe transportation, has also been a disappointment.

But I remain optimistic.

We have flat terrain, mild winters, good urban centers, as well as proximity to natural and built heritage. And as a century and a half of cycling in Windsor shows, cyclists here are resilient and can tap into our rich local history for inspiration.

Christopher Waters is Professor of Law at the University of Windsor and a member of its Center for Cities, which empowers students, faculty, city governments and community groups to achieve sustainable local governance.