Best of Bike Delaware 2013: What happened to a place in Michigan when it banned cars for 115 years?

Staff December 31, 2013 Most Popular 0

2013 Look Back: This article was originally published on February 26, 2013. It was the most viewed Bike Delaware article of 2013.

by Jeff Potter

Excerpted from Mackinac Island: “Watch the Bike!” published in Bicycle Times Magazine (Feb/Mar 2013)

Bike culture has recently been booming in the U.S. But there’s a little place in the north that’s been in love with bikes for generations: Mackinac Island, Michigan, a historic tourist destination on the Straits of Mackinac, between Lakes Michigan and Huron. Because motor vehicles have been banned here since 1898 – more than 100 years – everyone has used bikes for everything a bike can be used for, and for more than you might imagine. Along with multi-season commuting, it’s a place where everyone socializes on bikes, from teens to guys in sports coats.

[Bikes here] come in dozens of brands, spanning the eras…they’re built for comfort. Nearly all have a big front basket, upright handlebars, full metal fenders, a kickstand, and a big seat.

Headlight use isn’t comon, but it’s making slow inroads along with handlebar bells. Islanders enjoy their night sky and navigating by treeline and moonlight…Hardly anyone wears a helmet…Islanders just seem to realize that the safe, human scale of bikes outweighs the need for such extra gear. If helmets worked for them they’d be hanging from every handlebar.

“Copenhagen Bicycle Chic became popular a few years ago, yet generations of Islanders have known that bikes are a part of fashion, part of looking good. Sport coats and dresses – check.”

Photo credit: The Graphic

The air is cleaner and injuries are fewer. Island residents are healthier due to the exercise. There’s a cherished egalitarianism: everyone gets around the same way. They also save a tremendous amount of money that would normally go to commuting by cars.