James LonghurstDec 18, 2022
Contributing some history to #treebybike : Cover of The New Yorker magazine, December 19, 1942.
I've posted this before elsewhere, but I'll share here on #biketooter: One year after American entry into WWII, this cover reflects several realities; the stylish woman is taking her tree home, without a car in sight. It's a reflection of wartime rationing of gasoline and tires for personal automobiles; the fact that it's a woman fetching the tree might reflect the absence of drafted men. (cont)
Show threadJames Longhurst
. . . The federal Victory Bike program had been announced at the beginning of the year, but production goals had been significantly slashed by the fall of 1942, leaving most Americans to re-use their existing used bicycles in place of the automobile without access to new wartime bicycles. Read more about the forgotten history of the federal "Victory Bike" program, a part of the OPA's rationing of consumer products in wartime, either in "Bike Battles" or in the TRR: https://trid.trb.org/view/1494892
Reconsidering the Victory Bike in World War II: Federal Transportation Policy, History, and Bicycle Commuting in America

Dec 18, 2022 at 4:18pmWeb
Show threadJames LonghurstDec 18, 2022
A longer, open version of the TRR article available here on the Bike Battles blog: https://bikebattles.net/2020/03/reconsidering-the-victory-bike-in-wwii/ and as always, a reminder to get Bike Battles directly from the publisher -- https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295742663/bike-battles/
Show threadJames LonghurstDec 18, 2022
(incidentally, tomorrow will be the 80th anniversary of this cover.)