Among the donations at Free Ride, we frequently find some odd-ball items from cycling’s past. This ditty came into our hands, and we couldn’t help but chuckle at it and share it with everyone.

The first thing that you notice on the “safe cycling” brochure is the fact that the guy is not wearing a helmet. OK, passable, this was 1976 and maybe the benefits of wearing helmets weren’t quite understood yet. Upon closer inspection, though, it appears that he isn’t wearing any pants as well. But boy does his hair look good.

Click on the image to see a larger version

Don’t forget about this common sense rule:
Never carry more people on a bicycle than there are seats. This means that the ordinary bicycle, which has only one seat, should have only one rider.

This pamphlet was years before the idea of Complete Streets, or bicycle advocacy in general was in the national dialogue, so it’s difficult not to notice how much they fault the cyclist for problems on the road, without much education directed to motorists.

I really shouldn’t fault them for trying though. If this was the precursor to the excellent PA State Bicycle Driver’s Manual, then I’ll let them off the hook.