"several reasons for antagonism against bicyclists"

monument

I think it may be worthwhile to have my own diversion in a book which came about from diversions... The below is from 'Of Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs':

There were several reasons for the antagonism against bicyclists. One was irritation caused by the evident satisfaction with which the riders of the high-wheeler elevated themselves above their fellow citizens. This irritation gave rise to derisive cheers such as "Monkey on a gridiron!" (Wells, 1896: 24) or the loudly hailed pronouncement that "your wheel is going round!" (Woodforde, 1970: 50). Jokes like this inflicted no injury, "but when to words are added deeds, and stones are thrown, sticks thrust into the wheels, or caps hurled into the machinery, the picture has a different aspect."22

The touring clergyman who made this observation added, "All the above in certain districts are of common occurrence, and have all happened to me, especially when passing through a village just after school is closed. The playful children just let loose from school are generally at this time in an excitable state of mind."23

Another reason for the antagonism was the threat posed by the bicyclists to those who were walking. Pedestrians backed almost into the hedges when they met one of them, for was there not almost every week in the Sunday newspaper the story of some one being knocked down and killed by a bicycle, and letters from readers saying cyclists ought not to be allowed to use the roads, which, as everybody knew, were provided for people to walk on or to drive on behind horses. "Bicyclists ought to have roads to themselves, like railway trains" was the general opinion. (Thompson, 1941: 18)

Police and magistrates supported this view. Local ordinances posed various restrictions on bicycling, often widely different in different towns. A German cantonal judge observed that these local ordinances stipulated many obligations for the cyclists, but hardly any rights.24 Elaborating on these rights, he remarked that the offense bicyclists suffered from most frequently was defamation. Carriage drivers being overtaken by a bicycle, pedestrians having to wait a few seconds before crossing a street—they all would shout insults at the cyclist.

The judge described the various forms of defamation recognized in German law and added that the so-called einfache Beleidigung (simple slander), which could be exerted by words, gestures, or pawing, was most common. An enthusiastic bicyclist himself, he used to write down all insulting words shouted at him; he was amazed by the public's creativity. Newspaper reports about fights between bicyclists and pedestrians or coach drivers were quite common. A particularly flagrant attack, Woodforde reports, happened on 26 August 1876, when a coach driver lashed an overtaking bicyclist with his whip and the coach guard actually threw an iron ball, which he had secured to a rope, between the spokes of the wheel (Woodforde, 1970: 52).

An offense with which bicyclists were frequently charged was "riding furiously," especially on roads with excellent wood paving such as the high road between Kensington and Hammersmith in London. The antagonism of the general public can be sensed through the following excerpt from a court hearing transcript, concerning four men charged with furious riding: "Police constable ZYX 4002 deposed that he was on duty the previous evening, and saw the defendants riding at a rate of forty miles an hour; he walked after them and overtook them ... taking them to the station handcuffed."25 If we can assume that this speed of forty miles an hour was a gross overstatement, the acceptance of such a statement suggests a generally negative opinion about bicycling in those days.

"Some things don't change much" came into my mind, some things have.

Context: This was in the late 1800s in the lead up to the 'safety bicycle' and cycling becoming more widespread.

tomasrojo

Police constable ZYX 4002 deposed that he was on duty the previous evening, and saw the defendants riding at a rate of forty miles an hour; he walked after them and overtook them

Yes, something not quite right there ...

This reminds me of something in one of George Monbiot's articles in the Guardian, but the resonances being of attitudes of and towards motorists:

There's nothing new in this. In A Tale of Two Cities, the aristocrats in pre-revolutionary Paris exhibit their disdain for the rest of humanity by driving their carriages as fast as they can. "The complaint had sometimes made itself audible," Dickens wrote, "that, in the narrow streets without footways, the fierce patrician custom of hard driving endangered and maimed the mere vulgar in a barbarous manner. But ... in this matter, as in all others, the common wretches were left to get out of their difficulties as they could."(12) The kings of the road still insist on their right to dispose of the lives of their subject peoples.

http://www.zcommunications.org/think-inside-the-box-by-george-monbiot