Bicycle Mail - The topic of Bicycle Mail can cover two separate and distinctive areas. It can be used to describe the ''Thematic'' (

Topical A topical medication is a medication that is applied to a particular place on or in the body. Most often topical medication means application to body surfaces such as the skin or mucous membranes to treat ailments via a large range of classes ...

) collecting and or study of stamps bearing the image of bicycles, or more commonly used to describe a specific category of Special Delivery, where mail was delivered by bicycle and is identified by stamp and or postal mark used.

History

Prior to the advent of Bicycle Mail, the most common forms of mail delivery was on foot,

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 mi ...

(local routes), and train for longer distances. In some countries Bicycle Mail became more prevalent during periods of railroad strikes to keep local mail routes active. It was also used as an alternative to horse and foot delivered mail in rural areas. By the 1930s most countries had greatly diminished the use of Bicycles for the delivery of mail in favor of the automobile for local delivery. Some Bicycle Mail was used for local routes in an unofficial capacity. One example of this took place in 1896 in

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. In the United States during the 1890s, a specific example of Bicycle Mail being used in place of rail delivery occurred during a strike on the established mail route between

Fresno Fresno (; ) is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County, California, Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley (California), Central Valley region. It covers a ...

and

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. Bicycle mail is still used widely in Japan for delivery to government agencies which only accept the delivery of physical documents.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bicycle Mail Postal systems Philatelic terminology Postal history