Inbreeding

   It is a rainy day and I just read these sentences: 

"With a bicycle, the world would have expanded dramatically for fin-de-siecle Victorians, particularly as bikes became increasingly affordable, bringing new experiences and opportunities, and perhaps even new romantic liaisons. Sociologists now credit the bicycle with a decrease in genetic faults associated with inbreeding in the U.K. , and as early as 1900, the U.S. Census Office identified the invention as a game-changer: 'Few articles ever used by man have created so great a revolution in social conditions as the bicycle."

   I thought the comment about inbreeding an interesting one and had never associated cycling with consanguinity, so I went looking for some of the 'sociologists' who have found a relationship between the rise in cycling and the decline in sexual activities among those who are related. The search turned out to be more difficult than I thought and the subject of inbreeding, like just about any subject these days, is not without its controversial aspects. 

   I did find some support, however, and have no reason to doubt that cycling, like the back seats of cars, may have affected sexual relationships. William Manners writes in The Guardian about how cycling changed society: 

One unexpected way it did this was in the field of genetics. For the majority of those living in rural areas, owning a bicycle dramatically increased the number of potential marriage partners, as for the first time they possessed their own means of travelling beyond their local communities. The widening of gene pools which resulted from this process means that the biologist Steve Jones ranks the invention of the bicycle as the most important event in recent human evolution.

     I did track down Professor Jones, a well-respected geneticist, and, indeed, he does write  in The Language of Genes that, There is little doubt that the most important event in recent human evolution was the invention of the bicycle.

    Although it is still raining, I decided to stop searching and write this. If you need more proof, have a look yourself.

Sources:

   The sentences which led to the search are found in: Revolutions: How Women Changed the World on Wheels, by Hannah Ross.

    The article by Mr. Manners: "The Secret History of 19th Century Cyclists: The Early Days of the Modern Bicycle Brought Not Just Joyful Escape for the Masses, But Proved a Catalyst for Wider Social Change, The Guardian, June 9, 2015.

The Bonus: 

  In The Guardian article one also finds these quotes:

Hobsbawm wrote:

If physical mobility is an essential condition of freedom, the bicycle has probably been the greatest single device for achieving what Marx has called the full realisation of being human invented since Gutenberg, and the only one without obvious drawbacks.

And H.G. Wells said:

Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.