DBP 1985 1244 Jugend Kreuzrahmen-Niederrad

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 A postal marking is any kind of annotation applied to a letter by a postal service. The most common types are postmarks and cancellations; almost every letter will have those. Less common types include forwarding addresses, routing annotation ...

used.

History

Prior to the advent of Bicycle Mail, the most common forms of mail delivery was on foot, horse (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 (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. 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 and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. 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