Timeline for Why is track cycling done counter-clockwise?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
6 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 3, 2016 at 14:42 | comment | added | FreeMan | According to Wikipedia, the first velodromes were built after the first traffic circle, but I'm not certain how consistent traffic rules were in 1777, so it's hard to say what influence they had on velodrome direction. Also, the earliest velodromes seem to be British which would have lead to a clockwise rotation around the track based on your theory. | |
| Jun 3, 2016 at 13:18 | comment | added | Criggie♦ | I doubt the road rules had any effect on cycling habits on a velodrome. Cycles were plentiful, before automobiles were common enough to require regulation. | |
| Jun 3, 2016 at 12:30 | comment | added | Will Vousden | @juagicre The link with roundabouts is completely unsubstantiated, though. It might well be written down somewhere why it was chosen for velodromes to be ridden counterclockwise; at any rate, there is a factual answer to this question, even if no one here knows it. | |
| Jun 3, 2016 at 12:17 | comment | added | juagicre | It is a fact (and no speculation) that bike (drivers) or car (drivers) take the round-about counter-clockwise. I don't mean that the rules are made for bikes or cars, I didn't try to say from where the rules come from. In this way each country for sure has its own historical excuses to do so. Nothing to do with the question. Now about the question: Why is track cycling done counter-clockwise? Because the rulers wrote it like this. Why did they do so? I try to guess, yes, I am not inside of the ruler's head and in the rules you cannot find any rule-justification, just the rule itself. | |
| Jun 3, 2016 at 12:08 | comment | added | Móż | Do you have a reference? Historically it's been more common for road rules to follow bicycle habits than vice versa, at least for early rules. SE works much better with research rather than speculation and opinion for questions like this that have factual answers. | |
| Jun 3, 2016 at 11:50 | history | answered | juagicre | CC BY-SA 3.0 |