The bicycle is the ultimate machine for personal freedom. Anyone can go anywhere on a bike. For a really inspiring read, try Josie Dew’s book The wind in my wheels; for an entertaining slice of cycling history listen to Lawrence Pollard Pedalling to freedom every weekday this week at 3.45 on Radio 4.

I have had a bike as long as I can remember. I was born and raised on a farm, and needed a bike to visit friends, none of whom lived less than two miles away. I now have no car, but seven cycles, in various shapes and sizes, and I use them for most of my local transport, including family shopping, with a trailer, and getting around London.

The world’s first bicycle was supposed to have been made in 1839 by a Scottish blacksmith, Kirkpatrick Macmillan. I rode a replica of his heavy beast for a mile, and found it not too uncomfortable, once I got used to it. Surprisingly, though, it did not catch on for another 20 years, and then what arrived were French bicycles. The boneshaker (actually rather comfortable) gave way to the ‘ordinary’ or ‘high bicycle’ – sneerily called the penny-farthing – I broke one in Belfast. Then came Dunlop’s soft and efficient pneumatic tyre, and the stage was set.

In 1895 the bike became cheap, and anyone could have one. Suddenly people – especially women - could travel not merely to the next village but to the next county. You did not have to find your soulmate within walking distance, and this enormously widened the range of potential partners.

What really surprises me is that the bike was not invented earlier. It needed a fairly smooth surface, but the Romans had good roads. Why did not their army captains have bicycles? Why were there no bikes in Shakespeare, or even Jane Austen? What a tragic waste of opportunity.

I am sad too that the bicycle still fails to provide that freedom for the majority. They are silent, they don't pollute the air, and in this country, there are more bikes than cars, and each year more bikes are bought than cars. Yet which dominates the roads? Thank goodness there are some efforts to improve the lot of the cyclist, from the cycle paths in cities to the Sustrans cycleways snaking across the country. We just need more of them, and some positive help from the government...