The first bicycle was used as a replacement for a horse, required a saddle and was propelled like Fred Flinstone's car. According to University of California, Davis, Bicycle Program Coordinator David Takemoto-Weerts, an early bicycle-like invention was a "Draisine," a 19th-century invention of German forest ranger Karl Von Drais, for whom the the proto-bike is named. Similar machines were tweaked by engineers until bikes evolved into what we use today. Takemoto-Weerts helped facilitate the purchase of a Draisine, part of the Pierce Miller collection that U.C. Davis bought in 2000 for a little under $400,000. It is now one of the dozens of historic and modern bikes displayed at the U.S. B

It must have been a surreal experience for those on the RT at 10th and O streets to spot the likes of John Madden, Carol Burnett and George Lucas walking down the red carpet in their awards-show best at the California Museum for History, Women and the Arts. Anyone who actually got off at the stop may have caught Burnett's signature Tarzan call or had a chance for Lucas to sign any surface capable to be written on. Dozens of others, however, thought ahead and brought glossy “Star Wars,” “Terminator” and sports stills for Lucas, Gov. Schwarzenegger and Madden to sign, respectively. The occasion for this "who’s who" of California’s best, 13 in all, was their induction into the state’s Hall