THE bicycle is considered the most significant technological innovation since 1800.
Pedal power beat hi-tech nominations such as the internet and the internal combustion engine to top a survey of Radio 4 listeners.
It was picked by 59% of the 5,500 voters.
The transistor and the electro-magnetic induction ring were joint second with 8%.
The bicycle was nominated for the You and Yours programme's poll by Prof Heinz Wolff, of Brunel University. He said the bicycle's social impact had been far-reaching.
"It changed humanity by allowing us to do something which was otherwise difficult or restricted to people who had a lot of money and could afford a coach or horse," he said.
The first two-wheeled, rider-propelled machine was invented by Baron Karl de Drais de Sauerbrun in France in 1818.
