The Good Roads Movement, led by cyclists, aimed to improve road conditions in America from 1880 to 1916. Poorly maintained and unpaved roads were difficult to navigate and hindered rural development. The movement spread nationally, advocating for government funding, bike lanes, and organized traffic laws. The movement owes its birth to the bicycle, but cyclists today often fight for space on the roads.
The Good Roads Movement was an American populist movement that started small and eventually spread nationwide, and its benefits can still be felt today. As you might guess from the name, the Good Roads Movement was dedicated to improving road conditions in America, especially in rural America, and was led by cyclists, although motorists also jumped on the Good Roads bandwagon. The movement lasted from about 1880 to 1916.
Roads at the turn of the century in America weren’t a pretty sight, especially in rural areas. The vast majority of the roads were unpaved, turning into muddy pits in the winter and potholed troughs in the summer. These roads were extremely difficult and inconvenient to navigate, regardless of the type of transport used, and were also poorly signposted, making it difficult for people to move around. Road maintenance was a haphazard affair, making it difficult to predict what the condition of the roads would be from place to place.
Cyclists in the United States have pointed to relatively well-maintained and pleasant European roads as examples, and have mobilized locally to improve roads in their areas. In addition to making travel quicker and more enjoyable, supporters of the Good Roads Movement also felt that better roads would bring more privileges and services to rural America, perhaps stemming the tide of rural farm-to-city relocation.
As the Good Roads Movement spread from one community to another, it began to acquire a national scale. In addition to advocating for better roads and more regular maintenance, members of the movement also rallied for government funding of roads, arguing that good roads were simply essential to the health of the country and the economy. Members of the movement have also lobbied for bike lanes to make traveling safer for cyclists, along with more organized traffic laws to make it easier for everyone to share roads.
One often hears the rise of the automobile attributed to the emergence of good roads in the United States, much to the frustration of historians. In fact, the Good Roads movement owes its birth to the bicycle, an immensely popular method of transportation and recreation at the turn of the century in America, and some of its most prominent figures were cyclists. Ironically, after all their contributions to the state of America’s roads, cyclists in the United States today often fight for space on the roads and find themselves overlooked in new road and street plans.
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