Roads were not built for cars : how cyclists were the first to push for good roads & became the pioneers of motoring
Publication Information
Washington : Island Press, [2015]
Physical Description
xxiii, 331 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 26 cm
Summary
"In Roads Were Not Built for Cars, Carlton Reid reveals the pivotal--and largely unrecognized--role that bicyclists played in the development of modern roadways. Reid introduces readers to cycling personalities, such as Henry Ford, and the cycling advocacy groups that influenced early road improvements, literally paving the way for the motor car. When the bicycle morphed from the vehicle of rich transport progressives in the 1890s to the "poor man's transport" in the 1920s, some cyclists became ardent motorists and were all too happy to forget their cycling roots. But, Reid explains, many motor pioneers continued cycling, celebrating the shared links between transport modes that are now seen as worlds apart. In this engaging and meticulously researched book, Carlton Reid encourages us all to celebrate those links once again."--Publisher's website.
Contents
- Machine generated contents note: 1. When Two Tribes Were One
- 2. Pioneers
- 3. Mastodons to Motorways
- 4. Who Owns the Roads?
- 5. Speed
- 6. Width
- 7. Hardtop History
- 8. "What the Bicyclist Did for Roads"
- 9. Ripley: "the Mecca of all Good Cyclists"
- 10. Good Roads for America
- 11. America's Forgotten Transport Network
- 12. Pedal Power
- 13. Motoring's Bicycling Beginnings
- 14. Without Bicycles Motoring Might Not Exist
- 15. From King of the Road to Cycle Chic.