How cyclists, not drivers, first fought to pave US roads

vox.com

86 points·samclemens··9 comments

A few months ago I attended a conference where they spoke very clearly about how the automobile industry, in the early 1900's, used marketing to make roads their own.

Here is the talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHA4xN1dEkM&t=2m8s

and this part of the interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyT8AUn3cuU&t=10m30s

Interesting historical artefacts.

99pi did a story recently on how the auto industry fabricated the crime of "jaywalking" to get people out of the streets and seize the streets for cars.

correct, in the above talk they mention the origins of "jaywalking". i found it fascinating.

not just in the US - from the stuff I've read (and I can't cite anything), here in Australia the roads were originally sealed to improve cycling conditions!

Very interesting. Who woulda thought!

So cyclists started raising money for roads in the 1900s from private individuals ("Pope [...] and other special interest groups"), private companies ("asphalt manufacturers") and 16 years later when it was too late, the government passed some bill to give themselves credit for funding the roads by saying they would match state contributions.

And now everyone thinks if it weren't for the government we couldn't have roads.

Yes, private parties stated, smd government partnership made it actually happen

You could have roads without the government, you'd be unlikely to have an effective interstate highway system without it. Or something like the Garden State Parkway.

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