Paving the Way

One unusual fact from history, which most people are not aware, is that the bicycle paved the way for the automobile, both figuratively and literally. The figurative aspect is the manufacturing base and technology that was created in the 1880's and 1890's for the first bicycle boom transferred to the new automobile industry of the 1900's and 1910's. Most people don't appreciate the role that the bicycle and bicycle manufacturers played in creating the new automobile industry in the early twentieth century. The literal aspect of how the bicycle paved the way is through the "Good Roads Movement" The Good Roads Movement was started in 1882 by Albert A. Pope as an off shoot of the League of American Wheelmen to pressure government to improve the quality of roads. At that time (about 1890) most roads were simply dirt paths for farmers' wagons. Paving was a very new technology and only found in a few cities. To encourage the technology for road building, Pope gave six thousand dollars to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to establish a department of road engineering. He also paid to have a section of Boston's Columbus Avenue paved to demonstrate the benefits of asphalt.

The bicycle boom of the 1890's came to a rather sudden end around 1897 to 1898. The "bust" that ended the boom was rather classic lesson of economics. Production expanded so much that it soon exceeded demand and price cutting could not stimulate enough sales to maintain the number of manufacturers that existed at the peak of the boom. While a smaller American bicycle industry stayed around for a few more years, the publics fascination and interest quickly moved to the new automobiles produced by Henry Ford and others. Also unfortunately the American bicycle industry stayed in business by changing to building products for children since there was little demand for bicycles for adults. The result of this history is that too many Americans think of bicycles as toys for children and they don't appreciate the role that the bicycle played in creating the modern system of roads and highways that we have today.

The irony today is that bicyclists continue to have to struggle to have a right to ride on the roads that early bicyclists helped to build. A good example of the current struggle is the San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge. A new east span is being built from Oakland to Yerba Buena Island and will include a 15' wide bike lane. But the old west span from San Francisco to Yerba Buena Island will still be only for automobiles. This is a truly sad situation since the value of the bike lane on east span will be limited without the connection to San Francisco. Hopefully, the efforts to add a bike/ service lane on the west span will be successful. A good discussion on this is available on the SFBC (San Francisco Bicycle Coalition) web site at: http://www.sfbike.org/?baybridge

The struggle for the bicycle to use the public roads and park pathways started in the 1880's when the bicycle (and the was the "Ordinary" or high wheeler) was a newfangled machine the public was just becoming familiar with. Albert Pope supported the legal defense of three early wheelmen that defied Central Park's anti-cycling ordinance. While the Supreme Court eventually upheld the five-dollar fines imposed by the city, the attention gained by the long legal struggle helped gain sympathy from the public. Bicyclists are now in another struggle for the right to the road. With all the attention on energy consumption and global warming issues, as well as simple traffic congestion, perhaps politicians can again be moved to recognize the value of the bicycle in the transportation mix.