The Good Roads Movement occurred in the United States between the late 1870s and the 1920s. It was the rural dimension of the
Progressive movement. A key player was the
United States Post Office Department
The United States Post Office Department (USPOD; also known as the Post Office or U.S. Mail) was the predecessor of the United States Postal Service, in the form of a Cabinet department, officially from 1872 to 1971. It was headed by the postma ...
. Once a commitment was made for
Rural Free Delivery of the mail, the Post Office had to determine which local roads were suitable and which were not. Farmers living on officially unusable roads now had motivation to get them upgraded. Advocates for improved roads turned local agitation into a national political movement. It started as a coalition between farmers' organizations groups and bicyclists' organizations, such as the
League of American Wheelmen. The goal was state and federal spending to improve rural roads. By 1910, automobile lobbies such as the
American Automobile Association
American Automobile Association (AAA – commonly pronounced as "Triple A") is a federation of motor clubs throughout North America. AAA is a privately held not-for-profit national member association and service organization with over 60 mi ...
joined the campaign, coordinated by the National Good Roads Association.
Outside cities, roads were dirt or gravel; mud in the winter and dust in the summer. Travel was slow and expensive. Early organizers cited
Europe where
road construction and maintenance was supported by national and local governments. In its early years, the main goal of the movement was education for road building in rural areas between cities and to help rural populations gain the social and economic benefits enjoyed by cities where citizens benefited from railroads,
trolleys and paved streets. Even more than traditional vehicles, the newly invented bicycles could benefit from good country roads.
History
The Good Roads Movement was officially founded in May 1880, when bicycle enthusiasts, riding clubs and manufacturers met in
Newport, Rhode Island, to form the
League of American Wheelmen to support the
burgeoning use of bicycles and to protect their interests from legislative discrimination. The League quickly went national and in 1892 began publishing ''Good Roads'' magazine. In three years circulation reached one million. Early movement advocates enlisted the help of journalists, farmers, politicians and engineers in the project of improving the nation's roadways, but the movement took off when it was adopted by bicyclists.
Groups across the country held road conventions and public demonstrations, published material on the benefits of good roads and endeavoured to influence legislators on local, state and national levels. Support for candidates often became crucial factors in elections. Not only advocating road improvements for bicyclists, the League pressed the idea to farmers and rural communities, publishing literature such as the famous pamphlet, ''The Gospel of Good Roads''.
New Jersey became the first state to pass a law providing for a state to participate in road-building projects. In 1893, the
U.S. Department of Agriculture initiated a systematic evaluation of existing highway systems. In that same year,
Charles Duryea
Charles Edgar Duryea (December 15, 1861 – September 28, 1938) was an American engineer. He was the engineer of the first-ever working American gasoline-powered car and co-founder of Duryea Motor Wagon Company. He was born near Canton, Il ...
produced the first American gasoline-powered vehicle, and
Rural Free Delivery began. By June 1894, "Many of the railway companies
admade concessions in transporting road materials ranging from half rates to free carriage."
20th century
At the turn of the twentieth century, interest in the bicycle began to wane in the face of increasing interest in
automobiles. Subsequently, other groups took the lead in the
road lobby. As the automobile was developed and gained momentum, organizations developed such cross-county projects as the coast-to-coast east–west
Lincoln Highway
The Lincoln Highway is the first transcontinental highway in the United States and one of the first highways designed expressly for automobiles. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated October 31, 19 ...
in 1913, headed by auto parts and auto racing magnate
Carl G. Fisher
Carl Graham Fisher (January 12, 1874 – July 15, 1939) was an American entrepreneur. He was an important figure in the automotive industry, in highway construction, and in real estate development.
In his early life in Indiana, despite fam ...
, and later his north–south
Dixie Highway
Dixie Highway was a United States auto trail first planned in 1914 to connect the Midwest with the South. It was part of a system and was expanded from an earlier Miami to Montreal highway. The final system is better understood as a network of ...
in 1915, which extended from Canada to
Miami, Florida.
1904 editorial cartoon by , urging that funds be appropriated for the goals of the Good Roads Movement">E. A. Bushnell, urging that funds be appropriated for the goals of the Good Roads Movement
The movement gained national prominence when President
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
signed the
Federal Aid Road Act of 1916 on July 11, 1916. In that year, the Buffalo Steam Roller Company of Buffalo, New York, and the Kelly-Springfield Company of Springfield, Ohio, merged to form the Buffalo-Springfield Company, which became the leader in the American
compaction industry. Buffalo-Springfield enabled America to embark on a truly national highway construction campaign that continued into the 1920s.
Horatio Earle
Horatio Sawyer Earle (1855–1935) is known as the "Father of Good Roads" or simply Horatio "Good Roads" Earle.
Early life
Earle was born February 14, 1855 on a farm in Mount Holly, Vermont. He married Agnes Lincoln in 1874 and they had a s ...
is known as the "Father of Good Roads". Quoting from Earle's 1929 autobiography: "I often hear now-a-days, the automobile instigated good roads; that the automobile is the parent of good roads. Well, the truth is, the bicycle is the father of the good roads movement in this country." "The League fought for the privilege of building
bicycle path
Cycling infrastructure is all infrastructure cyclists are allowed to use. Bikeways include bike paths, bike lanes, cycle tracks, rail trails and, where permitted, sidewalks. Roads used by motorists are also cycling infrastructure, except wh ...
s along the side of public highways." "The League fought for equal privileges with horse-drawn vehicles. All these battles were won and the bicyclist was accorded equal rights with other users of highways and streets."
State Good Roads associations
The 1920 ''Directory of American Agricultural Organizations''
''Directory of American Agricultural Organizations''
/ref> lists the following state organizations as being affiliated with the Good Roads Movement:
* Alabama Good Roads Association
* Arizona Good Roads Association
* Central Florida Highway Association
* Good Roads Association of Wisconsin
* Illinois Association for Highway Improvement
* Kansas Good Roads Association
* Massachusetts Highway Association
* Michigan Pikes Association
* Michigan State Good Roads Association
* Montana Good Roads Congress
* Montana Highway Improvement Association
* Nebraska Good Roads Association
* Nevada Highway Association
* New Hampshire Good Roads Association
* New York Road Association
* North Carolina Good Roads Association
* Ohio Good Roads Federation
* Southeastern Idaho Good Roads Association
* Virginia Good Roads Association
* Washington State Good Roads Association
* Wilmington-Charlotte-Asheville Highway Association
* Wisconsin Highway Commissioners' Association
* Wyoming Good Roads Association
See also
* U.S. Highway association
U.S. Highway associations were organizations to promote business and tourism along specific highways. The earliest ones also worked on interconnecting various state highways to create longer, multi-state highways. Since 1990, new associations ha ...
* Keystone Markers
A system of roadside signage developed by the Pennsylvania Department of Highways just after the First World War, the iconic Keystone Markers could be found at the entrance to every Pennsylvania town, borough and city. Variations of the marker c ...
* Seedling miles and the later "ideal section" of the Lincoln Highway
* Roads Improvement Association
The Roads Improvement Association, established in 1882, was a British organisation which campaigned for better roads in the late 19th century and first half of the 20th century. Founded by cycling organisations ten years before the first motor c ...
References
Further reading
Scholarly studies
* Finkelstein, Alexander. "Colorado Honor Convicts: Roads, Reform, and Region in the Progressive Era." ''Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era'' 20.1 (2021): 24-43.
* Fuller, Wayne E. "Good roads and rural free delivery of mail." ''Mississippi Valley Historical Review'' 42.1 (1955): 67-8
online
* Hugill, Peter J. "Good roads and the automobile in the United States 1880-1929." ''Geographical Review'' (1982): 327-34
online
* Ingram, Tammy. ''Dixie Highway: Road Building and the Making of the Modern South, 1900-1930'' (2013). It linked Chicago to Florida and helped modernize the South.
* Lee, Jason. "An Economic Analysis of the Good Roads Movement" (Institute of Transportation Studies, U of California, Davis; 2012
online
* Lichtenstein, Alex. "Good roads and chain gangs in the progressive South: ‘the negro convict is a slave.’ " ''Journal of Southern History'' (1993). 59#1: 85-110
online
* Longhurst, James. ''Bike battles: A history of sharing the American road'' (U of Washington Press, 2015).
*
* Olliff, Martin T. ''Getting Out of the Mud: The Alabama Good Roads Movement and Highway Administration, 1898–1928'' (U of Alabama Press, 2017)
online review
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Advocacy in ''Good Roads'' magazine c. 1890–1920
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Advocacy in popular national periodicals c. 1880–1920 (examples)
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Advocacy in books and pamphlets c. 1880–1920 (examples)
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External links
The Great Bicycle Protest of 1896
Oklahoma Historical Society - Good Roads Association
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{{authority control
History of cycling in the United States
Politics and technology
Cycling organizations in the United States
Political advocacy groups in the United States
Roads in the United States
1880 establishments in Rhode Island