\n Origins<\/span><\/h3>\n
In the second half of the 19th century, the railroads dominated interstate
\n travel, and the limited pre-railroad network of roads fell into neglect. In
\n the 1880s, however, the growing popularity of a new mode of transportation,
\n the “ordinary” bicycle — the type with the large front wheel — was the first
\n sign of change. The speed and individual mobility afforded by the bicycle
\n created a nationwide craze — complete with bicycle clubs, clothes, races,
\n and touring guides — for what appeared to be the next important mode of transportation.
\n With the introduction of the “safety” bicycle with two wheels of the same
\n size and the pneumatic tire in the late 1880s, the craze became an economic,
\n political, and social force in the United States. By 1890, over one million
\n bicycles were being manufactured in the country each year. <\/p>\n
\n ![\"image\"](\"https:\/\/www.tfhrc.gov\/pubrds\/fall93\/imgs\/p93au1.jpg\")
\n ![\"image\"](\"https:\/\/www.tfhrc.gov\/pubrds\/fall93\/imgs\/p93au1a.gif\")
<\/p>\n
The biggest problem was that, outside the cities, the nation’s bad roads
\n made bicycling a laborious, dangerous process. As one contemporary slogan
\n put it, the roads were, “Wholly unclassable, almost impassable, scarcely jackassable!”
\n The Good Roads Movement was a response to this problem. Bicycle groups, led
\n by the League of American Wheelmen (L.A.W.), and manufacturers, led by Col.
\n Albert Pope, worked at the federal, state, and local level to secure road
\n improvement legislation. <\/p>\n