MyWHaT

With permission, we’re re-running an excerpt from the following article originally published in 2009 by MyWHaT partner Michigan Complete Streets Coalition. Thank you to the author, John Lindenmayer, for providing some of the history of ‘good roads‘ and how bicyclists were at the forefront of the movement. Today, as the full article describes, the coalition for complete streets is broader than just bicyclists. It includes advocates for transit, pedestrians, disability networks, public spaces as well as advocates for the environment, sensible driving and small businesses.

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How Michigan bicyclists paved the first road in America

By John Lindenmayer, Associate Director – League of Michigan Bicyclists

The Good Roads Movement, led by the “Father of Good Roads,” Michigan’s own Horatio Earle, demanded better road conditions for the growing community of cyclists across the country.

The boom of the bicycle as an object of pleasure and a symbol of progress resulted in a natural desire by bicyclists for smooth, safe roads to ride upon.  This led to organized efforts to clear the roads of mud, horse droppings, and hazards like crumbling cobblestones and an unpredictable crisscross of streetcar tracks.

Horatio Sawyer Earle (1855–1935)

The Good Roads Movement banded millions of American bicyclists together at demonstrations, rallies and other political actions.  With a motto of, “Where there is a wheel, there is a way,” cyclists took their campaign for better streets to the streets, quickly gaining the ears of politicians across the nation.  In fact, many of those cycling advocates successfully ran for elected office themselves on platforms focused on better road conditions.

Introducing: Horatio Earle

Horatio Earle, who came to Michigan in 1889, quickly became entrenched in politics, giving the Good Roads Movement a fervent supporter in our great state.  Having gained a seat in the Michigan Senate, Earle pushed through legislation to create the State Highway Department, now known as the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT).

The Good Roads Movement also successfully lobbied the Michigan Legislature to pass the County Road Act of 1893, which permitted each county, by a vote of the people, to establish its own county road commission and levy a road tax.  All but one of Michigan’s 83 counties eventually created road commissions.  The state’s 82 separate road commissions unintentionally produced a perplexing system of road management, which many Michigan citizens find confusing and difficult to participate in to this day.

Horatio Earle also gave Michigan bragging rights for the world’s first mile of concrete highway.  Built in 1909, Woodward Avenue between Six and Seven Mile Roads in Detroit attracted builders far and near to witness how concrete stood up under the heavy traffic loads of the period.  Woodward Avenue proved a success, helping to spawn our modern highway system.

“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.“– Horatio “Good Roads” Earle

Automobile Industry Rises

Also unintentionally, the historic fight for better bicycling set the stage for the rise of the automobile industry.  Bicyclists successfully gained better surfaces to ride on, but they soon realized it that they now had to share the road with more than just other bicyclists, horses and trolleys.

The internal combustion engine created congestion and, ultimately, the first “Share the Road” campaigns.  However, the political clout of cyclists waned as the automobile took the nation by storm.  Membership in the League of American Wheelman slipped heavily by the turn of the 20th century as national bicycle sales dropped from 1.2 million in 1899 to 160,000 in 1909.

In the 100-plus years since our “high-wheeling” ancestors spurred our modern network of paved roads, the automobile has taken over our culture and never looked back.  As people became able to live farther from work, suburbs upon suburbs sprawled farther and farther from the urban cores.  City centers, once filled with life and vitality, became blighte as people moved to the “’burbs” to claim a piece of the “American Dream.”

For many Americans, the norm has  become hour-long commutes along three-lane superhighways lined with strip malls and congested with single-occupancy SUVs filled with obese, road-rage-prone drivers distracted by fast food, cell phones and iPods.

Moving People to the Fringe

Somewhere along the line, engineers, planners and politicians — following the general public — dismissed bicyclists as a fringe group.  Our roads were no longer built to move people, but solely to move motor vehicles.  By the end of WWII, society had redefined the bicycle as a “toy,” forgetting or even ignoring its lineage as a legitimate and efficient form of transportation.

We certainly will have to deal with a lot of problems as a society before cycling will once again be recognized as a legitimate form of transportation. Since the 1990s, however, as road cycling’s popularity has strongly rebounded, so too has bicycle advocacy.  One could argue that the Good Roads Movement has been reborn in the modern-day effort to “complete the streets.”

So, who will fill the shoes of Horatio Earle and pioneer a 21st Century gilded age of cycling?  Unfortunately, we don’t yet see many politicians running on bicycling platforms.  There is, however, plenty of exciting cycling advocacy underway that does require your attention and action.  It remains to be seen whether Complete Streets will become the new Good Roads Movement.  But, with its diverse supporters, the Complete Streets Movement has at least as much potential to create Good Roads in America once more — for cyclists and non-cyclists alike.

To read the article in its entirety as well as to read a comment by Earle’s Great Grandson, visit: How Michigan bicyclists paved the first road in America

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