Late nineteenth-century bicyclists actually launched the original campaign to pave American roads, spearheading the Good Roads Movement decades before automobiles even became a common sight on the streets.

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Late nineteenth-century bicyclists actually launched the original campaign to pave American roads, spearheading the Good Roads Movement decades before automobiles even became a common sight on the streets. Frustrated by constantly sinking into knee-deep mud and violently crashing over rural wagon ruts, cycling enthusiasts organized massive political lobbies demanding smooth, macadamized surfaces for their trendy new high-wheelers. When mass-produced cars eventually rolled off the assembly lines, they effortlessly commandeered the very infrastructure that sweaty people in tight wool shorts had fought so hard to build. Motorists then aggressively pushed bicycles into the gutter, creating a beautiful historical irony where the people who successfully lobbied for modern highway systems are now the ones most likely to be honked at and run over by angry commuters relying on those exact same roads