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Notes & References

by carltonreid / on August 17, 2014 /

…1901. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19229/19229-h/19229-h.htm “He predicted grade separation (i.e. roads that bridge other roads).”: A concept familiar to railway engineers, of course. “Four years later Wells could still imagine a strong future…

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The “Mecca of all good cyclists”: Ripley Road

by carltonreid / on March 02, 2012 /

…met to discuss cycling matters in the Hut hotel, an alehouse overlooking Bolder Mere. One of these matters was no doubt the state of the roads, including the once well-surfaced…

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MOTORISTS’ FRONT OF JUDEA: What Have The Cyclists Ever Done for Us?

by carltonreid / on January 20, 2012 /

…bicycle trade – Charles and Frank Duryea offered for sale the first commercial automobile in the US, the Duryea Motor Wagon. One of these was bought by Henry Wells of…

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Newcastle’s Nürburgring: my part in its downfall

by carltonreid / on October 16, 2015 /

…not built for sulkies, or steam engines, or any form of wheeled vehicle. Roads were not built for horses, either. Roads were built for pedestrians. H. G. Wells pointed this…

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Will today’s motorways suffer a similar fate to the railway lines that are now rail-trails?

by carltonreid / on November 03, 2015 /

…to die in one,” said H. G. Wells in 1901.[1] When the use of stagecoaches tailed off thanks to competition from railways, Britain’s expensive turnpikes went through a period of…

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Why does the Monaco Grand Prix organiser have a bicycle in its logo?

by carltonreid / on May 21, 2015 /

…and is nestled on the French Riviera, close to Nice. Since its Monte Carlo casino opened in 1863 it has been a magnet for high-society and well-to-do ne’er do wells….

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"How cyclists were the first to push for good roads & became the pioneers of motoring." ROADS WERE NOT BUILT FOR CARS is a print, Kindle, iPad and free e-book about roads history.

The coming of the railways in the 1830s killed off the stage-coach trade; almost all rural roads reverted to low-level local use. Cyclists were the first group in a generation to use roads and were the first to push for high-quality sealed surfaces and were the first to lobby for national funding and leadership for roads. They were also the first promoters of motoring; the first motoring journalists had first been cycling journalists; and there was a transfer of technology from cycling to motoring without which cars as we know them wouldn't exist! Nearly seventy car marques – including Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin, Chevrolet, Cadillac and GMC – had bicycling beginnings.

'Roads Were Not Built for Cars' is a history book, focussing on a time when cyclists had political clout, in Britain and especially in America. The book researches the Roads Improvement Association - a lobbying group created by the Cyclists' Touring Club in 1886 - and the Good Roads movement organised by the League of American Wheelmen in the same period.

The book was published in a Kickstarter limited-edition in September 2014. Island Press of Washington, D.C. published a revised second-edition in April 2015.

Thanks to research grants and advertising support, text-only PDF chapters from the book are slowly being made available for free to read online. The free distribution model is being used in order to get the book seen by as many eyes as possible. The paid-for publications are richly illustrated; the free versions have had the pix stripped out and replaced with adverts.

To get notification of the paid-for and free publications subscribe to the (infrequent) email newsletter. See below or in the sidebars.

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MOTORISTS' FRONT OF JUDEA: Apart from the pneumatic tyre, ball bearings, differential gears, roads, motoring, car ads, and aviation, what have the cyclists ever done for us?

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