The blog

“The remarkable manner in which new roads create new traffic”: a history of induced demand

by carltonreid / on February 01, 2013 /

Sir Charles Bressey, 1937: “remarkable manner in which new roads create new traffic.” Transport academics tend to credit the discovery of ‘induced demand in transport’ to J.J. Leeming, a British…

“Take it easy, motorist”

by carltonreid / on July 28, 2015 /

…end of transport cycling the cycle touring Ernest Marples – who had done so much to encourage motoring and therefore knew what it takes to boost a transport mode –…

My boilerplate on cycling infrastructure

by carltonreid / on December 18, 2014 /

I often stress that I’d love to see Dutch-style infrastructure in the UK but because I usually add that infrastructure alone will not bring about mass cycling in the UK…

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….

London’s new Embankment cycleway used to be a tram route

by carltonreid / on October 21, 2015 /

…dominated by motorised vehicles. Motor-centrism was one of the defining aspects of the 20th century but finite space, climate change, whole-population health, and air quality issues mean that engineers will…

Today calling 1948: oi, where are our cycleways?

by carltonreid / on November 30, 2013 /

In 1948, Britain’s Minister for Transport Alfred Barnes introduced the Special Roads Bill. This would – eventually – lead to the creation of Britain’s motorway network. But where are the…

“Some motorists think roads belong to them – we need to change that,” says UK’s Minister for Roads

by carltonreid / on November 27, 2014 /

Earlier today I handed over a copy of my book to the UK’s minister for roads, Robert Goodwill, the Conservative MP for Scarborough – and he was on-message straight away…

John Kemp Starley, creator of the bicycle that “set the fashion to the world”

by carltonreid / on December 13, 2012 /

…revolutionise transport. In 1889 the company became J. K. Starley & Co. and in the late 1890s, it became the Rover Cycle Company. After JK Starley’s death this company started…

Driving on pavements is illegal but parking on them isn’t, confirms Britain’s top traffic cop

by carltonreid / on November 25, 2015 /

…an offence for motorists for park on footways. But only in London. In the rest of the UK – well, except for Exeter – it is not an offence. But…

"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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