Good Roads Movement

FreightWaves Classics: Good roads advocates met in Chicago 130 years ago

An example of a typical rural road as late as the 1930s. (Photo: Federal Highway Administration)

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The Good Roads Movement was active in the United States between the late 1870s and the 1920s. Road improvement advocates were able to turn what had been a local issue into a national political movement. The movement began as a coalition between organizations of farmers and bicyclists, such...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-classics-good-roads-advocates-met-in-chicago-130-years-ago

FreightWaves Classics: Transcontinental trip leads to the numbered highway system (Part 1)

Lincoln Highway bridge in Tama, Iowa. (Photo: Public Domain/Library of Congress)

FreightWaves Classics is sponsored by Sutton Transport, an LTL leader in the Midwest for more than 40 years. Sutton Transport proudly services Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin. Request a quote here.

In Chicago on March 4, 1902, nine individual motor clubs with a total of 1,500 members banded together to found the American Automobile Association (AAA or Triple-A). Their reason for beginning AAA was “the lack of roads and highways suitable for automobiles.” Among the individual motor...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-classics-transcontinental-trip-leads-to-the-numbered-highway-system-part-1

FreightWaves Classics/Infrastructure: Federal Aid Road Act of 1916 kick-started U.S. road-building

A too-familiar scene in rural Texas. (Photo: University of North Texas)

A 2.55-mile section of roadway between the cities of Albany and Richmond in Contra Costa County, California, received a certificate of completion on this date in 1917. In terms of the size and scope of the project it was rather insignificant. However, what made it newsworthy was that it was the first project that was issued a certificate of completion under the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916.

Therefore, January 30, 1917 is a key date in the development of the U.S. highway system. The U.S. Bureau...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-classicsinfrastructure-federal-aid-road-act-of-1916-kick-started-us-road-building

FreightWaves Classics: Thank bicyclists for today’s highways?

An example of most U.S. roads during the 1890-1920 time period. (Photo: Federal Highway Administration)

The Good Roads Movement was a broad-based effort to construct and improve the condition of U.S. roads in the late 1800s that lasted until the National Highway System was begun by the federal government in 1926. 

Interestingly, the movement was started not by early auto or truck users, but by bicyclists back in the 1870s. However, the effort expanded greatly after automobiles began to proliferate.

The cover of the first issue of "Good Roads."The cover of the first issue of “Good Roads.”

League of American Wheelmen

Bicycles were introduced...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-classics-thank-bicyclists-for-todays-highways