Who Owns The Roads?

by Patrick Appel

A reader corrects me:

Your contention about roads not existing for bicycles might be true in rural areas and the west.  It is not in the cities of the east.  The first organization to actively lobby for paved roads in America's cities was The League of American Wheelmen, a cycling organization.  The league's members were a who's who of the elite of the day including  Wright Brothers, Diamond Jim Brady, and John D Rockefeller.  If not for their successful efforts to have the roads paved in our cities the auto would have taken hold much more slowly in its early days.  Just as cars once made use of roads paved for cyclists, cyclist may use roads paved for cars without guilt.  Public accommodations are public.
2006-2011 archives for The Daily Dish, featuring Andrew Sullivan