Between 1880 and 1916, advocates for improved roads led by bicyclists turned local agitation into a national political movement. Outside of cities, roads were dirt or gravel, mud in the winter and dust in the summer. Early organizers cited Europe where road construction and maintenance was supported by national and local governements. In its early years, the main goal of the movement was education for road building in rural areas between cities and to help rural populations gain the social and economic benefits enjoyed by cities where citizens benefitted from railroads, trolleys and paved streets. And they wanted to ride their bicycles on good country roads.

The Good Roads Movement was founded in May 1880, when bicycle enthusiasts, riding clubs and manufacturers met in Newport Rhode Island to form the League of American Wheelmen to support the burgeoning use of bicycles and to protect their interests from legislative discrimination. The League quickly went national and in 1891 began publishing GOOD ROADS MAGAZINE. In three years circulation reached a million. Early movement advocates enlisted the help of journalists, farmers, politicians and engineers in the project of improving the nation's roadways, but the movement took off when it was adopted by bicyclists. Groups across the country held road conventions and public demonstrations, published material on the benefits of good roads and endeavored to influence legislators on local, state and national levels. Good road advocates involved themselves in local politics. Support for candidates often became crucial factors in elections. Not only advocating road improvements for bicyclists, the League pressed the idea to farmers and rural communities, publishing literature such as the famous pamphlet, THE GOSPEL OF GOOD ROADS. The League of American Wheelmen (LAW) is the historic name of the organization now known as the League of American Bicyclists (LAB). ...

At the turn of the Twentieth Century the bicycle fad began to wane in the face of increasing interest in automobiles and other groups took the lead in the Good Roads Movement.

Horatio Earle is known as the "Father of Good Roads." Quote from Earle's 1929 Autobiography "I often hear now-a-days, the automobile instigated good roads; that the automobile is the parent of good roads. Well, the truth is, the bicycle is the father of the good roads movement in this country." Horatio Sawyer Earle is known as the Father of Good Roads or simply Horatio Good Roads Earle. ...

References

THE GOOD ROADS MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES: 1880-1916 - W.G. Hilles. Thesis Duke University 1958