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Thanks to automobiles roads went from gravel tracks with no signs to

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gigantic five lane freeways with a complicated system of numbers exits and [examples of road signs]

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rules yay evolution it took a lot of work a couple of political campaigns and [man driving an olden car]

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some false starts and almost a century but America built one of the largest and

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finest road systems in the world of course it's not fair to give cars all [American soldiers marching as road opens]

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the credit bicycles also had a lot to do with our road system seriously

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bikes let's take a few technological steps back some of the world's first [introducing velocipedes on a stage with a red curtain]

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bicycles were called velocipedes which is an awesome word that sounds

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like a cross between a velociraptor and a centipede [people thinking about a velociraptor and a centipede riding a bike]

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Raptors with a hundred legs.. in reality velocipedes were basic bikes that had

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big iron wheels very little steering and pedals that directly turned the front [Giant wheels of a velocipede]

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wheel no gears and chains here folks and they were so uncomfortable they were

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called bone shakers so clearly not the preferred method of transportation for [skeleton riding a velocipede and bones fall off]

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skeletons in 1887 somebody got serious and invented the safety bicycle which

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was pretty similar to what we ride down to the you know the organic food co-op

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when we're feeling health-conscious that is to say that the safety bike was pretty [man giving a presentation of a safety bike]

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dang modern it had gears a padded seat brakes and inflatable pneumatic tires it

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probably would have been a bad idea to take one mountain biking but still [man riding downhill on a bike]

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safety bikes were a huge step up from the old bone shakers. Skeletons

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everywhere breathe sighs of relief Well they would've if you know they breathed

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safety bikes became crazy popular and they were especially popular for [adverts on a street for safety bikes]

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middle-class city folk who wanted to take leisurely rides into the

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countryside yep some Americans were actually starting to experience a crazy

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new phenomenon called free time. Still these middle-class folks had one

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big thing standing in the way of their relaxing rides through the country in [middle class people riding a bike on a stony road]

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the 1880s rural roads in the US were the pits and we mean that well kind of

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literally they had pits in them cities had nice paved roads but country roads [man riding a bike on a nice smooth road]

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could still be dirt or gravel so we're talking potholes so deep that

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middle-class cyclists fell in and we're never seen again okay we don't mean that

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part literally but it was a bumpy ride there weren't road signs back then [middle class couple riding a bike up a steep hill]

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either which also made cruising the countryside a little confusing. Finally

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cycling in Justices several urban bike riders started the good roads movement [people protesting for the good roads movement]

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this was a political campaign for better government-funded roads across the

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country and wildly enough it actually worked by World War one there was a

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federal bill helping to fund better roads so all those people who have ever [Road sign of funded by the government]

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doubted it before yes the government does actually accomplish things maybe we

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should have cyclists revolt more often [cyclist protesting outside of the White House]

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