Originally Posted by
rydabent
njkayaker
But the roads before the League of Wheelmen got involved were little more than cow paths. The Wheelmen lobbied for smooth easily passable roads. Remember early bikes did not have inflateable tires, and needed smooth roads.
I know about that.
So what? What about the Romans?
The roads that they had made "smooth" probably were a tiny percentage of roads anyway (most likely in cities).
There was still a heck of a lot of road usage by non-cyclists (regardless of the
quality of those roads).