Good Roads Movement

This is an article that was published in the February 17, 1907 Indianapolis Star concerning a vist by English icon Charles Rolls to the United States.

Published in the Indianapolis Star on December 2, 1906 this article describes the drive of auto enthusiast W.H. Labb from Louisville to Indianapolis. Apparently the toughest part of the journey was in Seymour, Indiana where his Stoddard-Dayton touring car sunk to its wheel hubs in mud.

Not unlike computers driving the need for software applications in the 80's or the i-Phone powering the popularity of apps today, automobiles ignited demand for good roads in the early 20th Century. This was particuarly acute in North America as centuries of civilization had produced a superior road system in Europe. The United States had just a few hundred miles of paved roads, much of the rest of the "roads" across the country would be more accurately described as paths or trails today.

This is a pair of brief articles that appeared in the September 30, 1906 issue of the Indianapolis Star. The subject is road conditions in Indiana. Carl Fisher, who was in Long Island, New York for the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup at the time was interviewed for one of the articles.

These articles discuss the need for and debate over developing modern public roads in early days of automobiles. This was an ongoing debate - inevitably linked to the role of government in what projects should receive public funding - as American society grappled with a huge "inflection point" in the technology of transportation and the demands placed on roadways.

This article, published January 30, 1909 in the Indianapolis Star, concerns plans for the American Automobile Association (AAA) and National Conservation Commission to collaborate. The article discusses the largely disjointed way roads were being developed individually by states and collaboration between these two organizations could lead to a more attractive and efficient highway system.

This is a digest article with limited content. It was published in the February 27, 1909 Indianapolis Star. I took away three things:
 

Anticipating the National Good Roads and Legislative Convention the Indianapolis Star published an article discussing the state of roads in the United States and the various stakeholders

This article, published in the September 5, 1909 Indianapolis Star, builds on a previous article from April 11 of the same year found elsewhere on First Super Speedway.

The article in attachment Roads121209 originally appeared in the December 12, 1909 Indianapolis Star. This is an interesting insight into the state of public roads which was a major issue of the day and a cause championed by Indianapolis Motor Speedway Founder and President Carl Fisher.