Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!bbn!diamond.bbn.com!dm
From: dm@bbn.com (Dave Mankins)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: Revolutions and Fidonet
Message-ID: <12136@quartz.BBN.COM>
Date: 13 Nov 88 20:24:51 GMT
References: <621.23788C5A@isishq.FIDONET.ORG> <8811102118.AA12763@pinocchio.UUCP>
Reply-To: dm@bbn.com (Dave Mankins)
Organization: BBN Laboratories Incorporated, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 18

In article <8811102118.AA12763@pinocchio.UUCP> bzs@PINOCCHIO.BERKELEY.EDU (Barry Shein) writes:
>
>Some say that the critical thing in making the auto revolutionary was
>committing to building roads for the autos to drive on. W/o smooth
>roads horse-drawn buggies seem a win over cars.

Actually, before the automobile came the bicycle.  The bicycle gave
you the freedom of a horse-drawn carriage on a laborer's salary.  In
the late 1880s and following decades the US went bicycle crazy.  One
of the results of this madness was a network of smooth roads near
towns.

Bicycles literally paved the way for automobiles.  [Bikes were
expensive then --- they could cost as much as half of a workman's
yearly wage.  I think they also paved the way for installment buying.
They made bloomers respectable, too.]
-- 
david mankins/dm@bbn.com