How the advent of modern bicycles changed the roads of Steuben County

Roads in Steuben County once featured “side paths” that allowed bicyclists to whiz past freeways at high speeds: History column.

Kirk House
| Special for the Spectator

When the 20th century was born, bicycles were shaking up American society and technology. Rather than high-wheelers, riders now had the new “safety bike” – essentially our modern bikes, minus the derailleur and kickstand.

They were cheap, they were easy to maintain, you could just put one in the shed when you weren’t using it, and almost anyone could learn to ride.

Horses were expensive, required a lot of maintenance, and got sick, tired, injured, old, died, or just didn’t cooperate. For the first time in their history…thanks to bicycles…Americans had independent transportation.

The “Wheelmen” endeavored to “make a century,” covering a hundred miles in one day. Even with bikes, though, eager riders needed somewhere to go, because the roads were terrible. Car drivers in a 1908 New York to Paris race said American roads were the worst in the world and included the entire length of Siberia. In 1901, Urbana had 71 highway supervisors, probably farmers each assigned to a nearby stretch of road, which must have meant extremely uneven maintenance.

Enter the side paths. Cyclists and engineers have worked together to create superb ‘best practice’ designs that let the rider whiz along highways with great speed and comfort in an aesthetic setting. New York asked for sidings and for some reason made the county judges handle them.

Even then things were uneven. Bath-Haverling’s 1897 bicycle-themed Senior Rambler and Junior Scorcher “yearbooks” complained that while Hammondsport had done a great job on its half of the route, Bath was empty-handed.

As the 1900 and 1901 American Wheeler League maps show, Steuben’s three largest communities are each at the heart of a three-pointed star, with roads reaching nearby communities. Side tracks ran from Hornell to Arkport, Almond and Canisteo; from Bath to Kanona, Lake Salubria and Hammondsport; from Corning to Addison, Coopers Plains and Horseheads. (Solid lines show completed laterals, dashed lines show contemplated ones—and Avoca had made a start, extending to Wallace.)

Robert L. McCullough of the University of Vermont identified 45 miles traveled in Steuben.

There was a simultaneous “good roads” movement, which might have seemed like a natural ally, but “good roads” people HATE sidings, feeling that the surface and funding could be better used on the highways themselves. Ironically, the well-maintained sidings prompted furious demands from car drivers (and even horse-drawn drivers) to make the roads as good. Along with the increasing use of cars, this put an end to lateral movement. (I suspect that the county judges did not see them as worth a bureaucratic struggle, since they had nothing to do with the mission of the courts.)

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While the law was in effect, each bicycle in Steuben required an annual 60-cent tag, and the records I’ve found show an annual income of just over $2,000. Young Glenn Curtiss was a side book deputy, collecting taxes from customers in his Hammondsport bicycle shop. The fees went into the construction and maintenance of the side paths.

It has been pointed out to me, and I have checked, that you can find traces of the old siding…certainly used, and perhaps even maintained, by Glenn and his friends…along Fish Hatchery Road between Hammondsport and Bath. If there are others visible in Steuben, we would like to know.

— Kirk House, of the Steuben County Historical Society, writes a biweekly history column that appears in The Spectator and The Leader.

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How the advent of modern bicycles changed the roads of Steuben County

Roads in Steuben County once featured “side paths” that allowed bicyclists to whiz past freeways at high speeds: History column.

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