The CTC were listened to, and the use of cycle tracks largely fell out of favour in the UK until the early 1970s. In 1935, a packed general meeting of the CTC adopted a motion rejecting ministerial plans for cycle path construction. Local CTC branches organised mass meetings to reject the use of cycle tracks and any suggestion that cyclists should be forced to use such devices. For decades, it was entirely forgotten-overgrown and overlooked-so much so that no one seems to remember that these lanes had existed at all. In the 1930s, Britain’s Ministry of Transport built an extensive network of bike highways around the country-at least 280 miles of paved, protected infrastructure dedicated to cyclists alone. However, the idea ran into trenchant opposition from cycling groups, with the CTC distributing pamphlets warning against the threat of cycle paths. Other early cycle tracks built before the 1939 Alness report included It was thought that "the prospect of cycling in comfort as well as safety would be appreciated by most cyclists themselves". The first dedicated roadside optional cycle tracks was built, as an experiment for the Ministry of Transport, beside Western Avenue between Hanger Lane and Greenford Road in 1934 opened by Leslie Hore-Belisha, the new Minister of Transport. In 1926 the CTC discussed an unsuccessful motion calling for cycle tracks to be built on each side of roads for "the exclusive use of cyclists", and that cyclists could be taxed, providing the revenue was used for the provision of such tracks. This idea was opposed by the Motorists' Union, who feared that it would lead to motorists' losing the freedom to use public roads. In the UK, the cycling lobby was attempting to remove motor vehicles from the roads by calling for the building of special " motor roads" to accommodate them. By the 1920s and 1930s the German car lobbies initiated efforts to have cyclists removed from the roads so as to improve the convenience of motoring. With the advent of the motor car, conflict arose between the increasingly powerful car lobby and bicycle users. The first cycle tracks were constructed in Bremen in 1897, and there were extensive plans for Hamburg as early as 1899.
In Germany, concerns arose regarding conflicts between cyclists, horse traffic and pedestrians. The first bicycle path was built in 1885 in the city of Utrecht along the Maliebaan and in 1899 with two paved bicycle paths alongside the Breda- Tilburg cobblestone road. Ĭycling in the Netherlands began in 1870 and by the 1920s was the most popular mode of transportation (at about 75%). The route did not succeed, and the right of way later became the route for the Arroyo Seco Parkway, an automobile freeway opened in 1940. The roundtrip toll was 15¢ US and it was lit with electric lights along its entire length. Its right of way followed the stream bed of the Arroyo Seco and required 1,250,000 board feet (2,950 m 3) of pine to construct.
In the United States the first was the nine-mile dedicated Cycle-Way built in 1897 to connect Pasadena, California to Los Angeles. Following this successful installation numerous bicycle paths separate from the roadway were constructed by "bicycle path associations". In 1896 the first bikeway in the United States was created by splitting the pedestrian way of Ocean Parkway (Brooklyn). The first bicycle paths were built around this time. The UK equivalent was the Cyclists' Touring Club (CTC), which distributed a treatise entitled Roads: Their construction and maintenance, and which, with the Bicycle Union, formed the Roads Improvement Association in October 1886. A US group was the Good Roads Movement, another the League of American Bicyclists.
Cyclists campaigned to improve the existing, often poorly surfaced, roads and tracks. By the end of the 19th century, cycling was growing from a hobby to an established form of transport.