ABSTRACT
In 1930, B. Duyts, an accountant from the Dutch village of Loosdrecht, decided he had had enough. For years he had petitioned the municipality to improve the cycling route he used every day for getting to work, to no avail. There was an improvised path, but it was in poor condition, alongside a sand road; heavy lorries carrying tree trunks made it unsuitable for cycling. A well-paved separate cycling path, inaccessible to motorized vehicles, would make his commute safer and more pleasant. If the government would not build it, Duyts decided he could do it himself. He organized some neighbors and together they asked the town for a small subsidy to purchase paving material and wooden poles. They then improved the path by paving it and used the poles to separate it from the road, preventing cars and lorries from swerving onto the cycling path. 1 Duyts even placed signs at the beginning of the path banning motorized vehicles.
