In the U.S., roads were paved for cyclists first. There was a political fight over whether and how to regulate cars to prevent them from crowding out other road users. See "Fighting Traffic".

https://www.amazon.com/Fighting-Traffic-American-Inside-Tech...

This was covered in a very entertaining show called Adam Ruins Everything. Each episode has footnotes for the sources:

http://www.trutv.com/shows/adam-ruins-everything/blog/adams-...

Interestingly enough, their source was an article from Vox from 2007: https://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2934608/N...

EDIT: the article references the original author's work and the book (also cited as a source by the show) http://www.amazon.com/Fighting-Traffic-American-Inside-Techn...