While the rest of the world carried on cycling during the 1950s and 1960s , America forgot how ; even high-school children would drive to school . Recently there has been something of a recovery in cycling , and in many areas it is a very useful way of getting around , especially where bike paths or bike routes have been built . You may well want to buy , hire or borrow a bike . There are two important results of this earlier drop in cycling in the USA . One is that many people do not know how to cycle . That is , cyclists often behave more like walkers than motorists : they ride in the sidewalk or on the wrong side of the road ; they do not care for stop signs or traffic lights ; they ride without lights at night ; they give no signals . The other result is that cycling is regarded by many people not so much as a way of getting from one place to another but as a way of life , a form of exercise , etc . As a result , large numbers of young Americans have ten-speed racing bikes . These are very high and fast and great if you are cycling long distance , riding up mountains or racing . At first , though , you may find them convenient for cycling in town , sightseeing or shopping --they are expensive , uncomfortable and hard to control until you get used to them , and unsuitable for rough stony roads . There are also ordinary bikes around . If you get hold of one of these ,you may find that the brakes  work by pedaling   backwards . This is perhaps safer than ordinary brakes when it is wet , but it seems to be less effective . This arrangement also means you can't pedal backwards in order to get the pedal in the right place for getting on or getting off . From the passage we can learn that in the middle of the 20thcentury   _  .
many Americans enjoyed cycling cycling was popular in the world. racing bikes were better than ordinary ones. there were no special roads for bikes in America.