No, actually, Richmond's roads weren't "built for cars"

Kevin Dmytriw, author of the 9/27/25 letter to the editor "Letter: Roads were built for cars. Take down the bike lanes" is entitled to his own (selfish) opinions about road design, but he's not entitled to his own facts. Neither is the opinion editor of the Richmond Times-Dispatch who headlined Dmytriw's reactionary screed against bike lanes.

As a matter of plain fact Richmond's roads were not built for cars: portions of the city's downtown grid predate private automobiles by over a century. The city's pioneering electric streetcar system was moving Richmonders by rail throughout town starting in 1888—20 years before the Model T's 1908 introduction. Sadly, that system was retired in 1949 to make way for cars. Whether Mr. Dmytriw neglected this history or willfully ignored to advance his retrograde, classist, car-centric argument at his neighbors' expense is impossible to say, and besides the point.

The point is that Richmond's roads have indeed made "special accommodations" (his words) for different modes of transit before, and cars have no originalist, birthright-esque claim on its grid today. I don't expect the RTD's Opinion section to make such a progressive case; I do expect it to require basic adherence to historical fact from people who seek to use its imprimatur and reach to lie for their own benefit. Alas.