[6][7] The early twentieth century saw a dramatic increase in the number of cars; in 1920 there were about three thousand of them in the Netherlands.
[3] The Algemene Nederlandsche Wielrijdersbond (ANWB), disliking the cluttering of natural landscapes with pole-mounted bike signage, ran a prize competition in 1918 for a better design, intended to be locally-produced.
[3] The winning design was by Johannes Hendrik Willem Leliman, a house architect[1][4][9] from Baarn.
[5][8] The first twelve[3] padstools were installed between Laren and Baarn in 1919, by the local Cycle Path Society[11] and the ANWB, two closely-entwined organizations.
The ANWB's historian attributes this to conflict with the Dutch transport minister in 1999, and says that the transfer has led to a decrease in the quality of maintenance.
The lettering was likewise standardized to red, in a typeface designed by Gerard Unger, and experimentally found to be the fastest to read.