With few exceptions, these roads remained rudimentary and were impassible in bad weather and a nuisance in good weather, which limited the economic possibilities of those regions of Delaware and Maryland. The Good Roads Movement in the 1890s and 1900s spurred investment and advocacy for constructing all-weather roads that connected the population centers of the states, although the instigating forces in each state were different. State agencies in Maryland spearheaded the tasks of studying the issues and recommending increasingly effective courses of action. In Delaware, it was the philanthropic measure of a worldly man of one of Delaware's leading families that brought good roads to much of the state.