The Rebirth of the Bicycle as a City Transport Solution
Or, How Civilization Has Once Again Rediscovered the Joy of Two Wheels After a Century of Worshipping the Almighty Automobile
Behold, dear reader, the latest miraculous revelation from the minds of modern urban planners! A bold, visionary, and entirely unprecedented solution to the snarling congestion of city streets, to the smog-choked avenues, to the ceaseless honking of cars locked in an eternal struggle against their own excess.
And what is this ingenious solution, you ask?
The bicycle.
Yes. That most humble of contraptions, that glorious mechanical steed, that paragon of efficiency, has been dusted off, polished, and presented to the world as a revolutionary answer to urban transportation.
One could almost laugh—if one were not already so accustomed to this particular cycle of human forgetfulness.
For you see, the bicycle was here first. It ruled the streets long before the automobile arrived with its belching smoke and its insatiable demand for space. It was the primary mode of city transport, not as a niche choice, not as a countercultural statement, but as the standard, the default, the obvious answer to urban mobility.
And then, as always, humanity abandoned it—only to return to it a century later, heralding it as the future, as though they had not personally been the ones to cast it aside in the first place.
So let us now embark on this grand, two-wheeled journey through history, tracing the rise, fall, and inevitable rebirth of the bicycle as the savior of the modern city.
Act I: The First Bicycle Boom—The Late 19th Century
Let us travel back, dear reader, to the late 1800s, a time when the world was on the precipice of modernity. Industrialization had transformed cities, but transportation remained a chronic disaster. Horses, while picturesque, were filthy, temperamental creatures, leaving the streets paved not only with cobblestones but with something considerably less pleasant. Walking was slow, carriages were cumbersome, and public transport was in its infancy.
And then, like a mechanical epiphany, the bicycle arrived.
It was cheap! It was elegant! It was shockingly efficient! With nothing more than a pair of pedals and a dash of ambition, a person could outrun a horse, traverse the city with ease, and do so without contributing to the general filth and misery of urban life.
For a time, the bicycle reigned supreme. The cities of Europe and America were filled with cyclists, gliding through streets that had yet to be carved up by the tyranny of automobiles. Bicycle lanes were common, and cycling was not considered a leisure activity, nor a political statement—it was simply how people got around.
And then, as always, progress arrived to ruin everything.
Act II: The Automobile Arrives and Wages War on the Bicycle (1920s–1970s)
The car, that most gluttonous, territorial, and overbearing of machines, made its entrance onto the stage of history with all the subtlety of an invading army.
Once a plaything of the wealthy, the automobile soon became the favored child of industrialization, mass-produced, marketed with unrelenting zeal, and sold to the public as the only acceptable way to move through the world. Cities, which had once belonged to people, were now redesigned for machines.
And the bicycle?
It was banished.
Bicycle lanes were ripped from city plans, replaced with ever-widening roads for automobiles.
Traffic laws were rewritten, prioritizing cars and relegating cyclists to the margins—both literal and figurative.
Cycling became dangerous, not because it was inherently unsafe, but because it had been deliberately pushed into spaces where it was no longer welcome.
And yet, for all their smoke-spewing arrogance, automobiles did not create utopia. Instead, they gave us traffic congestion, pollution, and the great existential horror of finding parking in a major city.
But did humanity admit its mistake?
Of course not!
It doubled down, designing entire cities around the car, ensuring that public transportation was either nonexistent or laughably inadequate, and dismissing bicycles as little more than toys for children and eccentrics.
And thus, for decades, the bicycle faded into obscurity, waiting—ever patient, ever ready—for the day when the world would come crawling back.
Act III: The Bicycle’s Triumphant Return (1990s–Present)
Lo and behold, that day has arrived!
With cities choking on their own traffic, with climate change breathing down our necks, with the sheer frustration of car ownership reaching its peak, the world has—at long last—looked upon the bicycle and said:
"Wait a moment… Perhaps we were wrong to abandon you."
And so, cycling has returned!
Bike lanes are being restored—as though they were some bold new innovation rather than an obvious necessity stolen from history.
Bicycle-sharing programs have emerged, allowing people to rent bikes as though they have just discovered the concept of communal transport.
Entire cities—Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Paris—have fully embraced cycling, showing the world what happens when streets are designed for people, rather than machines.
And yet, with all this renewed enthusiasm, modern society cannot resist framing this return as “revolutionary”, as though it was not entirely their fault for discarding the bicycle in the first place.
Act IV: Will We Abandon the Bicycle Again?
And now, dear reader, we arrive at the great and existential question:
Will this revival last?
For though cycling is once again beloved, the forces of car-centric infrastructure, corporate lobbying, and human laziness are not yet vanquished.
History has shown us that humanity is deeply skilled at forgetting what works, at succumbing to the seductive whisper of “progress,” even when progress is actively making life worse.
Will cities continue to prioritize cycling, or will they, once again, succumb to the cult of the automobile?
Will people commit to sustainable transport, or will they be lured back into car ownership by empty promises of convenience?
Or shall we, in fifty years' time, find ourselves repeating this cycle once more, rediscovering the bicycle yet again, declaring it—once more, with feeling—a “brilliant new solution” to urban congestion?
If history is any guide, we should prepare for the inevitable forgetfulness of civilization.
But for now, let us revel in the return of the bicycle, let us celebrate the sheer audacity of mankind in pretending this is new, and let us pray that, for once, we do not abandon common sense for a second time.
And if we do?
Then, I suppose, we shall meet again in another hundred years, having this same conversation once more.
Nice article