History depends on where it happens.

I had a 90 year old client from India that told me about his days during Partition. In his village there was one car, owned by the Village leader and the rest rode bicycles or walked. They had the choice of three bikes; an English one, a German one or a Japanese one. He was relatively well off (his father was retired from the British Army) so he bought the English one.

North America is an odd place to observe bicycle history because the distances to be traveled are so large and there is a perceived stigma against riding them, this being the land of progress. In many ways a bicycle is impractical but you can see echoes of what could be in college or University towns.

However, when you look towards large population areas in small geographical areas (Europe, Asia, India) where car use is impractical you see bicycle (or scooter) use increase dramatically, especially among the working class. You still have cars of course, but most people can't, or don't want to own them. Now there are more cars, and more people want them (just like cell phones), because there is a big push towards the middle class in those countries. But for a long time there was a large lower class/small upper class, reflected in the bicycle to car ratio.