In the last 40 years can you remember an adult lead character choosing to ride a bike as a form of transportation in an American movie or tv series?
If a minor character has a bike and uses it for transportation - it's clear they would like a car but for whatever reason they don't have one. Another character might say to them "Why don't you have a car?" and their reply will be something like "Don't ask."
Last night I watched "Flashdance (1983)". Jennifer Beals plays an 18 year-old who lives on her own and she doesn't have a car. She uses a bike instead.
It probably doesn't help how car brands notoriously pay for in-movie product placement
I was watching Designated Survivor the other day and one passing shot made me laugh. The characters pull up in a Mercedes-Benz in a typical product placement that's not worthy of me mentioning it. But then there's a gratuitous glamor shot. The lighting is perfect and the car gleams like it's sitting on a showroom floor and it's just been cleaned. The camera is very low so it's in front of the car and a bit to the side. Like a child's eye view. And that POV lasted an extra few seconds on the car for no reason at all.
It was so weird. It looked like a sequence in an ad. I wonder if the director did commercials before shooting tv series.
Bones occasionally had moments where the show fully diverted into being a car commercial, but it was more in the script than the camera work