Days Until World Bicycle Day

About World Bicycle Day

General Assembly member states voted to establish June 3 as an annual observance in 2018, recognizing the bicycle's uniqueness, longevity, and versatility as a simple, affordable, reliable, and environmentally friendly means of transportation.

The observance promotes cycling for health, sustainability, and accessibility, and has been embraced by cycling advocacy organizations internationally since its designation.

The bicycle is estimated to be used by over a billion people worldwide for transportation, recreation, and sport, a scale of everyday adoption the UN resolution specifically cited in justifying the day's creation.

The modern safety bicycle design, with same-size wheels and a chain-driven rear wheel, wasn't developed until the 1880s, decades after the earliest pedal-less "draisine" bicycle prototypes of the early 19th century.

The bicycle's invention is often traced to Karl Drais's 1817 "laufmaschine," a pedal-less, foot-propelled precursor sometimes called a dandy horse, well over half a century before the modern chain-driven design familiar today.