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troperville

In most of these films, there always seems to be a gap between having a vehicle and gas and being shit out of luck, as if no other possibility existed.

— Cracked.com

So somebody dropped the nuke. Maybe the zombies showed up and ruined society. Or it was the aliens and their battle lasers. But somehow, you're stuck in a crapsack post-apocalyptic world, and you need to stay on the move.

You hear that there's some nice little place to hole up in somewhere in Maine, and you jump in your car to drive there. What's this? You're almost out of gasoline, and nobody owns a gas station any more? Well, you'd better hope that you used to own a horse ranch, because otherwise you're walking. After all, bicycles never seem to stick around for Ragnarok.

This odd anomaly in transportation availability seems to manifest in many stories where it logically shouldn't. Sure, of course Frodo can't mountainbike his way into Mordor, and his pal Aragorn can't grab a BMX to reach Gondor with some fancy wheelies. But that doesn't stop Viggo Mortensen from somehow forgetting that bikes exist in The Road. Whether you're watching 28 Days Later or Mad Max, the problem remains. Fantasy and Sci-fi works involving post-apocalyptic worlds all have selective amnesia when it comes to the world-changing invention of the bicycle. Maybe it's because horses are just cooler than bikes, or maybe it's because all the idiots in the plot don't know how to pedal, or maybe it's because those world-destroying nanobots have a specific affinity for aluminum frames.

At some point, the fridge logic sets in and viewers start wondering just what's wrong with post-apocalyptic humanity for them to completely ignore the world's most popular form of mechanical transportation. Heck, bikes at the very least are silent. An engine in a depopulated world would surely be heard from miles away. They don't even keep one in the trunk for when/if their car breaks down or are low on fuel.

For a little history: The forerunner of the bicycle was the dandy horse, which was just two wheels and no pedals - your feet were the drive. It was patented in 1818. The first with pedals was built in 1839 by a blacksmith. Because of this there's really no reason (aside from the fact that Tropes Are Tools) that a post-apocalyptic world can't maintain or produce their own bikes. They may not be as complicated or as comfortable as modern bikes, but they'd still get you places without having to worry about fuel or animal care.

Now, if the ancient technology is randomly picked at and put together improperly, you've got yourself a Scavenger World, and it might at least make a bit of sense not to have too many bikes. That's at least a bit excusable. But if you're watching or reading a story where gas-powered vehicles exist and foot-powered ones mysteriously don't, then there are No Bikes In The Apocalypse.

So why do writers have their characters do this? First off, people like cars and trucks, and want to live vicariously through the characters. Secondly, the very reasons why having a motor vehicle is a bad idea in real life are why it's helpful for writers. You can instantly add drama by having the characters break down, run out of fuel, or be stuck inside while the zombie hordes/mutants/creatures/bandits try to get at them.

Compare Schizo Tech and Scavenger World. Contrast Ragnarok Proofing, for those rare cases where bicycles are still around and in working order, 500 years after the fact.

Examples

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Film

The Road
Mad Max
Terminator Salvation
The Book of Eli could potentially have this be a Justified Trope, since the main character is blind, even if he also has a Disability Superpower. It doesn't explain why nobody else has them, though.
Dawn of the Dead
Lampshaded in Zombieland, when the main character remarks on the useful attributes of a bike during a zombie apocalypse. Notably, the main cast still doesn't bother using any of them. Justified in that abandoned cars with at least partially full gas tanks are everywhere.
28 Days Later. Pretty ironic, since Jim's character was a bicycle courier before the accident that got him into a coma in the first place.
The four main characters in Carriers are perfectly willing to shoot innocent people for their gas, even though the world is almost entirely intact. The idea of getting gas from other cars or finding bikes never comes up. The only justified instance is with the father and his sick daughter because he needs to get her to medical attention ASAP.

Live Action TV

Falling Skies: The 2nd Mass seems to only use a vehicle if it requires gas.
Revolution: No electricity? Okay. No steam power? Erm. No bikes? Okay, that's just odd. Averted Trope in Episode 2, a woman and child are briefly seen riding one in flashback, one week after the blackout. Later on, bikes are seen for sale on a market.
The Walking Dead: The group doesn't seem to grab a bike from anywhere, despite having practically the whole world to pick from. Averted in the pilot, though: after getting out the hospital, Rick rides a bike for a few minutes before abandoning it.

Video Games

in Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas are partial aversions. There aren't any bicycles, but there are tricycles which serve no practical purpose for the playable characters.
Inverted in Half-Life 2. There are bikes, but you never see anybody using them. You can find several of them and indications of the rebels using them (eg. "Highway 17", where one is found next to a corpse and a crossbow), but they are more all rusted beyond usage, and work as little more than decorations and Gravity Gun ammo.
- The inversion is subverted in the derivative Concerned Web Comic: Gordon Frohman's vehicle of choice is a rusty bike.
Justifed in Devil Survivor, it's mentioned the ruins of Tokyo aren't suited to anything but walking.

Aversions

Film

A tandem bicycle is used in the latter half Six String Samurai.

Literature

In The Stand, one of the characters, after crashing a motorcycle and walking for a while thereafter because of his fear of a serious accident with no one around, suddenly realizes that he can just use a bicycle. He even chides himself as being foolish for not thinking of this. Several other characters also use bicycles to get around.
In the Emberverse, when motor vehicles are no longer operational, bicycles become a popular form of transportation.
The Zombie Survival Guide specifically states bikes are the best option for escaping zombies because they're quick, versatile, easy to maintain, and almost noiseless.

Real Life

The Japanese in World War II took over most of Southeast Asia (most notably Singapore) largely by riding on bicyles to get to places that tanks and artillery couldn't get to.
- British forces took bikes to the D-Day landings, but for the most part ditched them as they were hard to carry up the beach while under fire.
- Throughout the world old shoe soles, curved pieces of wood, cut-down car tires (in places where cars existed but fuel couldn't be had) and other improvisations were used to replace unavailable bike tires.
During the Vietnam War cargo-loaded bicycles were a significant component of the North's Ho Chi Minh Trail supply train, although motorized vehicles were also used there.
- They had already used them at Dien Bien Phu, which enabled them to supply the besieging forces in ways French high command had not thought possible.

New Eden

Apocalyptic Index

No FEMA Response

My Horse Is A Motorbike

Vehicle Index

Nose Art