The times are not ripe for a rebirth of cycling. And I am not going to endorse the argument that traffic is much worse now than it was then. I remember crowded roads then, just as crowded, or even more so. In all the years since 1949, and maybe before that, I have heard the assertions by the ignorant that the traffic made the roads too dangerous for cycling. A society in which families have cars for both parents and for the offspring, does not encourage cycling transportation, and the need to cycle is an introduction to cycling as enjoyment.
Urban growth is also a discouragement.
I can remember when sag wagons came in, and catered food at rest stops. Before that, the cyclist carried his own food, or bought it on the way, and he had to get home somehow. It took a broken axle or some such to send out a call for friends or parents to bring one home. The jolt at the angle between the deck and the landing stage, together with all the chain tension I could develop, broke the axle at the inner end of the cone. In this nation, adult cycling is largely voluntary.