---
title: "Which came first, the bicycle or the car?"
description: "the bicycle vs the car: the bicycle came first, by 69 years — 1817 against 1886. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/bicycle-vs-car/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, the bicycle or the car?

**Which came first, the bicycle or the car?: the bicycle**

1817 — 69 years before the car

the bicycle came first, by 69 years. Karl Drais rode his running machine near Mannheim.

## Side by side

|  | the bicycle | the car |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1817 | 1886 |
| Date | 1817-06-12 | 1886-01-29 |
| Category | invention | invention |
| What happened | Karl Drais rode his running machine near Mannheim. | Karl Benz patented the Motorwagen. |

## the bicycle

The first two-wheeler you could balance and steer was Drais's laufmaschine of 1817, which had no pedals — you pushed with your feet. Pedals arrived in the 1860s, the chain-driven safety bicycle with equal wheels in 1885, and the pneumatic tyre in 1888. The bicycle is younger than the steam locomotive, younger than photography's first experiments, and roughly contemporary with the stethoscope.

## the car

Benz's patent of 29 January 1886 is the usual date for the first practical petrol car. The vehicle's commercial breakthrough came from his wife: in 1888 Bertha Benz drove 106 km to Pforzheim without telling him, fixing the fuel line with a hatpin and the ignition with a garter on the way, and the resulting publicity sold the machine. Ford did not exist until 1903 and the Model T not until 1908.

## Common questions

### Which came first, the bicycle or the car?

the bicycle, by 69 years — 1817 against 1886.

### When did the bicycle start?

1817. Karl Drais rode his running machine near Mannheim.

### When did the car start?

1886. Karl Benz patented the Motorwagen.

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## Sources

- Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History — Smithsonian Institution (https://naturalhistory.si.edu/)