Short answers, pulled from the story.
Baron Karl von Drais introduced his Laufmaschine to the public in Mannheim, Germany during the spring of 1817. This wooden frame with two wheels had no pedals and riders pushed off the ground with their feet while steering the front wheel.
Scottish blacksmith Kirkpatrick MacMillan built a mechanically propelled version in 1839. His design used foot-operated levers connected to the rear wheel by rods and caused an accident reported by a Glasgow newspaper in 1842 when it knocked over a little girl.
French inventors Pierre Michaux and Pierre Lallement added pedals directly to the front wheel in the early 1860s. These velocipedes became the first mass-produced bicycles featuring iron frames and solid rubber tires.
Up to 99% of energy delivered by pedals reaches the wheels on most bicycles. Gearing mechanisms can reduce this transmission efficiency by 10 to 15 percent depending on design choices.
Susan B. Anthony stated in a New York World interview on the 2nd of February 1896 that the bicycle had done more to emancipate women than any single thing in the world. She described the feeling of self-reliance and independence gained when taking a seat on the machine.
The White Bicycle plan launched in Amsterdam in 1965 as the first bicycle sharing system. Yellow bicycles followed in La Rochelle and green ones appeared in Cambridge shortly after these initiatives to complement public transport systems.