Only two decades ago, Beijing’s streets were ringing with tinkling bells, and bike repair shops were kept busy. In fact, there were so many bikes that Beijing transportation officials reached out in 1994 to Dan Burden, then an American consultant with the United Nations, to solicit his opinion on how to manage them all given the new surge in private cars.

When told that the problem was too many bicycles, Mr. Burden offered the opposite view.

Mr. Burden told officials in 1994 that bikes were a “victim of unplanned car growth and should not be shoved out of the way,” as they take up far less space than cars, he said in an email interview.

But Mr. Burden’s advice was ignored.

“We believed the bicycle was the solution, but our message and solutions weren’t fully heard,” he said.

In the decades since, China has claimed the title of world’s biggest automobile market.

Persuading Beijing drivers to use their cars less is unlikely to be easy. To encourage more commuters to use bikes, city planners have proposed a ban on car parking on side roads less than 20 feet wide, more colored bike lanes and barricades to separate motor vehicles from nonmotorized ones.

But many cyclists here are skeptical that the changes will make Beijing’s roads more hospitable anytime soon.

“What I can’t stand is that there are practically no bike lanes, and these are often occupied by cars,” said Fang Yongbin, who moved to Beijing last summer. He said he tried biking to work but quit after a month because of a variety of frustrations, including the smog and aggressive motorists.