Are you talking about bicycling as it exists in the US / Canada as you previously constrained your post to? or are we now talking about the usefulness of a bicycle globally?
I live in Groningen, NL and most people I know (of all income brackets) cycle to work if they have a job in or near the city. It’s the default form of transportation in this city (and often much faster than going by car).
woziacki’s income bracket also doesn’t apply here. You can get a decent second-hand bike here for 200-300 Euro (more than an order of magnitude cheaper than a car) and maintenance is much cheaper than a car, plus no vehicle taxes, road insurance, etc.
I love Utrecht. It's a wonderful city to live in and it's what Amsterdam claims to be in the tourist brochure. There are wonderful coffee shops like the village, bicycle shops like repack, microbrewery like de krommerharring, there's a nice collection of restaurants, and I can walk basically everywhere I don't actually need a bike. If you are bored in the weekend you can take a kayak and float around the canals. And when I do ride, it's less than ten minutes before you get out of the city into trails in the forest or roads. And it's only a 60km ride to the beach if that's your sort of thing. Utrecht is a happy place to live.
If Amsterdam doesn't do it for you, try Utrecht.