This is one detail that Turbo Kid got right. After the pocky lips most people ride bicycles.
Although TWD has the advantage of being far more realistic and less tediously didactic than trying to read Rand. Unfortunately it fails rather hard even as survivalist fiction, for which my standard is still Survivors (by Terry Nation of Doctor Who fame):
The light came on AFTER spending a weekend hearing two Trump supporters discuss “the zombie invasion” ad nauseum.
Why isn’t that difficult to believe. 
Rest of the world "Why the football one of course."
Most Americans "the superbowl?"
Rest of the world “No.”
There’s the zombies = POC angle, which Alex Jones would have you believe is literally true.
There’s also the common thread of distrust in the government. In zombie books and movies, the government is ineffectual at best, the enemy at worst.
Let’s not forget the ‘rugged survivalist’ aspect - it’s the fall of society, that too many are certain is coming - and is attractive to the kind of people who are prepared and waiting for survival of the fittest to return, to grab their gun and bug-out bags, and go.
Of course, how actually prepared and effective they’d be is always open for debate, along with whether they’d be part of the solution, or part of the problem - but it’s a nice fantasy tale, played-out on TV.
Speaking of NCIS–the last few episodes of NCIS New Orleans were off the charts crazy.
(I do watch it, but my brain frequently resists. Which is odd, because the original show was sort of a basic police procedural, without too many gimmicks.)