Bike sales overtake cars

[LadyDeliah]

1.3 million more bikes bought than cars registered in UK in 2011.

Only 4 countries in Europe buck the trend, Belgium, Ireland, Spain & Italy.

More reason to look at the relative allocation of space to different road users.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/sep/17/recession-transport-bike-sales-overtake-cars

Edited for way too many typos resulting from typing on a stupid phone without my glasses!

[hpsaucey]

V interesting. Thanks for posting..

H

[BrandNewGuy]

"The data doesn't take into account second-hand car sales, only new vehicle registrations but the bike data also only refers to sales of new products."

And I wonder if it includes little kids' bikes which are wheeled around the garden and the park.

In any case, I don't disagree with the spirit of your conclusion, I'm just not sure these figures are a helpful part of the argument.

[LadyDeliah]

It's clear that cycling is set to increase dramatically in the future and the relevant laws need to be reviewed and changed to reflect this.

[BrandNewGuy]

But if cycling stayed at the same level it is today, do the think the laws are OK as they are?

[LadyDeliah]

No, the share of space is currently disproportionately skewed towards one set of road users to the detriment of others.

As the proportion of road users who cycle, increases further, the status quo becomes even more unsustainable.

[BrandNewGuy]

Maybe, but the chart in that article shows both bike and car sales on a downard trend since 2006.

[LadyDeliah]

Could be market saturation or increase in public transport use.

I think the car v bike sales is still interesting. There has been some data that shows cyclists and motorists are roughly even in numbers now, I think. Can't remember exactly. Might look for the data later.

I think the inequitable sharing of our public space, with motorists being given a disproportionately high amount of available space is the main issue that needs to be addressed

The statics are interesting, but clearly don't show the whole picture.

[titch juicy]

bikes have outsold cars every year for at least the last 13 years

that's what the article shows

[LadyDeliah]

Yes, I think that's pretty impressive.

I think the fact that sales of each is going down even though the comparative gap is widening isn't a car v bike thing, but reflects something else which was not accounted for in this study.

Not relevant really in this debate though.