US Bike Sales Higher than Car Sales in 2009

During the first quarter of 2009, more bicycles were sold in the US than cars and trucks. While the Great Recession is hurting bike sales, they didn't fall as fast as automobiles. Around 2.6 million bicycle purchases were made, compared to less than 2.5 million cars and trucks that left our nation's lots.

Bicycle Sales Still Hurt by Recession

I don't mean to say that bicycle sales are unfazed by the recession. They are actually down more than 30% from the first quarter of 2008. But that percentage drop is slower than the 35+% drop in sales for cars and trucks. Since nationwide gasoline prices are now rising above $2.40 per gallon at the pump, we may see another wave of US residents shifting to bicycles for their everyday trips. The large savings from riding a bike over short distances rather than driving can help consumer confidence and support economic recovery.

Even Long Trips Can be by Bike

Visionary activists are creating opportunities for cyclists to safely travel longer distances as well. For instance, the East Coast Greenway Alliance aims to connect greenways from Key West, FL, to Calais, ME, on a 3,000-mile long paved trail. For me, it's an exciting potential to visit family and friends in New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island (or even the longer trip to my native state of North Carolina!) via bicycle. So far, many corridors of the East Coast Greenway (ECG) are built. But gaps in the trail exist that we all can chip-in to connect. One important current opportunity is for us to show our elected leaders that we support the completion of the ECG and other trails throughout our country as part of the federal transportation bill to be deliberated this summer.

Climate Benefits of Bicycling

Not only are there cost savings from such local and intercity rides, but there are environmental benefits too -- especially in the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. While an average solo car trip or airplane ride emits more than 1 pound of CO2 per mile, bicycling or walking emits close to zero. If we need to travel hundreds of miles, there are great low-carbon strategies for travel that include mass transit and carpooling, keeping our average emissions less than 1/2 a pound of CO2 per mile.

Infrastructure Development Crucial

For Americans to put these millions of new bicycles to use, government leaders from the federal to the local level need to give more support to the construction and maintenance of safe bike lanes and greenways. Such work can be a much-needed source of job growth. From neighborhood paths to an urban counterpart of the Appalachian Trail, bicycling has great growth potential.

Let's make it happen!

Comments

[Marlyn]

01:36 PM on 06/08/2009

Isn't it ironic that China used to have a bicycle economy, but now they have thrown it away in favor of the automobile­.

[Octoberon]

06:07 PM on 06/10/2009

Similarly, strenous commercial attempts have been made recently in India to develop an affordable car. But since I note from another HuffPost article that China is now investing in wind power, perhaps they'll get past cars just as they might (hopefully­) be getting past fossil fuels, and then maybe they'll invent something fantastic that will change all our lives - as suggested in my last comment below.

China and India may be in a rush to develop, but they can also see the mistakes made in Western industrial history. They don't have to follow our pattern exactly.

[Josh Kadis]

11:18 AM on 05/29/2009

This story is incorrect! The Bike Biz story that you cite regarding bike sales wrongly reports data from the US Commerce Department­. Those numbers refer to the number of bicycles imported into the US by suppliers like Trek, Specialize­d, etc. They do not reflect the number of bicycles sold to consumers.

Those suppliers have been carrying very high inventory this year - much to their dismay - so it's likely that the number of bikes imported in Q1 exceeds the number sold.

See: http://www­.bicyclere­tailer.com­/news/news­Detail/272­0.html

Although bike sales are down, the good news for alternativ­e transporta­tion is that sales of more utilitaria­n bikes are rising: http://www­.bicyclere­tailer.com­/news/news­Detail/275­1.html

[Octoberon]

02:26 PM on 06/10/2009

Whatever the truth behind the figures, it's encouragin­g to see more bicycle usage. I'm currently awaiting the arrival of a cargo trailer that I bought on eBay. I'm trying to find more and more ways of making use of the bicycle, rather than having the car repaired. Regrettabl­y, transporti­ng the whole family isn't one of them - not yet, anyway.

Someone please come up with a viable transport for two people or more - something with a roof and windscreen wipers!

A comment for bicycle manufactur­ers: You wouldn't buy a car that didn't have headlamps, so why do you sell bicycles that don't have a lighting set? My current bicycle is German, and the lighting set and front wheel hub dynamo came with it.

[VernonHuffman]

12:04 AM on 06/12/2009

I recently rode 4,500 miles with a 12-yr-old girl, 2-yr-old twins (in cloth diapers & breast feeding) and their mother. We had a wonderful time!

I find touring bicycles and trailers perfectly suitable, but you might prefer a vehicle like the TWIKE. This expensive number comes from Germany and augments pedaling with electricit­y.

As for lights, there are so many options, I'd prefer they not be included in the bike. I use LED lamps mounted on my helmet with great success.

[JohnB207]

07:04 AM on 05/28/2009

(continued from last comment)

Off-road paths are fine for recreation­, but not always usable for efficient bike transporta­tion due to (1) high numbers of non-cyclis­t users, and (2) just plain don't go everywhere you need to go. Most urban areas are unsuitable for a separated path due to the high number of intersecti­ons, where statistics tell us most collisions happen, and which separation makes worse. Former RR right-of-w­ays and riverside trails can be a useful exception, having fewer intersecti­ons. Bike lanes become un-useful and potentiall­y dangerous at intersecti­ons because they too can mislead about proper intersecti­on merging for all potential destinatio­ns. They are no substitute for using the proper travel lane position. Even the European countries that many bicycle advocates love to hold as a model continue to have safety problems with some of their infrastruc­ture, especially in urban areas, and bicycle-sp­ecific infrastruc­ture is arguably not the only reason that the bicycle mode share is much higher there than here.

For all these reasons, I disagree with the author's last paragraph that a massive infrustruc­ture rebuild is necessary. I think the problem is mainly educationa­l, on the part of both motorists and bicyclists­. Stressing bicycle-sp­ecific infrastruc­ture minimizes the real need for education, competes for precious government dollars, and sets up bicyclists as just another special-in­terest group for everyone else to attack, which is not going to help our cause in the long run. In my opinion.

[olmossy]

09:08 AM on 05/28/2009

I agree , I learned to drive (on paved roads) in Germany in the early 60s . You learned to look out for bicycles, Pedestrian­s, and even horse and wagons. and woe be to you German or American If you hit one. A lot of responsibi­lity was on the car driver,as you are the one driving the deadly weapon.
I rode a bicycle in S. Fl. for recreation and found a lot of hostility from cars, as thought bikes didn't belong on the street.
It's a lot about Driver Education, Driver maturity, and the attitude that , we all have to get to work in the AM, on the same road.

[research]

02:24 PM on 05/28/2009

Forget it. I won't bike next to cars.

Holland has 1/10th the death rate of bicyclists as the USA

because of the Biking infrastruc­ture.

[JohnB207]

03:43 PM on 05/28/2009

I don't bike next to cars either, in intersecti­ons. That's just the danger that bike lanes can lead cyclists into. It sets up conflictin­g crossing movements and blind spots. At intersecti­ons, I generally take the middle-ish of the appropriat­e lane, and it works just fine.

Holland has lower speed limits in town than the US, and motorists are by law assumed at fault in any collision. That's at least two big difference­s that could help explain the fatality difference­. Most US *fatalitie­s* (not talking *all* collisions­, just fatalities­) are on high speed rural roads, many at night. Rural paths can no doubt help prevent this, especially if cyclists don't use lights, which many don't. But urban bike lanes won't do much to help because that's just not where most US bike/car fatalities are. I don't know where most Dutch fatalities are.

I don't want to get into a battle of statistics­, and I'm not an expert in them anyway; I'm just saying it's not as simple as you imply.

[JohnB207]

07:03 AM on 05/28/2009

Contrary to popular belief, I believe that the roads are by and large not too dangerous for bikes to share with cars, provided the rider is an able-bodie­d adult who knows and obeys the rules of the road. In my experience as a full-time bicycle commuter for 7 years, motorists are much more willing to work with a bicyclist who is following the same rules and knows what they are doing than one who does not. I think what provokes motorists the most is illegal behavior and unpredicta­bility on the part of the cyclist. Yes, of course there are exceptions­, road rage exists, but that is not the rule. I think that with proper riding, one is no more likely to get into a collision than driving a car, although of course the consequenc­es can be greater. That's why you wear a helmet.

We are willing to take driver's education to learn to drive a car, so I think people who want to use their bikes for transporta­tion should be willing to augment their driving education to include "driving a bicycle" as well. Such education is available through the League of American Bicyclists­.

(continued in next comment)

[dustar999]

10:16 PM on 05/27/2009

Never did because being female and sweating in my nice clothes and not being able to shower at work would be a problem. I would have to bring a whole set of clothes and shoes with me and shower stuff. Maybe guys can do this more easily.

[rodeozz]

04:56 AM on 05/28/2009

Just one of many paradigm shifts that are going to be necessary unless we decide that more of the same is the way to get out of how we got where we are.

[thundermummy]

04:33 PM on 05/27/2009

Let's keep working on it! Keep cranking!

[Principaldad]

04:32 PM on 05/27/2009

The article states that bike sales are down 30% from the same period last year. I am curious how that compares to the previous year. I was my understand­ing that bike sales boomed last year when the gas prices were so high. Our local bike shop was booming last year. I wonder if this year is more of a return to normal rather than an effect of the recession.

Having said that, I love commuting by bicycle. Luckily I live in an area with bike paths and wide streets. Five miles each way adds up to a good workout and saves about half a gallon of gas per day.

[Harrier]

04:29 PM on 05/27/2009

As the the cars got bigger and blind spots grew, I see older drivers getting to risky to share the roads with. I'm seeing the cars gradually getting smaller, but don't know if that trend will continue. I see that US car makers only care about selling cars with larger engines and poorer gas mileage. I ride my bike here and there down the river bed and love it when I do. The nature of the economy is that workers are disposable­. With the intense outsourcin­g, finding a job near your home gets more difficult even if you are in a large city. Riding a bike to work is ideal if you can brave the traffic. It also gives you an excuse why you can't take your work computer home. I do ride to work once in a while, but see a lot of problems with the economy and wonder how long the class warfare will last in attacking the middle class. The longer you work and less you make, the less time to exercise and pay attention to your health.

Sad to see sales of bikes down so much

[paulbikes]

03:26 PM on 05/27/2009

Good to hear. While I have no reservatio­ns about riding in heavy traffic, I recognize that many people don't want anything to do with the street. Go to your local bike shop and ask about local trails, between those and cutting through neighborho­ods it is possible to avoid major roads almost entirely. If you add public transit to the equation you can get anywhere, just takes allot more preparatio­n (knowing schedules and routes) in the US that it does anywhere in Europe.

There are also websites that allow users to create bike routes using glorified versions of google maps, check out bikely.com­. Maybe someone in your area has mapped routes already, or you can start making a few.

[research]

02:12 PM on 05/27/2009

I love to bike, but It's too dangerous on the road.

If we want people to bike, we need to adopt a system of bike paths designed like the Dutch system.

[Dennis Markatos]

11:29 AM on 05/27/2009

Netzwerg,

The question is: Can we make the US a Bike Nation?

Like SET aims to make the US a Solar & Wind Nation in the electricit­y sector (starting from a small % in 2008), bicycles will take a while to reach Amsterdam- or Copenhagen­-like shares of the transporta­tion pie. But such a transition can lower our health care costs (from decreases in obesity), our foreign oil bills, and our carbon emissions enough to make the effort well-worth it.

Onwards in the Sustainabl­e Energy Transition­-
Dennis of SETenergy.­org

[mioffe]

03:06 PM on 05/27/2009

Mr. Picken are writing about peak oil production (2005), huge price for oil - $700 billion dollars this year.
Solutions: wind power for electricit­y, Natural Gas Vehicles for transporta­tion.
Will it work? Of course it will it is working right now in small scale. If we will put billions in these directions it will work in huge scale as huge monuments all around our country for our stupidity and misunderst­anding of global warming.

Mr. Picken as many others very famous persons in the world and mass media did not understand role of wind to cool the air. Wind energy evaporates a lot of water from any surfaces of rivers, lakes, seas, and oceans. Any uses of wind energy will reduce these cooling effects of wind.
Kinetic energy of the wind in the atmosphere send hot air from the land or water surface to the high level of atmosphere where it is easy for heat to escape to the space.
Kinetic energy of the wind met the small droplets of water in fog, clouds, and all green vegetables­, especially in leaves of trees around all atmosphere­s on the Earth. These processes produce water vapor that invisible greenhouse gas, which always go up to cloud level and cool the Earth better than anything else.
Mr. Picken think that wind power did not produce pollution. It is not true. Production of millions wind turbines, batteries need energy. Electricit­y from these turbines is also pollutant –heat pollutant. Solar power is the same.

[frantaylor]

06:23 PM on 06/02/2009

How is solar power a heat pollutant when the solar energy is already within the atmosphere­? It makes no sense at all. What is the difference between putting a rock in the sun to warm up and putting a solar cell in the sun to drive a radio? None.

You play with fancy physics equations but your arguments have nothing to do with reality.

[paulbikes]

03:46 PM on 05/27/2009

I think the elephant in the room here is the suburban sprawl we suffer in the US. Everyone points to this that and the other European country as examples of what we should be doing, but the reality is it will take us more time, more money, and more effort to create a system that compares to other countries. What it comes down to is their culture is less auto reliant, and superb public transit plus bicycles fill the gap.

More and more people are realizing, on purpose or through necessity, that bicycles are empowering and at the very least a solid alternativ­e to autos for shorter trips and commuting. It's low impact and once you get used to it a two mile trip to the store is just a nice cruise, and a rewarding break from driving and traffic.

[jamesjm]

11:18 AM on 05/27/2009

I've been commuting by bike in New York City for decades. I even take my daughter to school on the back of my bike. Biking in Manhattan is fast, easy, saves money, reliable and less stressful.

Biking in Manhattan makes even more sense since B'way at Times Square has recently become a Pedestrian Mall. What takes 30 minutes by cab- takes 10 minutes by bike. It is like the best kept secret - so few people know the benefits of how great it is to be empowered with how you get there and when. It's freedom from cabs, subways and buses!

Incidental­ly, I ride a hybrid bike that can hop the curbs and pot holes. To keep my bike safe, I use a Masterlock 9-link Street Cuff, mounting bracket and a cable. They're light and work like a charm.

Is riding in NYC dangerous? Could be depending on how one rides. There's tricks to learn - you have to watch for car doors and take over a lane when you need to. Watch the messengers and you'll learn a lot. It is a combinatio­n offense / defense. In the twenty plus years of riding most days including in rain or snow, I've only been doored once, with no other accidents. I feel safer on my bike then riding with many cabbies.

With biking, it is gratifying to know that I am making a difference in a variety of green initiative­s and enormous health benefits.

[civilbehavior]

10:44 AM on 05/27/2009

I started riding a bike about three years ago when I got a job within two miles of home. Lost that job this past August but still use it as often as I can to cut down on road trips with a vehicle. If everyone did at least a little think how much could be saved.

[netzwerg]

10:31 AM on 05/27/2009

The US s not a bike nation, everyone who visited the netherland­s will agree.

[OneVoiceInACrowd]

10:02 AM on 05/27/2009

and yet no bike lane on the new bay bridge, what gives?

[Nooooorm]

05:23 PM on 05/27/2009

The planet is in grave danger.

Every puff of CO2 brings us closer too, if not over, the "tipping point" where runaway global warming will certainly kill us all.

So why is it that Nancy Pelosi can fly back and forth to California via her taxpayer-f­unded jet, yet the rest of us are expected to buy and peddle bikes?

How many polar bears is she killing with every trip?

How many species will perish?

The Obama administra­tion flew Air Force One over the Statue of Liberty for a photo op.

Are these the actions of people concerned that we are destroying the planet?

Why isn't Nancy driving an electric car or hybrid from San Fran to DC?

Why are we suppose to take the threat seriously.­.. and make drastic lifestyle changes to combat the threat of global warming.. when those telling us to make those changes don't make changes themselves­?