Bicycle sales outpaced new-car sales last year in all of the 27 member countries of the European Union, except Belgium and Luxembourg, NPR reported on October 24. One reason is that car sales have slumped in the midst of the euro-zone crisis, NPR points out. But there are signs that this slump isn’t temporary. It’s a reflection, perhaps, of a larger change in how people are travelling.
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In developed economies, the numbers of cars owned and miles traveled have increased most years since the 1950s. Even before the financial crisis, that started to change. In the U.S., total miles traveled per person plateaued in 2000 and started falling in 2004. (Measured in miles per vehicle, that rate flattened in 2004 and started declining in 2007.) Today, young Americans are less interested in getting their licenses as early as possible or even at all. Meanwhile, global bicycle production has been growing faster than car production since the late 1970s:
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Reblogged this on greenpress~.
Or perhaps not:
The proportionate number of teens who obtain a license and the total miles they accrue have both declined over the last few years, but that decline has little to do with their passion for the automobile or competing priorities from iThis and iThat.
In fact it comes down to simple economics – no job, no money, no car.
– See more at: http://dcautogeek.com/?p=4584#sthash.KcnhQB07.dpuf
Auto sales in BC were down recently as well despite increases in retail sales in August:
http://www.biv.com/article/20131022/BIV0119/131029989/-1/BIV/bc-sees-countrys-biggest-jump-in-august-retail-sales-statscan