allgoo19

No, it's not Holland. It seems to be Japanese who buy and use the most bicycle.

'Sales figures attest to the growing popularity of bicycles. The number of bicycles sold in Japan increased from 8.2 million in 1991 to 11.3 million in 2001 - almost 40% growth in 10 years. Of all the bicycles made worldwide, 10% are sold in Japan. Imported bicycles are riding the crest of the popularity wave: They had a 63% share (7.1 million bikes) of the sales in 2001, and this share has been growing."

Read on..

https://web-japan.org/trends01/articl...soc_index.html

Shifty

Interesting, I would have guessed China or India. BTW India use to have the lagest bicycle factories in the world (by volume of bikes made), could still be true.

hillyman

This wooden bike at the link is pretty neat!

allgoo19

Here's another report contradicts the first one.

https://www.bikecult.com/bikecultbook/cycles_stats.html

Shifty's guess was right in this.

Edit: This report is old.

alanbikehouston

Bike building and bike riding are two different issues. Holland is not one of the "bike building" leaders, but a majority of adults ride bikes on a regular basis. The Japanese bike industry has come under attack by cheap communist Chinese made bikes, and so bike production in Japan is declining. But, a high percentage of Japanese adults continue to ride bikes, especially to and from the train station for commuting to jobs.

Chinese urban cyclists are under attack. The communist party in China has become extremely corrupt, and communist party members and their families now own fleets of Mercedes and BMW's. To clear the streets for speedy travel in their new luxury cars, party leaders have implemented restrictions that have greatly reduced the number of bicycle commuters in major cities. Hundreds of thousands of bikes have been taken off the streets so that a few thousand corrupt politicians, their cronies and business partners can race across town in their new automobiles.

randya

I think it's more like the Chinese are promoting Westernization, the main symbol of which is car culture. And now that all the good manufacturing jobs are in China, the workers are starting to be able to afford cars.

way124

I don't think there are that many corrupt officials to amount to about a million new cars on the road a year.

poululla

Not being biased, but I would say that Copenhagen (Denmark) gets my vote. 1 in every 3 people living in the city uses a bike to commute to work. Owning a bike is only half of it, using it every day completes the picture.

Shifty

Seems to me that there are lots of Mercedes and BMW's in Washington DC, I guess we could draw the same conclusions, especially since most of those cars have Texas plates these days.

Still seem to be afraid of those commies, thought we grew out of that stuff.

operator

Not really, he said that a corrupt party implies that they drive with mercedes in bmws, the converse is not necessairly true.

alanbikehouston

An "ordinary" worker makes less than $2,000 per year in China. Most of that money goes for rent and food...not many "ordinary" workers in China owns a car...the purchase price, various taxes and fees (i.e., pay-offs to the local party officials, drive the total price of even the cheapest cars to over $20,000, and the average "new" car costs well over $50,000. And, you must provide a place to park the car. Ordinary workers have difficulty finding adequate parking for their bicycle.


What if an ordinary Chinese citizen speaks up about their oppression by the communist party? Well, union organizers and people criticizing communism in China DO get paid. They get paid with one bullet to the back of their heads. A bullet paid for by the profits of selling slave labor products to greedy American consumers.

There may be some irony here somewhere. American consumers buy cheapo Chinese bikes. The profits buy a BMW or Mercedes for the owner of the bike factory and the party officials who allow him to run the factory. The workers in the bike factory are forbidden to bike to work using major roads, as their bikes would get in the way of the Mercedes owners.

Hal Hardy

Actually, the bill for the bullet is sent to the family. Seriously.

But your point is well taken.

allgoo19

The difference between Democracy and Dictatorship.

Under democratic society, the leader has to make 51% of the population, or he's out.

Under dictatorship, the leader make 5% of population happy and have them convince, or force, the rest to think that they have a good living (much like our own........ooops).