Bicycles are vehicles powered by human effort, generally equipped with pedals, a seat, two wheels, and a frame. The energy needed to ride at low to moderate speeds is approximately equivalent to the energy expended while walking.
In recent years, numerous cities globally have begun to regard bicycles with greater importance. The Earth Policy Institute, located in Washington, D.C., has acknowledged this trend: “In the year 2000, global bicycle production reached 101 million, which is more than twice the 41 million cars manufactured.”
The figure is soaring. Revenue in the bicycles market is projected to reach $69.23 billion in 2024, reports Statista. Revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate of 1.62% leading to a projected market volume of $73.82 billion by 2028. By that time, bicycle market unit sales are expected to reach 138.30 million bicycles.
On why bicycles are getting popular, the Earth Policy report, written by Lester Brown and Janet Larsen, surmised: “Sales of bikes are soaring because they provide affordable mobility for billions of people, increase physical fitness, alleviate traffic congestion, and do not pollute the air or emit climate-disrupting carbon dioxide.”
Worldwatch Institute, also based in Washington, D.C., reported: “Advances in cycling infrastructure, marketing programs, financial incentives, and zoning are being leveraged to increase cycling rates in more and more cities.
“Not since the automobile hijacked transportation planning decades ago has the bicycle had so many arguments, and allies, for claiming its natural niche in urban transportation ecosystems,” wrote Gary Gardner, author of the report.
A half-century ago, it was widely expected that automobile production would quickly exceed that of bicycles. Indeed by 1965, car production, which had been growing rapidly since World War II, was poised to overtake bicycle production.
But the forecast never happened. Mounting environmental concerns slowed the growth in car output and accelerated that of bikes. Between 1969 and 1970, bike sales jumped from 25 million to 36 million.
According to Brown and Larsen, the bicycle’s principal attraction was its affordability among consumers. “With cars costing 100 times as much easily, the bicycle offers mobility to billions of people who cannot afford a car,” the two authors explained. “The widely affordable bike attracted 960 million buyers during the 1990s, compared with 370 million for the car.”
Another plus factor: The bicycle also reduces the amount of land – which continues to dwindle due to increasing numbers of people – that needs to be paved. Six bicycles typically can fit into the road space used by one car. For parking, the advantage is even greater, with 20 bicycles occupying the space required for a car.
Another attraction of the bicycle is that it does not contribute to the air pollution, which are caused by solid and liquid particles and certain gases that are suspended in the air. Most of these particles and gases can come from car and truck exhaust.
“Ambient (outdoor) air pollution is causing fine particulate matter which result in strokes, heart diseases, lung cancer, acute and chronic respiratory diseases,” says the Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO).
One of the gases that most vehicles produce is carbon dioxide, the primary culprit of global warming. “A bicycle commuter who rides four miles to work five days a week in the United States avoids 2,000 miles of driving and about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per year,” Gardner wrote. “This amounts to nearly a 5 percent reduction in the average American’s carbon footprint.”
Land scarcity is also driving the world toward the bicycle, particularly in densely populated Asia, where half of the world’s population lives. In heavily populated areas of Japan, the bicycle plays a strategic role. In Tokyo, where 90% of its workers commute by rail, 30% use a bicycle to reach their local rail station.
Bicycles are also used to transport goods. In rural Africa, where women use bicycles to transport farm produce to market, the resulting market expansion has reportedly raised farm output.
Bicycles are gaining popularity in industrial countries because they provide the much-needed exercise. With half or more of adults now overweight in countries like the United States, Russia, Germany, and the United Kingdom, obesity is one of the world’s leading public health problems.
In fact, more than one billion people in the world are now living with obesity, global analysis suggests. Obesity rates among children and adolescents worldwide increased four times from 1990 to 2022, while obesity rates among adults have more than doubled.
Bicycles are also good for people with diabetes. “Fighting diabetes can be as easy as riding a bicycle,” said webMD.com. “Whether you use a stationary one or hit the road, 30 minutes a day 3 to 5 times a week can get your heart rate up, burn blood sugar, and help you lose weight without hurting your knees or other joints.”
“As cities worldwide struggle with pollution, as carbon-reduction strategies become urban-focused, as obesity rates rise in rich and poor countries, and as municipal budgets are squeezed by growing demands for services, the bicycle is increasingly embraced as a multi-pronged solution by city halls worldwide,” Gardner pointed out.
The importance of bicycles is recognized by the international community, too. In April 2018, during the United Nations General Assembly, June 3 was declared as World Bicycle Day. The resolution recognized “the uniqueness, longevity and versatility of the bicycle, which has been used for two centuries.”
The resolution also described the bicycle as “a simple, affordable, reliable, clean, and environmentally fit sustainable means of transport.”
To end this piece, the words of H.G. Wells are apt: “Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.”
