Thank you for your feedback. I hear you. I’ll definitely try to do a followup piece with more detail on bicycle sales as they are reported for the first quarter and the rest of 2009. Bicycle sales have been higher than car & truck sales for a while now – especially when all wheel sizes are concerned. Even just larger wheel bicycles outsold cars & trucks in 2008: 13.4 M vs. 13.2 M (all wheel sizes hit 18.5 M). But I’ll try to get more access to the most precise data and the best channels to find 2009 info for future posts. Let me and others know if you have some good sources for accurate updated bicycle sales numbers that you recommend.
Onwards to climate progress-

Yes, the article does report imports. Thank you for clarifying. But since over 90% of the US bicycle market is imports (mostly from China), isn’t that the best proxy. Since domestics should also be included, bicycle purchases are likely above 2.6 M. Do you have any data that shows bicycle purchases were below 2.2 M (the approximate number for light vehicle sales)?

Onwards-

It looks like the bike sales article references an article on bike imports — and gets the terms confused.

I love the ECG idea too! Where do you live? I can connect you to ECGA staff and other volunteers to help make the dream a reality. Feel free to email me your info via dennis at setenergy dot org

-Dennis

More bikes were sold.
Take another look at the data: the total is ~2.2 M cars sold by end of March (Jan-Mar) vs. almost 2.6 M bikes. Those monthly numbers are cumulative. The annual rate of sales was below 9.8 M (*.25, since its a quarter of the yr = <2.45 M). I was conservative, as the total number looks to be lower by NADA data. For comparison, car and truck sales averaged 13.2 M in 2008 and over 16 M in 2007.

Thanks for checking-in to make sure the numbers are correct though.

Peace-

january: 0.7 million
february: 1.3 million
march: 2.2 million