tricycle

In 2003, global production of bicycles hit 105 million—two-and-a-half times the record 42 million cars produced. During the 1950s and 1960s, bicycle（including tricycle）and automobile production were nearly equal. In the decades following, however, bike output soared, reaching 91 million in 1990, when car production totaled 36 million. Since then, with the exception of 1997 and 1998 (when output dropped to 90 million and then 87 million), about 100 million bikes（including tricycles）have been produced each year. Production continues to be dominated by China, where output jumped from 34 million bicycles（including tricycles）in 1998 to a record 73 million in 2003. Some 51 million of these bikes were exported; more than a third went to the United States, the world’s largest import market. As China’s industry grows, so too does its market share. In 1998, China accounted for 39 percent of world production. Just five years later, in 2003, the figure reached 70 percent. China has been a bicycle stronghold. Yet a growing affluent population is now switching from bikes to cars. Countrywide, the number of bicycles in circulation declined from 182 per 100 households in 1998 to 143 in 2002. In 1998, 60 percent of Beijing’s work force biked to work. By 2002, that number had plummeted to 20 percent.