Pedal power market

In October 2013 actor Ashton Kutcher headed into a meeting wearing a t-shirt that read ‘Bike is the new car’. By broadcasting that belief the Hollywood star wasn’t setting the trend, but following it.Bicycles are more popular than ever. Americans drove 7.6% fewer miles in 2013 than they did in 2004, according to a report by the US Public Interest Research Group. The number of workers riding a bike to work increased by 39% between 2005 and 2011, according to a study by the US PIRG Education Fund.

By Thomas Rees, Daniela Walker and William Lee Adams