Bicycle sales hit an annual record of almost 1.3 million in Australia last year, outpacing car sales.

Bicycle sales in Australia totaled 1,273,781 for their fifth straight year of million-plus sales, more than 32 percent ahead of the motor vehicle sales' total of 962,521 in 2006, according to the Cycling Promotion Fund (CPF), Australia's peak bicycle promotional body.

CPF spokesman Ian Christie said in a statement released Thursday that Australians are using bikes not just for recreation but increasingly as their preferred form of day-to-day transport.

"There is an emerging trend towards people using bikes as their official company-supplied vehicle in place of the traditional company car," he said.

"Some of Australia's biggest corporations now have bicycle fleets, and when you add in government organizations, we now know of at least 50 organizations which operate fleets of bikes," he said.

Christie said record sales were across all market segments from everyday recreational bikes and children's bikes right through to high-end road and competition bicycles.

Source: Xinhua