I am a new member of MUBi and a new resident of Portugal, looking to find (or create) a job that is somehow related to bicycles. I know that there are many challenges, but there is also so much potential and I have high hopes that together we will be able to get more people to realise the many joys of riding bicycles.
Some of you might have seen my survey regarding bicycle theft in Portugal, which is related to just one of business ideas I have already had. In under 24 hours I got just under 200 replies even though my post and survey was in English, due to my sadly still poor Portuguese skills.
But now I need your help to find information about mainly the topics mentioned in the headline of this post, my first one this forum. I once again apologise for it being in English, but I am learning Portuguese much slower than my ideas pop up. ;-D
So, where can I find information about:
The number of bicycles already in ownership in Portugal?
The number of new bikes sold in Portugal each year?
The evolution of bike sales over a 5-10 year period?
The number of people commuting by bicycle?
The number of people using bicycles for sport, leisure and excercise (road, MTB and so on)?
The evolution of people using bikes regularly for whatever reason over a 5-10 year period?
I would also be interested in:
The number of annual bicycle tourists in Portugal?
The evolution of bicycle tourism in Portugal over a 5-10 period?
I hope some of you can steer me in the right direction.
Hi, Nikolaj. Hope you can find what you need. Sorry but I don’t know how I could help you but I wish you the best! If you are interested in publishing your results, you can contact me at [email protected]
Thank you for at least your interest in my survey and study into elements of the bicycle (insurance) market in Portugal.
Publishing my findings could be of some interest, although I have not yet finished analyzing the results. I am also considering having the survey translated to Portuguese and go for a second round of replies.
If I decided to take you up on your offer, where would the results be published? Or - in other words - which company, media or otherwise do you represent, since you have an interest in my findings?
PS: Don’t worry about not being able to help. I can tell you that no one has been able to help so far. And perhaps that is one of the more interesting findings in my point of view.
Lots of questions for which we all liked an answer… unfortunately, we only have scarce data (when you can find it).
For example, you can find the number of households with at least a bicycle in this article (40%), but it gives you no idea whether the number is “1 bicycle per household”, or “2-3-4 bicycles per household”, and whether people use it or not, either for leisure or as a transportation form.
Apart from all that was already said, I’ll share some of my empirical knowledge. Hopefully other people can confirm it as well.
The number of people commuting by bicycle? It has grown exponentially in some parts of Lisbon (where there’s infrastructure and/or Gira bike sharing service). The rest of the country is more or less the same, aka, almost non existent. The number of people using bicycles for sport, leisure and excercise (road, MTB and so on)? Those are a much higher number than commuters, but I guess there isn’t a study about that (I might be wrong though)
The number of annual bicycle tourists in Portugal? The evolution of bicycle tourism in Portugal over a 5-10 period?
I think bike touring is growing, because tourism in general is growing. Because of that a couple ou companies offering bike tours popped up a few years ago. Some of the only do those short guided city tours, but there are also other that focus on several day, long route kind of tours.
You should contact Paulo Guerra dos Santos (www.facebook.com/guerradossantos). He’s developing for some years now the National Cycle Touring Network (http://www.ecovias.pt/). It’s a road book for cycle tourists (in English, BTW). His book’s sales evolution might give you some answers.
