Motorcycles are of three types: street, off-road and dual purpose. Street bikes include scooters, mopeds and cruisers besides others. Off road motorcycles are meant for racing and not for riding on streets. The dual purpose motorcycles have features which make them permissible to be used on the streets at the same time are fit for motor racing.
The high automobile pollution and traffic congestion are reasons that make motorcycles make headway amongst vehicles on the road. Its carbon emissions are lower. It has better fuel efficiency as compared to other vehicles on the road. The fuel economy is primarily due to its smaller mass. Though motorcycles rate better in terms of greenhouse gas emission, the total pollution per mile is ten to as much as twenty times when compared to a car. Motorcycles produce more nitrogen oxide which is a byproduct of combustion and a major component of smog. The lower efficiency of its catalytic converters is the main cause of emission of nitrogen oxide.
In recent times, the motorcycle market has shown an upward swing. The global market grew by 6.5 percent despite the global economic downturn. Or perhaps the growth has been fuelled by the economic downturn and the increase in fuel cost. The market for electric scooter is also on the rise. Electric scooters run on battery instead of gasoline. These silent scooters, though with lower speed, have better fuel economy. With gasoline price steadily increasing, electric scooter becomes an option. It is very less polluting in terms of air and noise pollution. Better battery technologies are expected to make it more popular. There are many electric scooters on the road such as Eped Sport/City, Vectrix VX-1, ZAP Zapino, E-Solex, Yo Speed, Razor E200S electric scooter, EVT-4000e, Peugeot Scoot'Elec and Io-scooter, Ezip Electric Scooters.
Motorcycle sales are the highest in the Asian countries of Vietnam, Indonesia, India and China. It is owned by more people than are other vehicles. The number of motorcycle owners in Taiwan was double that of automobile owners. Registration of motorcycles crossed 50 percent in the United States. Motorcycles predominate the traffic in the frontier towns of Latin America.
