subsidizing bicycles

Yesterday, hippie-wesbsite alternet.org featured an article about how the rise in bicycle ownership worldwide helps reduce carbon emissions.  Lots of interesting facts in it, including this:

World bicycle production, averaging 94 million per year from 1990 to 2002, climbed to 130 million in 2007, far outstripping automobile production of 70 million. Bicycle sales in some markets are surging as governments devise a myriad of incentives to encourage bicycle use. For example, in 2009 the Italian government began a hefty incentive programme to encourage the purchase of bicycles or electric bikes in order to improve urban air quality and reduce the number of cars on the road. The direct payments will cover up to 30 percent of the cost of the bicycle.

It turns out that cycling-friendly countries generally subsidize bikes -- in a variety of ways -- while also implementing policies to make driving more difficult and expensive, such as "taxes on car ownership, use, and parking."  Meanwhile, the U.S. and U.K. don't, although the Obama administration's floated-then-retracted plan to tax drivers for the miles they drive rather than for the gas they use might have been a step in this direction.