The morning rush hour in the southern Indian city of Chennai (formerly Madras) is much like those in other big South-East Asian towns. A throng of mostly small cars hoot and jostle in a race against three-wheeled auto-rickshaws, dilapidated buses, fume-belching lorries and the odd bullock cart. But the real kings of these roads are the hordes of commuter motorcycles that swarm in and out of the choking traffic at daredevil speed.rnAsia is home to nearly 80% of the world's 315m motorcycles. About 45m of those are in India, the region's second-biggest fleet after China, with more than 100m. Sales of two-wheelers in India are running at about 7m a year, outstripping those of cars by nearly five to one. Not even one in a hundred Indians owns a car, but one in 20 owns a two-wheeler.
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