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Despite the myths of a hyper-motorized nation, Americans own fewer passenger cars per head than the French, Austrians, Swiss, Germans, Luxembourgers and Italian
by asdlfj2sd33 17y ago
Despite the myths of a hyper-motorized nation, Americans own fewer passenger cars per head than the French, Austrians, Swiss, Germans, Luxembourgers and Italians
I find this very surprising!
- dimitar 17y agoAbout the cars: http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/tra_mot_veh-transportation-motor-vehicles http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/tra_mot_veh-transportation... Yes, America is on top. Plus the article doesn't say what kind of cars the Americans drive and what kind of cars Europeans do.
- ricree 17y ago"Per capita, Americans rely on their cars more than Europeans. But adjusting for the size of the country, automobile usage is lower only in Finland, Sweden and Greece." It sounds like some interesting mental hoops were jumped through here. I wonder what exactly this is supposed to mean? cars/(person * m^2), perhaps? If so, I'm not sure how meaningful that number really is.
- nihilocrat 17y agoI find this surprising not because of cultural norms, but because of the much higher price of gas and taxes on cars in Europe.
- graemep 17y agoEuropeans may also use their cars less. Most people I know in London own a car, but most only use it on weekends or holidays.
- zach 17y agoThat is a nuance that doesn't show up in the crudest statistic, motor vehicles per capita, because the USA has a huge fleet of working vehicles. In fact, it uniquely has nearly as many "goods vehicles" as passenger cars in the latest figures from the UN Economic Commission for Europe: http://www.unece.org/trans/doc/brochures/transport_indicators_2007.pdf http://www.unece.org/trans/doc/brochures/transport_indicator...