http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/23/business/sxcars.php?page=1
Number of cars per 1000 people (from an IHT article):
Western Europe: 500
United States: 450
India: 7

Isn't it interesting that Europe has 11% more cars per person than the U.S., which seems to contradict the notion that massive taxpayer-financed investments in public transportation and $5 per gallon gasonline taxes will cut down on automobile dependence? Certainly the cars in Europe are smaller and more fuel-efficient, but it still seems surprising that Europeans own more cars than Americans.
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2007/05/interesting-facts-of-day.html

I have my theories, what do you think?

5/24/2007 9:20:25 AM

do they drive them as much?

5/24/2007 9:47:46 AM

hmm, I wonder if smaller car = less expensive, ie: more affordable to the population

5/24/2007 11:44:42 AM

Everybody likes their own independence

Plus its one thing to take a train or subway to go get something to eat or go see a ballgame or something...its another thing to try and go and buy 20 sheets of plywood at Home Depot and somehow use public xpo for that

5/24/2007 11:46:19 AM

You lost on this one snarky. Just because they have an automobile, doesn't mean they are Dependant on it. Most of them have small cars they drive on the weekends getting out of the city, public transportation during the week going to work.

5/24/2007 11:46:29 AM

Quote :

"Most of them have small cars they drive on the weekends getting out of the city, public transportation during the week going to work."

link?

5/24/2007 11:51:31 AM

Quote :

"Plus its one thing to take a train or subway to go get something to eat or go see a ballgame or something...its another thing to try and go and buy 20 sheets of plywood at Home Depot and somehow use public xpo for that"

In densely populated areas, i.e. europe, larger items are delivered, often for free or a very small charge. The higher population densities allow economies of scale to make such services viable. In our urban sprawl, you really can't do that without charging an arm and a leg to protect your margins.

5/24/2007 11:57:51 AM

^yeah i guess i was basing that off the society that we live in here in the US

5/24/2007 11:59:23 AM

Quote :

"do they drive them as much? "

they don't really have, say...Montana...or Wyoming...or West Texas

or for that matter, eastern (or western) NC

or even Raleigh, where you have to drive halfway across the world to get to anywhere

5/24/2007 12:12:50 PM

When I stayed with a native family in France for a week, they explained most people never used cars to get around town, as everything was usually within convenient walking distance or just easier to get to with public transportation. Stuff outside town or trips to the bigger cities was what families used cars for. I don't remember her saying anything about mostly on the weekends tho..

^yeah, you hit the nail on the head. Not nearly as much distance to cover to get to stuff.

[Edited on May 24, 2007 at 12:26 PM. Reason : .]

5/24/2007 12:25:16 PM

Quote :

"do they drive them as much?"

precisely

i own 10 pairs of shorts, i wear like 2 of them

5/24/2007 12:26:21 PM

let alone the FACT that there are plenty of people in NYC, Chicago, etc who use public tranpo most of the time and there are plenty of sparse low-density areas in Europe

you guys make it seem like the entire United States is sprawl and all of Europe is some cluster

5/24/2007 12:27:22 PM

Quote :

"Plus its one thing to take a train or subway to go get something to eat or go see a ballgame or something...its another thing to try and go and buy 20 sheets of plywood at Home Depot and somehow use public xpo for that"

Its a fucking bitch when you buy big heavy things up here. But yeah most people will deliver. Most grocery stores can deliver, and there's even an online grocery where you can just order everything online, pretty sweet.

Once I bought a gasoline can at home depot, and holy shit was I getting bad looks on the subway. Even the cops harassed me.

5/24/2007 1:44:58 PM

Does this take into account redneck cars up on cinder blocks?

5/24/2007 1:45:47 PM

Quote :

"you guys make it seem like the entire United States is sprawl and all of Europe is some cluster"

In general, places like Cary/Apex/Wake Forest don't exist in Europe. Small villages scattered from big city to big city are just that, small villages.

5/24/2007 1:49:16 PM

I don't think the fact that a village is or isn't a metro area of a large city is really relevant...the people in the villages would still be more likely to drive since they don't have all their amenities within walking distance

Either way, both the US and Europe have huge cities as well as much less dense areas

I live in Charlotte and there are areas where you can get by with walking most places or taking public transportation, and there are other areas where it makes more sense to drive...it just seems like you're almost implying that nobody drives in Europe except on weekends which is grossly exaggerated

5/24/2007 2:09:14 PM

Quote :

"it just seems like you're almost implying that nobody drives in Europe except on weekends which is grossly exaggerated"

Have you ever not taken a point to the extreme just so you can post in this section? Even a moron who has never heard of Europe wouldn't think such a thing.

Quote :

"the people in the villages would still be more likely to drive since they don't have all their amenities within walking distance"

Well no shit. The point is, those "small villages" aren't Cary and Apex and any other massive suburb like we have in the United States, so the population of those villages relative to the city proper are teeny teeny compared to here.

Quote :

"Either way, both the US and Europe have huge cities as well as much less dense areas"

Europe is not afflicted with the same suburban sprawl we have. If you're going to make comment or point, make it relevant and meaningful.



[Edited on May 24, 2007 at 8:58 PM. Reason : clarity]

5/24/2007 8:58:25 PM

have you ever been trolled by an alias?

cause i have...its happening right now

btw:

Quote :

"Most of them have small cars they drive on the weekends getting out of the city, public transportation during the week going to work."

link?

5/24/2007 9:17:11 PM

You don't have any credibility here. How about you find a link to refute it.

5/24/2007 9:49:10 PM

ok, just so we're all clear that the alias troll who claims something and can't post a link to support his opinion is talking out of his ass

LoneSnark posted links at the beginning and you told him he lost

Meanwhile your only evidence is your own alias troll opinion which obviously holds no weight

[Edited on May 24, 2007 at 9:53 PM. Reason : i wasted my 50,000th post on this lame faggot?]

5/24/2007 9:52:45 PM

That gained you some credibility! You spend more time pointing out I am an alias than you do actually responding to any pertinent point I have ever made. Oh, and calling me a troll. I suppose when you don't actually have anything valid to reply, then you settle for that.

5/24/2007 9:56:54 PM

i'm simply asking for ANYTHING of substance to support your claim and you can't produce it...so you're just talking out of your ass

you know how soapbox works from your days here under your other accounts...and you know you have to post links if you make wild claims...so post a link or stfu and go spend $5 on another alias screen name

5/24/2007 9:59:17 PM

I wasn't actually going to be bothered to find a link since what I have stated is common sense, and what you are doing is pretty lame trolling, but I figured I'd give it at least a 30 second effort,and found this

http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/DrivingMadness.html

Quote :

"The U.S. consumes about twice as much of the principal transportation fuels (gasoline and the so-called middle distillates, which include diesel and jet fuel) per capita as Western Europe. More of us drive, and when we drive we travel longer distances in less fuel-efficient cars."

Now, that doesn't say anything about weekends, but it definitely says something about "smaller cars".

5/24/2007 10:00:17 PM

ps: LoneSnark acknowledges that cars are smaller in his first post...you didn't post anything new...and the article you posted (and the graph I just posted) again show that Europe does indeed have more cars per person than the US...so I'll ask again...post a link with some substance

hey is this one of those villages in england you were talking about?

5/24/2007 10:01:34 PM

Europe doesn't have as many huge cities as you would think. London is huge, but other than that they don't have any cities with more than 3 million or so (which is very large of course, but not what I expected).

5/24/2007 10:18:45 PM

Quote :

"ps: LoneSnark acknowledges that cars are smaller in his first post...you didn't post anything new...and the article you posted (and the graph I just posted) again show that Europe does indeed have more cars per person than the US...so I'll ask again...post a link with some substance"

You're the only regular soap box poster than needs a link to confirm common knowledge. Can you not connect simple dots. If there are more cars in europe per capita, yet they drive less miles than we do, what does that tell you? They aren't driving "wasted" miles during the week because they are using public transportation. Then on the weekend, if they won't to make excursions away from the city, they use cars because the public transportation is often sluggish and inconvenient when you get outside of the cities.

No one in this section needs a link to understand this.

5/24/2007 10:46:58 PM

I was in Europe for 2 weeks, and I can tell you with 95% certainty that there were people driving on weekdays.

5/24/2007 10:56:29 PM

Yes, that doesn't surprise anyone and I haven't literally claimed that people don't drive at all in the cities during the week. Some of you people are thickheaded.

5/24/2007 11:09:00 PM

Quote :

"Transit is used for about 10 percent of passenger trips in urban areas of Western Europe, compared with 2 percent in the United States. "

http://www.trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?ID=2666

Quote :

"The FTA’s program is modeled after the UITP (International Public Transportation Association) project conducted in Europe, as well as larger scale individualized marketing programs in Australia, which resulted in significant increases in ridership. The pilot project in Europe resulted in a 10 percent reduction in car usage in the targeted area, while the large-scale individualized marketing efforts yielded up to 14 percent reductions. The first U.S. pilot project in Portland, Oregon, reduced car travel by 8 percent in the first area selected for the pilot, and resulted in a 27 percent increase in travel by environmentally friendly modes in that same area."

http://www.fta.dot.gov/printer_friendly/news_events_346.html

gosh you are right lonesnark. we should never invest in public transportation again.

5/25/2007 12:02:08 AM

Most transit programs have a goal of trip reduction during peak hours, rather than 24 hours.

5/25/2007 1:40:30 AM

Quote :

"CARS AND PEOPLE When it comes to cars, the United States is saturated--and then some. It has reached the unusual situation among all the countries of the world of having 1,148 registered personal vehicles (cars and light trucks) for every 1,000 licensed drivers (see Figure O-4). France and Britain follow with 702 and 700 cars, respectively, per thousand eligible drivers. Japan is also up there. Despite its small land size, Japan has some 608 cars per thousand eligible drivers. In other countries, the numbers fall away."

http://www2.cera.com/gasoline/summary/

That's just for licensed drivers, not all Americans so of course the number will be higher. But...

Quote :

"Since 1960, the number of passenger vehicles has steadily risen, and since 1972 has exceeded the number of licensed drivers. Considering the population in the United States of 293,655,404 during the 2004 economic survey,[5] there is one passenger vehicles for every 1.20 persons in the United States, meaning that there are 833.34 passenger vehicles for every 1,000 Americans."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_vehicles_in_the_United_States

That's for all Americans. It's almost twice as much as what LoneSnark posted!

And again...

Quote :

"the United States, according to The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the stock of passenger cars per head was the 10th highest in the world in 2004. At nearly 500 cars per 1,000 of the population, the US has more cars per head than Japan, but fewer than all the other G7 countries. However, if light trucks are included, the US has the highest penetration of passenger vehicles of any country, at over 800 per 1,000 of the population. Passenger-vehicle usage is extremely high. The average person in the US travels about 9,000 km per year by road, compared with 6,000 km in Western Europe and 4,000 km in Japan;"

http://www.youthxchange.net/main/b273_using_cars-c.asp

OMG, almost twice as much again!

Could it be that LoneSnark's source didn't include "light trucks" (SUVs) as cars?

I can totally see why he wouldn't pick up on that. Actually, wait a minute... It looks like someone explained that at the link he posted, the second of only two comments to the blog...

Quote :

"It's due to a quirk in the way the data is reported - SUV sales are counted as light-trucks in the US. If you add those in (as they are personal transport) the rate goes up to nearly 1,000 e.g. from a website (this includes all light-trucks which means its higher than that). The US has 1,148 registered personal vehicles for every 1,000 licensed drivers, 700 per 1000 in Great Britain, 608 in Japan, 208 per 1000 in Mexico--and just 11 per 1000 in India, and 9 per 1000 in China."

http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2007/05/interesting-facts-of-day.html

I can't believe you suckers actually thought Western Europeans owned more cars than us. Fucking stupid.

[Edited on May 25, 2007 at 3:31 PM. Reason : sss]

5/25/2007 3:18:21 PM

^ i was surprised that it took this long to bring up the posts on the original link

5/25/2007 3:20:21 PM

It's probably because his quandry was about public transportation, and not about car ownership, per se.

5/25/2007 3:34:31 PM

If LoneSnark's study didn't count light trucks in America, what makes you think they would count light trucks in Western Europe?

5/25/2007 3:40:49 PM

^ of course they wouldn't, but SUVs in Western Europe are pretty much non-existent.

5/25/2007 3:53:22 PM

BRIDGET DOESNT KNOW SHIT ABOUT HTML SO SHE FUCKED UP THE THREAD

5/25/2007 3:54:17 PM

^^^Are you trolling?

They didn't count light trucks in Western Europe. But the US has many more light trucks than Western Europe. So once you add in light trucks, the US has the most passenger vehicles per 1,000 people than any other country in the world.

[Edited on May 25, 2007 at 3:55 PM. Reason : sss]

5/25/2007 3:55:50 PM

Yes he is trolling, that is all he ever does.

5/25/2007 3:58:32 PM

BRIDGET IS A FUCKING IDIOT WHO POSTS IFRAME TAGS BELOW

5/25/2007 3:59:13 PM

^^^Nothing makes me think they included light trucks for Western Europe because they didn't include them for anybody.

However, there are many more SUVs here in the States so once you add in SUVs, the US has the highest number of passenger vehicles per 1,000 people than any other country in the world.

5/25/2007 4:00:57 PM

Whoa, I thought I made a post in here?

5/25/2007 4:02:31 PM

AHA

[Edited on May 25, 2007 at 4:27 PM. Reason : Sorry bout that guys. Forgot I had HTML.]

5/25/2007 4:04:35 PM

You did. TreeTwista10 fucked with this thread.

[Edited on May 25, 2007 at 4:06 PM. Reason : sss]

5/25/2007 4:05:04 PM

^^suspend

5/25/2007 4:07:56 PM

I hope someone screen shots this and has this guy suspended. He's been asking for it for awhile.

5/25/2007 4:10:19 PM

^^^^suspend

5/25/2007 4:11:20 PM

^^I HOPE SOMEONE SHOOTS THIS FAGGOT ALIAS TROLL IN THE HEAD

5/25/2007 4:11:42 PM

wtf is going on in here? lol

5/25/2007 4:15:45 PM

Bridget fucked up the thread

5/25/2007 4:16:44 PM

I fucked up the thread by trying to post (show) what TreeTwista10 did to fuck with the thread in the first place. I forgot I had HTML capabilities. I don't know computer stuff.

Anyway, back to the thread...

Quote :

"TreeTwista10: If LoneSnark's study didn't count light trucks in America, what makes you think they would count light trucks in Western Europe?"

Of course they didn't report light trucks for Western Europe either. But SUVs are much more common in the states than they are in Western Europe so once we add them in, it's shown that the US has more number of passenger vehicles per 1,000 people than any other country in the world.

[Edited on May 25, 2007 at 4:30 PM. Reason : ]

5/25/2007 4:27:03 PM