Car Stats

Recently i've been reading Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems by Peter Newman and Isabella Jennings.


In it they quote some interesting stats relating to cities being less car dependent:

• Car dependent cities spend 15-20% of their wealth on getting around. For transit oriented cities it is 5-8%.
  
• Cities with strong rail systems were 43% more wealthy than weak rail cities
  
• Cars can take 2,500 people per hour down one lane of traffic. Trains can do 50,000 (20 times as much).
  
• Roads and parking can cover over a third of a city
  
• At household level people in car dependent cities use over 20% of their income on transport. Some more than 40%.
  
• In the US, those who live near a railway station own fewer cars (0.7 fewer per household) thus freeing up 20% of their income.

Food for thought, huh?