Skip to main content

Has motorisation in the US peaked?

A new study by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute analysed recent changes in the United States in both the ownership of light-duty vehicles (cars, pickup trucks, SUVs and vans) and the corresponding distance driven. The study looked at the rates per person and per household over the period 1984 to 2015. The main findings were: The vehicle-ownership rates per person and per household both reached their maxima in 2006. The two rates for 2015 are down, on average, 4.4 per cent f
February 15, 2017 Read time: 1 min
A new study by the 5647 University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute analysed recent changes in the United States in both the ownership of light-duty vehicles (cars, pickup trucks, SUVs and vans) and the corresponding distance driven. The study looked at the rates per person and per household over the period 1984 to 2015.

The main findings were:

The vehicle-ownership rates per person and per household both reached their maxima in 2006. The two rates for 2015 are down, on average, 4.4 per cent from their maxima, although they have rebounded, on average, 1.4 per cent from the post-maximum minima reached in 2012 and 2013.

The distance-driven rates per person and per household both reached their maxima in 2004.

The two rates for 2015 are down, on average, 7.8 per cent from their maxima, although they have rebounded, on average, 2.1 per cent from the post-maximum minima reached in 2013.

Related Content

  • April 18, 2012
    Australia has lowest road deaths since 1946
    In 2011, Australia registered 1,292 road deaths, which is the lowest road toll since 1946. In the same year, for crash protection, 72 per cent of cars tested under the Australian New Car Assessment Programme have been rated five stars. In 2004, the top score was only earned by 14 per cent of the cars tested under the programme. Mahindra car, which is made in India, has earned a 'marginal' rating of three stars. Of any Australian-made vehicles, the latest sedan of Toyota Aurion, which will be available in Ma
  • December 14, 2021
    EVs: Time for a rethink
    Given a growing body of evidence that EVs are not the clean, green machines they are made out to be, Andrew Bunn suggests they can only be part of the puzzle – not the answer to environmental problems
  • October 18, 2013
    Spot speed deterrent proved to be transient
    As research and trials show the benefits of average speed enforcement - David Crawford reviews developments on two continents. August 2013 saw the switch on of the Australian State of Victoria’s latest combined point-to-point (P2P) average speed enforcement (ASE) and spot camera control system. Installed on the 27km Peninsula Link to the south-east of Melbourne, the system uses high-resolution automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras and optical character recognition (OCR) technology developed b
  • May 29, 2015
    New research assesses potential for driver-assistive truck platooning
    The Phase One Final Report of the Driver-Assistive Truck Platooning (DATP) initiative was recently released by the research team. The DATP truck platooning research, which was funded by a grant from the US Department of Transportation's Exploratory Advanced Research program, utilises radar, vehicle-to-vehicle communications and video technologies to decrease over-the-road truck headways, with the objective of improving fuel economy without compromising safety.