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.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Allied Vision and TORC Robotics help blind driver ‘see’
    May 22, 2015
    TORC Robotics has partnered with the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory (RoMeLa) at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) with the aim of developing vehicles for the next generation of National Federation of the Blind (NFB) Blind Driver Challenge vehicles. The NFB developed the Blind Driver Challenge which calls upon developers and innovators to create interface technologies to allow those who are blind to drive a car independently. Held at the Daytona Speedway as a pre
  • Bolt brings car-sharing to Estonia 
    May 18, 2021
    Bolt Drive charges a single fee covering hire, fuel, insurance and parking
  • VW and Shell try to block EU push for electric cars
    April 29, 2016
    VW and Shell have united to try to block Europe’s push for electric cars and more efficient cars, saying biofuels should be at heart of efforts to green the industry instead. The EU is planning two new fuel efficiency targets for 2025 and 2030 to help meet promises made at the Paris climate summit last December. But executives from the two organisations launched a study on Wednesday night proposing greater use of biofuels, CO2 car labelling, and the EU’s emissions trading system (ETS) instead.
  • Moscow summit urges transit change
    June 11, 2019
    International ITS experts flocked to Russia for a new conference on the challenges of urban transit. Eugene Gerden reports from Moscow The Leaders in Urban Transportation Summit is a new international conference organised by the Moscow Department of Transport and Road Infrastructure Development. Dedicated to the latest developments in the field of ITS in the city of Moscow, it took place in the Moskva-Citi Business Center in April – and the intention is to make it an annual event. Senior transport o