Skip to main content

University uncovers personal expenditure of American on transportation comparison

Total transportation expenditures in 2016 corresponded to 15.8% of all personal expenditures, down from 18.9% in 1989. Meanwhile, analogous trends were present for the lowest and highest quintiles of income, according to a new report by the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute. The report is based on data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey and performed by the Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labour Statistics.
October 3, 2017 Read time: 2 mins

Total transportation expenditures in 2016 corresponded to 15.8% of all personal expenditures, down from 18.9% in 1989. Meanwhile, analogous trends were present for the lowest and highest quintiles of income, according to a new report by the 5594 University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute.

The report is based on data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey and performed by the Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labour Statistics. It compared expenditures for all households as well as those at two extremes of income in 1989 and 2016.

Other findings include a higher relative expenditure for gasoline and motor oil for the lowest quintile of income than for the highest quintile of income. Secondly, transportation accounted for the second largest budget category in both 2016 and 1989. Meanwhile, transportation expenditures relative to the expenditures for housing and food decreased. In addition, transportation expenditures for the lowest quintile of income were lower than food expenditures in both years, contrasting transportation expenditures for the highest quintile of income were higher than food expenditures in both years. Finally, transportation expenditure adjusted for inflation decreased by 11.3% from 1989 to 2016.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Connected citizens boosts Boston’s traffic management
    March 30, 2017
    Data-derived traffic management is starting to show benefits as David Crawford discovers. The city of Boston has been facing growing congestion problems in its Seaport regeneration district, with the rate of commercial and residential growth threatening to overtake the capacity of the road network to respond.
  • Cloud computing technology benefits GIS
    July 17, 2012
    Geographic Information Systems are a relatively late adopter of cloud computing,but the benefits of host services for geospatial data and analysis are becoming clear. Jason Barnes reports Both the concept and the reality of cloud computing have been around for some time. More and more industry sectors are entrusting external service providers with the provision of their computing services via the internet. However, the Geographic Information System (GIS) industry has been slow to embrace the trend. This is
  • Insight into China's smart cities initiatives
    April 25, 2013
    Schneider Electric, which has been playing an active role in smart transportation systems in China since 1990, provides an insight into smart city initiatives in the country. Today, most cities across the world are facing unprecedented growth, which questions the viability of the current development model. They are immersed in a competition with each other, both domestically and internationally, in terms of investments, jobs and talents. Cities need to become more attractive and intelligent by becoming more
  • Moneybarn: 1,800% increase in UK electric car registrations over five year period
    November 2, 2017
    Nearly 10,000 electric cars are now registered in the UK with Japanese and German manufacturers dominating most popular brands in the UK, according to a five-year analysis on the development of the Electric vehicle industry by Moneybarn. These findings have been revealed following the government’s plan to ban the sale of all petrol and diesel vehicles from 2040.