An anti-auto, pro-cycling group called the Institute for Transportation Development Policy (ITDP) claims that Americans spend too much on transportation, and if only they lived more like Europeans they would save a lot of money. However, there are some fundamental flaws in their analysis.
According to the article, Americans spend 13 percent of their household expenditures on transportation while Europeans spend only 11 percent. The first problem with their claim is the source of their data: the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). BLS compiles data based on surveys. While BLS data might be useful comparing cities and states within the United States, the surveys are not completely reliable.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), however, collects all the data about where money goes in the national economy. According to the BEA, only 9.2 percent of “personal consumption expenditures” went for transportation in 2019. This includes motor vehicles, transit, airlines, and other forms of mass transportation. These data are more comparable to the European data cited by ITDP.
(Unfortunately, BEA tables are not linkable. Go to the BEA’s interactive data web page, click on “Section 2 – Personal Income and Outlays,” then on “Table 2.5.5 – Personal Consumption Expenditures by Function.”)
ITDP’s analysis also fails to include subsidies in its calculation of expenditures. However, it does take into account that fuel taxes in Europe are much higher than in the U.S., and those fuel taxes are the source of much of the subsidies to non-highway transport (or, as ITDP puts it, high fees and taxes “allows for more money to go towards sustainable transportation”). So I’m not sure whether accounting for the subsidies would make a difference, but any claims that some forms of transportation are less expensive than others need to take subsidies into account.
A much bigger difference, however, is in the comparative mobility of Americans and Europeans. In 2019, the average American traveled well over 18,000 miles, including 15,000 miles by auto, 2,200 miles by air, and a few hundred more miles by transit, intercity bus, and Amtrak. By comparison, the most mobile people in Europe travel only a little more than 10,000 miles a year.
In particular, residents of France, Germany, and Italy traveled on highways about 8,000 to 8,500 miles in 2018, according to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (click the “download” button and choose “full indicator data”). The OECD also says they traveled by rail about 500 to 1,000 miles in 2018. Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and Switzerland are in the same ballpark, the U.K. is a little lower, and most other European countries report much lower mobility numbers.
People still need to do their research when searching for cialis fast delivery online pharmacy. A positive force “draws” heritageihc.com levitra without prescription people towards new sources via incentives or provision of sustainable alternatives. Erection issues are common but http://www.heritageihc.com/staff canada levitra when they exist for a longer period of time then the real problem takes place. Moreover, Adderrall or Adderral is also a one dose medicine and this means you don’t need to take it in right quantity and http://www.heritageihc.com/buy3129.html free sample levitra also take necessary precautions. OECD data include only rail and road transport, but data published by the European Union indicate that Europeans fly less than 1,000 miles per year and take buses and urban transit less than 400 miles per year. That’s a grand total of well under 11,000 miles per year.
This is not because the United States is geographically bigger than any country in Europe. The second-most mobile country, according to the OECD, is Iceland. Despite being only about the size of Kentucky, Iceland’s residents travel by auto almost 14,000 miles per year. Iceland has no railroads and little mass transit, but just its auto miles outnumbers the total per capita travel of any European country. (Unfortunately, OECD doesn’t have data for Canada after 2007, but in 2007 Canadians drove fewer miles per capita than Icelanders.)
In any case, even if Americans did spend more on transportation than Europeans, which it appears we don’t, we get more for our money, traveling almost 80 percent more than people in the most mobile countries in Europe. That mobility translates to higher incomes, better housing, and lower-cost consumer goods, not to mention more recreation and social opportunities.
ITDP argues that car ownership is a hardship for low-income people and that Europe’s greater emphasis on urban transit is more egalitarian. “For households making less than $20,000 per year, reliable cars are a pipe dream,” it says, “a huge expense that they can’t afford.” The reality is that the vast majority of households earning less than $20,00 per year own cars. According to the 2017 >National Household Travel Survey, 56.5 percent of households earning less than $10,000 a year have at least one car; as do 73.2 percent earning $10,000 to $15,000 a year; and 87.4 percent of those earning $15,000 to $25,000 a year.
As I’ve noted here before, the main obstacle to low-income people owning cars is not the cost of buying or operating them but the cost of financing them, as banks typically charge 20 percent interest to people with poor or no credit ratings who want a loan for buying a used car. Meanwhile, transit does low-income people more harm than good as it carried only 5 percent of low-income commuters to work in 2019 and most of the taxes used to subsidize transit are regressive.
Historically, transit has been the elite form of transportation while autos are egalitarian transport. Before Henry Ford’s mass produced Model Ts, only middle-class commuters could afford to take transit to work; working-class commuters mostly had to walk. The Model T “democratized transportation,” says demographer Wendell Cox, because it gave mobility to low-income working-class families.
By 1970, when cities and states were taking over private transit systems, most transit riders earned low incomes and ITDP’s argument might have been valid. But that was no longer the case by 2019, when more transit commuters earned over $65,000 a year than earned under $25,000 a year and the median incomes of transit commuters was greater than that of auto commuters. People who want socially just transportation should oppose transit subsidies and support increased auto ownership by offering low-interest loans to low-income households.
“In any case, even if Americans did spend more on transportation than Europeans, which it appears we don’t, we get more for our money”
Excep leisure time. American’s take shorter vacations, have more work hours and higher work related stress, it’s not that Europeans are lazy, American’s designed nightmare Post-War cities that are difficult to get around on foot or by non-automotive means.
Brutalism went up in Europe, because of economics, they squandered their wealth, bombed their cities, extirpated brightest minds and sank into political turmoil. Brutalism was an excellent reflection of that mindset, meant for better things, Assuming they’d be demolished til more suitable buildings went up. That never happened and They stained Europe for 60 years. Fortunately they were slowly demolished and newer buildings with traditionalist mindsets went in it’s place.
Brutalism went up in America because it served a purpose of corporate america who wanted ample space for offices/business, for as little money as possible.
Brutalism or it’s interpretation; went up in Japan post war. By 1945 Every city in Japan had largely been obliterated. Knowing full well space was a premium, wood being too vulnerable a building material to future natural disaster and lack of building material. Economy in shambles and need for housing paramount. Japan is a society unto itself who vested the thought of humbleness overcoming narcissism. So they designed their buildings and put forth. Despite the modernism, Japan’s culture of hygiene, manners and doing well with less, and finding beauty even in austere environments has personified it’s cities with the most utmost sense of respectful “Brutalism” ever. With Philosophy of Every square foot counts. A garden nestled between two industrial buildings. They turn their alley’s into their own personal spaces. I said it before. Care, concern, attention to detail….those aren’t trainable skills, they’re mindsets. People with those mindsets do well in services that benefit the public. In Japan they make the most of what they had. Tokyo’s not the prettiest city in the world, decades of mishmash architecture and aged concrete doesn’t help….but the society forced to live it in, Made it’s due. Density regardless.
Regardless of what you think of the automobile, good or bad, it’s overall effect is no different the any other transformative technology.
Cars pollute, there’s no beating around that bush but ALL industry pollutes.
The anti-car crowd derived from it’s roots 100+ years ago when they opposed the first suburbs ever built, car are better tools to alleviate poverty, but new wealth is a condition not applicable to those who despise “New Money” , because once you have an automobile you’re no longer locally geographically bound to a career and are free to pursue work or even a new residence elsewhere….which is what cities fear most; people fleeing. Rich Always try to enclave themselves somewhere. Anti sprawl is a buffer they don’t have to deal with the riff raff.
The automotive revolution and the building of the interstate allowed people to leave the geographic constraints of cities for better places. Transit is merely the methodology of urban planners to re-acclamate people back to urban appreciation. They failed. So their next option is to hire more planners and this time around, use the power of the law to craft the next “Liveability” standards.
This analysis didn’t factor in the cost associated with:
5 million + accidents a year
3 million accident injuries a year
2 million permanent injuries a year
40,000 deaths a year
A US crash death rate more than twice the average of other high-income countries
That’s just the US. Worldwide, 1.2 million deaths a year from car crashes, making cars the leading cause of death among young adults ages 15-29.
Amazing we haven’t had lockdowns to flatten this curve.
Please add these costs to the analysis and get back to me.
Ted wrote, “Amazing we haven’t had lockdowns to flatten this curve.”
It’s pretty flat already. US Automobile Fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles travelled annually, years 2010 through 2019 …
1.11, 1.10, 1.14, 1.10, 1.08, 1.15, 1.19, 1.16, 1.13 and 1.10.
For the years 1939 through 1945 it was around 10.
The last year with 40,000 or more vehicle deaths was 2007.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_vehicle_fatality_rate_in_U.S._by_year
ITDP makes a very important admission, 90+% of the transportion cost is due to the cost of the vehicle.
The problem w/ that cost is it’s largely voluntary. In western and northern Europe, the top 10 selling vehilces are all compact, subcompact and supermini. The most expensive of these have an MSRP in the $25K ballpark.
In the US, a few are compact SUVs and a subcompact, the Corolla. The top 3 sellers are full size pickup trucks, with MSRP’s in the low $30s and often selling for twice as much as those Euro superminis.
Just as Americans have high incomes and chooser bigger, better cars they also choose to buy more cars. A lot of folks could make do with a single car. The teenagers could go w/out a car. But it’s just easier + nicer to have more. It enables us to come and go as we please and spend a lot less time just getting from point A to B.
prk166 wrote, “ITDP makes a very important admission, 90+% of the transportion cost is due to the cost of the vehicle.”
Wikipedia tells us that according to the AAA, the average total costs for the average American driver to own and operate an automobile is $554 which includes $186 of depreciation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_costs
$186 is a lot less than 90% of $554.
The United States is a very large, spread out country. We have to drive more to get where we’re going and, yeah, we get in more car accidents because we drive a lot more:
TRANSPORTATION INTERNATIONA COMPARISONS
Vehicle kilometers traveled per capita is 14,000 in the US vs. half that in most high-income EU countries. But of course those EU countries are geographically tiny in comparison to the US and their cities were developed long before the advent of automobiles so it just makes sense that their citizens drive less.
Also, those EU countries tax the hell out of gasoline and car purchases, further reducing the affordable use of cars. Add those high taxes to the fact that per capita GDP (PPP) of the EU is almost 1/3 less than the US means that fewer people can afford cars and associated expenses in Europe than US citizens.
“Amazing we haven’t had lockdowns to flatten this curve.”
It’s pretty flat already.
Yes, in the US, but the US is not the world. Why do you hate Africans and Asians so much?
https://extranet.who.int/roadsafety/death-on-the-roads/#trends
And way to pick a teeny tiny part of my comment.
I’ll wait until someone can provide an analysis of costs that includes accidents, injuries, and deaths.
Ted wrote, “That’s just the US. Worldwide, 1.2 million deaths a year from car crashes, making cars the leading cause of death among young adults ages 15-29.”
… and …
“I’ll wait until someone can provide an analysis of costs that includes accidents, injuries, and deaths.” Ted might be waiting a while because there may be no such thing right now.
I can’t find worldwide costs that include accidents, injuries an deaths. That may be because in less developed areas, automobile deaths are pretty far down the lists of causes of death — they have bigger fish to fry. For example in a very interesting piece from the WHO titled “The top ten causes of death”, the category labeled, “Leading Causes of Death Globally”, Road Injury didn’t make the list.
In Low Income Countries it was seventh on the list at about 190,000 deaths. Lower Middle Income and Upper Middle Income Countries it was tenth at about 500,000 each and in High Income Countries it didn’t make the top ten.
My overall point is that the US and other high-income countries are pretty safe places to be travelling by car. Lower income countries have work to do and it may be that they need to implement the policies typical of High Income Countries.
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/the-top-10-causes-of-death
https://twitter.com/urbanthoughts11/status/1429352347826802688?s=20
Most US states have 2,3 or even FOUR times more road deaths per capita than any country in the EU.
So much for “socially just:”
Char Adams
June 22, 2021
Black people represented the largest increase in traffic deaths last year than any other racial group, even as Americans drove less overall due to the pandemic, according to recently released data.
An estimated 38,680 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2020 — the largest projected number of deaths since 2007, according the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The number of Black people who died in such crashes was up 23 percent from 2019, the largest increase in traffic deaths among racial groups, according to the administration’s report.
Leave aside the largest increase in traffic fatalities in 13 years. Blacks are overrepresented. (And yeah, likely because they tend to drive crappy cars while intoxicated on the way to a drive-by.)
And I guess the AP is not interested in factoring in deaths, accidents, injuries in the cost of driving. It doesn’t support his narrative.
As a result, Europeans are quite a bit poorer than Americans:
GDP Per Capita (PPP)
US: 68,309
EU: 46,888
All-caps aside, per capita is the obviously the wrong metric. Per vehicle miles/kilometers traveled, Belgium has exactly the same number of road deaths as the US. The Czech Republic has almost 60% more road deaths than the US on that distance traveled basis.
Outside of the EU, New Zealand has about the same number of road deaths per miles/KM traveled as the US while Mexico has four times the number.
“per capita is the obviously the wrong metric.”
why?
Admittedly the US has a high rate of gun deaths per capita. However, if you look at gun deaths *per million bullets fired at people*, the rate of gun deaths is no worse than other developed countries.
janehavisham, you’re being childish. VMTs is the single best metric for accidents + deaths.
Another problem with comparing europe with the US is age. Europe is falling off a demographic cliff. WHeen you’re old, ya don’t drive. And countries like France, Germany & co. make God’s Waiting Room, Florida, look young.
It doesn’t take into account how many miles driven. That is, a country where people travel 14,000 kilometers per year in cars is obviously going to have a higher per capita road death rate than a country where people travel only 7000 kilometers per year by car.
But you don’t have to imagine it. The distances traveled by car per year above are exactly how much US (former) and EU (latter) travel every year by car.
Probably not. Highest gun homicide rates per 100,000 population:
Venezuela 49
El Salvador 44
Eswatini 37
Jamaica 35
Honduras 29
Guatemala 25
Brazil 24
Colombia 20
United States 12
Uruguay 12
Mexico 12
Note that all but one are in Central or North America. I suspect it has to do with the racial and ethnic makeup of the population.
CapitalistRoader, why are you looking at deaths per capita rather than bullets fired? That’s the proper metric for looking at how to measure the amount of deaths a given technology causes.
prk166, if the number of road deaths per resident on your street or in your neighborhood quadrupled, but deaths per million miles traveled on your street or neighborhood stayed the same? You can imagine how deaths per resident could increase but deaths per miles traveled stayed the same: either a lot more traffic moving on your street, or traffic moving faster; most likely both. Would you think that’s an acceptable change to your street?
Suppose there was another street across town where the road deaths per resident were a quarter of the ones in yours. Which street would you want you and your family to live on – yours, or this other one, and why?
prk166: there’s almost no difference in fertility between US and Europe. Both have been declining for the past 60 years to the same rate of about 10 live births per 1000 people. See for yourself:
https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate
Unfortunately, they don’t have statistics for live births per million miles traveled.
I’d come to the logical conclusion that for some reason the residents on the crosstown street drove only 25% as much as the residents on my street. Perhaps that crosstown street is mainly occupied by a prison, and 75% of the residents were prisoners; prisoners who aren’t allowed to drive cars. And I’d definitely prefer to live in my street.
Kind of funny about poor folks not able to own an automobile. You don’t have to go very far from home in Portland Oregon to find homeless people living in RVs and also have a car parked nearby. These are folks not holding a job either. Now the state government wants to buy them (with taxpayer and ratepayer monies mind you), an Electric Vehicle – all in the name of Equity.
prk166, that makes sense, there’s probably a prison on that street, so best to avoid it. Same with countries in the EU with lower per-capita road deaths – it’s probably because of all the prisons over there.
Well, having traveled throughout Europe several times, I never noticed a surfeit of prisons.
What I did notice was that—compared to the United States—the countries in Europe are for the most part geographically tiny, the majority of its cities were developed hundreds of years before the advent of automobiles thus the streets tend to narrow and full of tight curves, and gasoline and cars are extremely expensive due to high taxation. No doubt those are the major reasons why Europeans drive half as much as Americans and why their per capita road deaths are somewhat lower.
This ain’t rocket science, Jane, just common sense. And, in fact, Europeans drive exactly 50% as much as Americans yet have 75% of Americans’ per capita road deaths. Wikipedia:
List of countries by traffic-related death rate
Europe: 9.3
United States: 12.4
“Geographically tiny” – the EU is half the size of the continental U.S., but the road deaths per capita (4.2) are 1/3 of the U.S (12.4). Your 9.3 is higher because you count non-EU countries and use older figures. The EU has made great strides in reducing road deaths in recent years:
https://ec.europa.eu/transport/modes/road/news/2021-04-20-road-safety-statistics-2020_en
while it creeps ever upward in the U.S.
https://ec.europa.eu/transport/modes/road/news/2021-04-20-road-safety-statistics-2020_en
Europe could make huge strides in reducing road deaths if they simply banned private automobiles. They currently drive only 1/2 as much as Americans but still suffer 3/4s of the United States’ road deaths per capita. Just think how safe road travel would be if they had no private cars at all!
It would be paradise, really. Waiting a half hour for a bus in the city or walking ten miles in the countryside to go to a store would be their patriotic duty for which citizens should joyfully embrace.
Jane, I suggest you study this handbook to further develop your statist transportation ambitions:
The Ideal Communist City