More Vehicles and Fewer Riders
As anyone who's had to endure a grueling commute can attest, there are more cars on the highways these days and fewer passengers riding in them.
Over 245 million cars and light-duty trucks (including passenger vans, sport-utility vehicles and pickups) are registered in the United States, and nearly three trillion miles are driven on American highways annually, according to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) - both are at their highest rates to date. "America is the most mobile nation in history," confirms Federal Highway Administrator J. Richard Capka.
Yet, as a recent BuyingAdvice.com household vehicle survey indicates, the nation's burgeoning fleet of vehicles is largely underutilized.
For starters, the BuyingAdvice.com survey confirms government statistics that there are more cars on the road than there are licensed motorists to drive them. For example, while 16.58 percent of respondents' own three vehicles, only 12.67 percent indicate there are likewise as many drivers (including full-time students) in their households. In total, 27.95 percent of respondents said their driveways held three or more models, but only 19.67 percent admitted to having three or more drivers.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that in 2005 (the most recent statistics available) there were around 200 million licensed drivers in the U.S. to pilot the aforementioned 245 million vehicles. By contrast, in 1977 the ratio was a little over 120 million cars and trucks to 127.5 million drivers.
While owning one car per family was the norm a generation or so ago, clearly the number of multi-car households is on the upswing. Thus it's also no surprise the BuyingAdvice.com household vehicle survey indicated that over 43 percent of all respondents were two-vehicle families; as mentioned above, 28 percent of all respondents' households said they had three or more vehicles parked on the premises.
Conventional wisdom might suggest that household fleets made up of three (or more) vehicles would include at least one "trophy" car - a convertible or some other impractical vehicle purchased as a personal reward. In fact the opposite is true. Market research indicates that multi-car owners are looking more for diversity and sensibility than they are for sheer automotive enjoyment. "Consumers are buying vehicles more specifically according to their needs and lifestyles," says David Green, an automotive analyst with the research firm J.D. Power and Associates. "Those adding third or fourth cars to their households are now most likely to choose compact cars for more fuel-efficient commutes and large pickups for their inherent utility."
To be sure, small cars like the Mini Cooper, Honda Fit and Nissan Versa are making the compact segment increasingly upscale to accommodate economy-minded buyers who don't want to drive a stripped-down "econobox" to save money at the pump. Concurrently, so-called four-door "club cab" models dominate the pickup market these days because they combine the passenger friendliness of an SUV with the ability to carry active lifestyle gear or home-improvement materials without soiling the vehicle's interior.
Unfortunately, the survey also confirmed that our burgeoning automotive population is far from pulling its weight in terms of passenger capacity, which tends to adversely affect issues like local traffic congestion and air pollution and our nation's dependency on foreign oil.
Though more than 54 percent of those completing the BuyingAdvice.com survey own vehicles that are able to carry five or more passengers, the overwhelming majority - over 75 percent - admitted to "seldom" or "never" having every seat filled (57.81 and 17.53 percent, respectively). Not surprisingly, the most recent data available from the FHWA indicates that the average household vehicle trip involves an average of about 1.75 passengers at a time. What's more, the U.S. Department of Transportation finds that over 79 percent of all commuters drive solo to their jobs, while only around nine percent carpool.
Published on Monday, October 8, 2007 - Email to a friend
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