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This is also applicable to Germany and Italy. Outside of the cities, public transport tends to be rather "rare" and "unpopular". I mean no resident needs a car in a dense and vibrant inner-city district when there are two metro stations and six bus stops nearby. The bicycle also has a high status in that type of areas. However, people in villages, rural counties and small-towns just need a car to get from A to B because there is no real bus or regional train service.
In the case of Germany, it is also one of the "Automobile" nations where a good car isn't just a transport vehicle but also part of the "freedom", the standard or the quality of life. Hermann from Bavaria or Heinz from Lower Saxony just tend to love their Volkswagen, BMW or Mercedes Benz.
I agree the same can be said in the UK, for me I love cars so I am biased I guess towards public transport as in my eyes it could never compete with a car especially when it comes to freedom.
Well Oz seems so car dominated, and Italy and Germany are not far behind. That's still a very high rate of ownership, stop quibbling over numbers.
How is that quibbling over numbers? The entire thing is numbers.
The other thing with numbers that is probably more telling is average miles driven per capita. That's where the big differences come in, because having a car doesn't mean you constantly use it. Having a car just makes certain tasks more convenient.
Well outside of London I wouldn't say the UK has good public transport most of the cities that have trams service only the city and inner areas known as the trams to nowhere.
This is changing though as there are major tram expansions occurring across the UK - especially in Manchester and Nottingham, where the trams now (or will) extend beyond the cities themselves and into bordering towns.
As for car ownership being high - I can't speak for Germany or Italy, but even though the bigger cities might have rail and trams, smaller towns and cities do not so will rely on cars more. Plus, some people might own cars, but will only use them for long-distance travel or leisure, while going to work on the train or whatever else. Also you need to remember that the car still has the highest share of usage for commuting even in London (even though the underground+train+bus outnumber the car together).
Countries like Italy, Germany, the UK, Japan.etc are all known for having compact cities, good public transport and walkable cities, yet their rate of car ownership is almost the same as that of countries like the US or Australia with the sprawling cities...why is that? Is owning a car still a status thing, or do people just enjoy using it to go for drives out to the country? Is public transport still not that good in some of these places or is it just plain laziness? I think in Europe, at least, cars aren't so big as in the US and aren't as used as much, so the impact is quite a bit less than ownership rates would suggest.
Italy, Germany, UK, Japan, US and Australia are all developed nations where even "poor" people can afford cars....
How is that quibbling over numbers? The entire thing is numbers.
The other thing with numbers that is probably more telling is average miles driven per capita. That's where the big differences come in, because having a car doesn't mean you constantly use it. Having a car just makes certain tasks more convenient.
This might be of more assistance, and makes interesting viewing
Obviously I can not say how correct these are, I find in hard to believe than an average american could burn almost twice as much fuel per year than your average Australian.
Obviously I can not say how correct these are, I find in hard to believe than an average american could burn almost twice as much fuel per year than your average Australian.
The average car in the U.S. is driven about 15,000 miles per year. The comparable figure in Australia, coincidentally, is about 15,000 km per year. That accounts for much of the difference; the rest is probably due to the prevalence of gas-guzzling vehicles like pickup trucks and SUVs here.
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