Proud to live in the absolute lowest car-owning city. And I’m honestly surprised that it’s almost half! So few people who I know own cars. But there are big outer areas that are basically suburbs and I assume the ownership is higher there.
this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2023
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It is really ironic and kind of inspiring that Detroit is 18th from the bottom with only 3 of 4 people owning a vehicle.
Knowing the actual public transportation options here its pretty sad. They are expanding bus services but getting around the city requires either a bike or a car.
This doesn't seem to discriminate between people who choose not to own a car and people who can't afford to own a car.
In conclusion, North California is a land of contrasts
Makes sense for AZ. It takes about 3hrs to drive from Queen Creek to Buckeye (that’s going east to west in Phoenix). And neither of those suburbs/towns have bus routes. Farthest east you can take the bus is Chandler/Mesa and the farthest west is Avondale, you’re still 30-45min away from Queen Creek and about 15 from Buckeye. The farthest north is Peoria which is still the inner city, not sure about south because no one goes to south Phoenix lmao (iykyk).
Kansas City just got shit on
Where the hell do you think Detroit is
Also this is partially a map of “who can’t afford a car”
The city I'm in is listed (more car ownership) and I'm fairly confident the same reason for all of those higher ownership cities is the same.
Northeastern cities grew before the advent of the car and needed mass transit to function.
No one wanted to sweat their butts off in southern cities, so those only grew after residential air conditioning became more available. This was around the 50's and tracks with when these cities expanded.
Because the predominant mode of transportation at the time was cars, you have cities that were developed that way with the interstate highway program helping.
Lastly, General Motors also put their hand in there to ensure more sales (in multiple cities). There's a good documentary on what they did in Los Angeles. The folks of that city can thank GM every time they waste away on the 405.
The biggest reson for this is probably area density...the areas with fewest cars per capita are the places where things are geographically condensed,which makes public transport a viable alternative. Most southern cities are simply too spread out for public trans to be economically viable, and so having more vehicles is more pertinent.
I'm surprised you didn't make low vehicle ownership green and high vehicle ownership pollution-colored.