I often see comments here like "there are more cars on the road than there used to be". I was sufficiently interested to prod about, and found this:
www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_transstats/docu...f
Sorry if it's been posted before - didn't find it in a search.
I'm absolutely not any kind of statistician but a casual glance at the figures SEEM to show that there are not in fact, over the 90s, really many more cars at all. But there are some interesting numbers in there for any stats fans.
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Good article, and I haven't read every word of it, but with statements that in 2000 there are more households with two or more cars than no car are you sure about your conclusions?
It's a bit disappointing that it keeps talk about two or more as one big increase I have noticed is the number of households with more cars than drivers (weekend cars) - not that they are often worth much.
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Not sure I've time to read all 134 pages, but are we talking about cars owned, or cars on the road? However many you have in the garage, you can only drive one at a time...
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Where I live the trapik (as it's known) is monstrous. Without you visiting here I couldn't adequaltely describe it in any meaningful for. Stats, well I doubt anyone has any meaningful ones.
Some years ago an ordinance was passed forbidding the use of your vehicle on certain days of the week. For example plate numbers 1 and 2 are banned Mondays, 3 & 4 Tuesdays etc. Despite what you read there is considerable prosperity in the Philippines -- in the capital at least - along with (relatively) cheap and easy borrowing.
What happened? Darn it, you're ahead of me already. Families just bought an extra vehicle with a different licence plate for what are now known as "bad number days". Result? Trapik as bad or worse, dumb bureaucrats scratching their ulterior parts wondering what went wrong. Motor dealers punching out new models as fast as they can and laughing all the way to the bank.
People want their wheels. Governments should be looking at ways of accommodating that demand, they're supposed to be representative of the people who put them there (OK, OK, I know...), not restricting vehicle use.
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You mean you can't just buy extra licence plates..? :-}
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I agree with JBJ - multiple cars in a family means nothing - it's the number of yer actual drivers on yer actual roads that counts, and I read the numbers to say that the population is pretty steady and the number of licensed drivers is pretty steady, so therefore the number of cars on the road must be pretty steady? Still, I well know stats can prove anything so I'm quite prepared to be shown in numpty language how the opposite view is true.
But anyway, the figures also seem to show a healthy and stable state of public transport, so what do I know?
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Perhaps the most basic property of statistics is that people accept the ones they like and refuse to believe the others. An everyday example of this is the interviewed politician saying "but the true fact of the matter is .." - cue opposite statistic disproving the previous one.
"therefore the number of cars on the road must be pretty steady". Possibly true - I suspect that for some time most people wanting a vehicle have owned one (or more). What may have changed is the hours/day that those cars are on the road, as drivers travel ever further to jobs or on business. For whatever reason, congestion is claimed to be increasing, which itself adds to those hours.
How about more teleworking?
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What may have changed is the hours/day that those cars are on the road, as drivers travel ever further to jobs or on business.
Those stats do show a steady growth in mileage per car, with journeys getting longer.
Quite agree with your point about teleworking. Cutting out unnecessary meetings etc doesn't just save miles, it reduces stress and improves productivity.
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