Determinants of Automobile Use: Comparison of Germany and the United States
Germany and the United States have among the highest motorization rates in the world, yet Americans make a 40% higher share of their trips by car and annually drive twice as many kilometers per capita as do Germans. Automobile use is linked to unsustainable trends such as climate change, oil dependence, traffic fatalities, congestion, and obesity. Using two comparable individual-level national travel surveys, the study described in this paper empirically investigates the roles of socioeconomic and demographic factors, spatial development patterns, and transportation policies in explaining the differences in automobile use in Germany and the United States. In both countries, a higher population density, a greater mix of land uses, household proximity to a transit stop, fewer cars per household, and higher car operating costs are associated with shorter daily automobile travel distances. However, considerable differences remain: for example, Americans in settlements of more than 5,000 people per square kilometer drive as many kilometers as Germans in settlements with a density five times lower. A multivariate analysis shows that population density and automobile operating costs play roles in explaining differences in travel when controlling for socioeconomic factors. This is good news for the United States, because denser, more mixed-use developments and more automobile-restrictive policies can help increase the sustainability of the transportation system. In Germany, travel behavior is more homogeneous across all groups of society and in all spatial settlement patterns than in the United States. This is potentially related to historically higher gasoline prices and the greater availability of alternative means of transportation, which provide incentives for walking, cycling, and transit use.
- Record URL:
- Summary URL:
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Availability:
- Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://www.trb.org/Main/Blurbs/Energy_and_Global_Climate_Change_2009_163018.aspx
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Authors:
- Buehler, Ralph
- Publication Date: 2009
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Print
- Features: Figures; References; Tables;
- Pagination: pp 161-171
- Monograph Title: Energy and Global Climate Change 2009
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Serial:
- Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
- Issue Number: 2139
- Publisher: Transportation Research Board
- ISSN: 0361-1981
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Automobile travel; Automobiles; Demographics; Gasoline; Multivariate analysis; Operating costs; Population density; Prices; Socioeconomic factors; Sustainable transportation; Transportation policy; Travel behavior; Travel surveys; Vehicle miles of travel
- Uncontrolled Terms: Comparative analysis
- Geographic Terms: Germany; United States
- Subject Areas: Economics; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Society; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01128635
- Record Type: Publication
- ISBN: 9780309142694
- Report/Paper Numbers: 09-0676
- Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
- Created Date: May 19 2009 7:48AM