Survey: Households with More Cars Hit the Road More Often
Want to travel more? It helps to have more cars.
A new report finds families with more cars are likely to travel more frequently.
According to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Household Travel Survey (NHTS), households with only one vehicle traveled an average of 10,600 miles each year. Meanwhile, households with a second vehicle traveled 23,700 miles annually.
But even in those households, one car was likely to do most of the work, with 16,000 of those miles traveled in the vehicle with the higher odometer reading.
The more cars a household has, the more miles are traveled per household each year.
Households with six vehicles traveled the most, accruing 57,700 miles per year. Among six vehicle households, over 22,000 miles were traveled in the most-used vehicle.
One- and two-vehicle households account for 68 percent of all households nationwide, and only 1 percent of households have six cars.
Only 9 percent of households nationwide do not have a vehicle. Meanwhile, Boston has a very low rate of car ownership compared to the national average.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Boston has the third lowest rate of car ownership after New York and Washington, D.C. In 2012, almost 40 percent of Boston households were without a car, a slight increase from 2007.
The NHTS is a periodic national study that gauges travel behavior in order to help transportation planners and policy makers make more informed decisions. The most recent data comes from 2009.
The survey looks at trips taken by households and individuals in those households based on 24-hour periods. The survey also measures the purpose of all trips, method of transportation, travel time, and day of the week.
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