The Surprising Results of Comparing Car Ownership Across Cities

Although most people could probably guess the cities where residents own the fewest cars per household, it's surprising to find that Seattle residents own more cars than Atlanta residents.

1 minute read

July 31, 2016, 9:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Two-Car Garage

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Angie Schmitt offers "an interesting glimpse at car ownership in a cross-section of American and Canadian cities, courtesy of a new report from the Shared Use Mobility Center (SUMC).

Of particular interest to Schmitt was a table showing the number of cars per household in 27 cities (25 in the United States and one in Canada), of varying size. "Among these 27 cities, household car ownership is lowest in New York, Washington, Boston, Philadelphia, Buffalo, San Francisco, and Toronto," according to Schmitt, but there are surprises to be found. Seattle's car ownership is higher than Atlanta's, and Portland residents own more cars than Miami residents, for instance.

Schmitt posted a separate article on another of the report's findingsaccess to "shared-use" car and bike systems "[remai]n limited in communities of color compared to majority-white neighborhoods..."

Friday, July 29, 2016 in Streetsblog USA

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

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