Number of the Day: 168.03 Million Motor Vehicles in China

Special Interest Areas transportation
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For those of you who value statistics and research as an impetus to your design process
you may want to consider the following for future transportation concepts in regards to function
in an urban environment and the infrastructure of the energy network to ensure your concepts
can meet the demands of reality 5 to 10 years from now:

168.03 Million – That’s the number of motor vehicles on China’s roads.
The figure cover automobiles, motorcycles, tractors, trailers and other motor vehicles.

By comparison, the US had 250,851,833 registered motor vehicles in 2006
according to a Department of Transportation study(in 1960: 74.4 million).

8.26 million – In the past year, 8.26 million motor vehicles were added to China’s roads,
a 5.17% increase.

By comparison, between 2005 and 2006, the number of motor vehicles on US roads increased by 1.38%.

127.68 million – That’s the number of private motor vehicles in China, about 76% of total,
but their increase is faster than non-private vehicles.

Minus 1.4% – But, according to a piece in the Wall Street Journal,
sales of passenger vehicles in China fell 1.4% year-on-year in September,
marking the second straight month of declines.

“A total of 552,800 vehicles were sold, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
Sales had fallen 6.3% in August, the first decline in more than three years.
However, taken together, sales in the January-September period rose 11.4% year-on-year, to 5.1 million units.”

via Treehugger.com / Xinhuanet


The graphic below represents a breakdown in the type of transportation used by the commuting population in America.
It was really interesting to see that more people actually walked than taking public transit.


http://www.bts.gov/publications/highlights_of_the_2001_national_household_travel_survey/html/figure_06.html

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Remember there are social and infrastructure reasons for this Jerry.

Social: the US has a large suburban population. This sprawl complicates quality mass transit systems outside dense urban areas. Plus, Americans like cars.

Infrastructure: In France, every city with 500,000+ residents has a subway. I know that Phoenix doesn’t have one at a population of 2 million and I know that its not alone.

China is different. China is increasingly urban, not suburban. Also, labor is still cheap, so large mass transit projects can be done at a reasonable cost to the government. For example, the last three subway stations in Montreal cost more to construct than the original subway line of something like 12 stations (built in the '60’s).