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statistics
TRANSPORTATION STATISTICS
Average cost of car ownership is 53 cents per mile
per 10,000 miles a year (American Auto Association)
The average new car costs amost $20,000
New car operational costs - $6000 a year (payments, insurance, depreciation, maintenance, fuel)
A 1998 car will cost an average of $37,322 to own and operate for five years. (Complete Car Cost Guide)
Average American household spends $16.48 a day or 1 out of every 6 dollars for the family fleet of cars. (American
Demographics) |
The true cost of a gallon of gasoline is $15.14 (11/20/98) if
federal, state tax subsidies given to oil companies and other costs involved in producing gasoline are included.
(International Center for Technology Assessment)
7 of 10 Americans would switch to more fuel efficient vehicles if gas prices increased to $2.09 per gallon. (AutoPacific
Reseach Company)
JD Powers & Associates predicts market of 400,000 EVs by 2003 (AP)
Auto Statistics
36% of American households own 1 car, 35% own 2 cars,
20% own 3 or more cars (average of 1.77 cars per household)
A parked car requires 300 square feet of space.
A car traveling at 39 mph requires 3000 sq ft (lane width plus braking distance)
Between 25% to as much as 60% of the urban landscape is devoted to automobile use
Economic Impacts
1/5th of the US gross domestic product is dependent
on the auto industry. In 1998 there are 670 million vehicles in the world. (Tom Gross Deputy Assistant Secretary
for Transportation Technologies with the US Department of Energy)
50% of the oil and 1/3 of all automobiles sold in the USA are imported (Institute of Self-Reliance)
Imported oil accounts for 60% of our trade deficit
The USA consumes 17 billion gallons of gasoline a year
One out of six US jobs is auto related
The auto industry consumes 60% of the oil, 50% of the rubber, 67% of the iron, 20% of the electronics and aluminum
and 20% of the carpeting used in the USA.
Drivers in the US use an average of 500 gallons of gasoline a year
Americans spend $158 billion for new and used cars, $89 billion for gas, $34 billion for tires, $20 billion for
insurance, $6 billion in auto registration fees, and $68 billion for parking and storage (American Automobile manufacturers
Association)
The USA imports $50 billion in oil each year.
Military defense of Middle East oil costs the US $50 billion a year (Cato Institute)
Safety Statistics
In New York City the fire department responded to
14,000 calls for car accidents and 8,700 car fires (15% of all fires in New York are cars fires)
In 1988, air pollution cost the US economy $50 billion in health care costs. (American Red Cross, American Lung
Association)
Auto crashes in 1994 cost the USA $150.5 billion in medical expenses and damaged property (Transportation Secretary
Federico Pena)
43,000 people are killed in auto accidents each year in the United States (120 people a day) and 2 million people
are disabled.
1/4 of 1% of in-city accidents are fatal (City of Eugene 1995 collision index)
Oil Dependency
There are approximately 8400 gallons of oil left
for each person on the planet today.
OPEC will control 30% of known oil reserves in Y2K, in ten years they will control 40%. ( from data in The End
of Cheap Oil Scientific American March 1998)
Oil companies are now operating on razor thin levels of crude oil stacks because it saves inventory and storage
costs. (John Lichtblau, chairman of the Petroleum Industry Research Foundation)
Only 7% of world oil reserves is owned by the oil companies
Russia is dumping 3.1 million barrels of oil a day into the market to offset deficits.
The USA is opening up its last reserves in Alaska to reduce the imported oil deficit.
Iraq is sitting on untapped oil reserves due to economic boycott. Presumably available at a premium price unless
the UN economic boycott ends soon.
Japan is expanding control of South American oil reserves to boost reserves to 50 million kilolitres of oil. (12.5
billion gallons)
BP (British Petroleum) just bought Amaco Oil to become worlds largest oil company BP is also the largest developer
of solar power.
The CEO of BP has reportedly stated that the "oil is going, going, gone".
Former head of ARCO Oil, Robert Anderson stated "It (the oil industry) is a sunset industry, and the sun is
low in the sky"
Lee Iaccoca, former Chairman of the Board of Chrysler Corp. has formed a new company to manufacture light electric
vehicles, "...an idea whose time has come" |
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