542 vehicles per 1,000 people .... not 359/1000

EurasiaEndtoEnd · 25-03-2008 3:25pm #1

I have only posted once on the Boards and that was in the Property Bubble Bursting thread. However, I am an avid reader of this Commuting and Transport Board. One thing I have noticed mentioned here and elsewhere is how low Ireland's car ownership level still is.
Googling the figure or checking on Wikipedia leads us to figures of 360 or so vehicles per 1,000 people for Ireland. This is way down the European ranking and something like 26th world-wide. But when I return to Cork from Japan on holidays, I see levels of traffic that lead me to believe that 360/1,000 must be very out of date.
I downloaded the Road Collision Facts 2006 report from the Road Safety Authority and when I was looking through it I came on figures that confirmed my suspicions. Buried on Pdf page number 55 (or Report page 39 ) is a table giving the population of each county and the number of vehicles registered therein. To mention a sample ... the list starts with Carlow. Pop. = 50,000, Vehicles 33,000 ... ergo 660/1,000. Nationally it works out at 542/1,000.
Am I making some mistake ? I don't know how to post links or screen shots of the Pdf. Maybe someone could investigate and make some refinements to this thread which make my point easier to understand ( if I am correct ! ). And maybe someone could update Wikipedia too.
If this is correct then it explains SO much of the congestion and sprawl. Which is the chicken and which is the egg ?

seamus · 25-03-2008 3:31pm

Are all of the figures however relating to private vehicle ownership? Or is that a figure of 542 vehicles per 1000, including trucks, vans, busses, tractors, etc?

EurasiaEndtoEnd · 25-03-2008 3:39pm

seamus wrote: »

Are all of the figures however relating to private vehicle ownership? Or is that a figure of 542 vehicles per 1000, including trucks, vans, busses, tractors, etc?

Yes, I think so. But the previous figure of 360/1,000 was also for also trucks etc. etc. so it does show a massive increase. And I think international statistics will also show such figures so we are comparing like with like. And in the last 15 months the figure must have gone up again ( as will other countries' ).

Victor · 26-03-2008 2:25pm

The wiki figures seem to be badly out of date.

Stark · 26-03-2008 2:30pm

Do you have the Wikipedia link? I'd believe the RSA report over Wikipedia personally, especially if there's no source cited for the Wikipedia figure. It might be worth updating the Wikipedia article yourself and including a reference to the RSA report.

EurasiaEndtoEnd · 26-03-2008 2:42pm

Stark wrote: »

Do you have the Wikipedia link? I'd believe the RSA report over Wikipedia personally, especially if there's no source cited for the Wikipedia figure. It might be worth updating the Wikipedia article yourself and including a reference to the RSA report.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_vehicles_per_capita

This list is on Wikipedia and elsewhere on the internet.

Victor · 26-03-2008 2:43pm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_vehicles_per_capita whose source is http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/tra_mot_veh-transportation-motor-vehicles whose source is United Nations World Statistics Pocketbook and Statistical Yearbook, which don't seem to be online.

Many of the Nationmaster stats (for other stuff) seems to be from publications 3-5 years old with the data being older than that again.

Look at the discussion http://www.nationmaster.com/discussion/graph-T/tra_mot_veh

EurasiaEndtoEnd · 29-03-2008 12:28pm

Region Pop Vehicles per 1000

South-East 461,000 277,000 603
South-West 621,000 362,000 583
Mid-West 361,000 208,000 576

Mid-East 475,000 264,000 556
Midland 251,000 139,000 554
West 415,000 228,000 549

Border 468,000 246,000 526
Dublin 1,187,000 573,000 483

National 4,240,000 2,296,000 542
National excl Dublin 3,053,000 1,723,000 564

These are figures I came up with while looking at the RSA figures.

•The top three regions all have vehicle ownership levels above the national average excluding Dublin of 564/1000.
•The next group of three regions have ownership levels above the national average of 542.
•The last two regions, Border and Dublin are below the national average.

EurasiaEndtoEnd · 08-04-2008 4:00am

These figures show the rate of vehicle ownership per 1,000 residents on a county basis. I can understand Dublin's low level, since it has Ireland's best developed public transport system. Louth's lower level is intriguing. Any possible explanations ?

per/1,000County Population Vehicles

660 Carlow 50,000 33,000
636 Tipperary NR 66,000 42,000
614 Wexford 132,000 81,000
602 Tipperary SR 83,000 50,000
595 Clare 111,000 65,000
593 Roscommon 59,000 35,000
586 Kerry 140,000 82,000
586 Leitrim 29,000 17,000
582 Cork 481,000 280,000
580 Kilkenny 88,000 51,000
574 Waterford 108,000 62,000
574 Sligo 61,000 35,000
565 Meath 163,000 92,000
563 Wicklow 126,000 71,000
563 Cavan 64,000 36,000
560 Longford 34,000 19,000
557 Westmeath 79,000 44,000
556 Mayo 124,000 69,000
553 Laois 67,000 37,000
549 Limerick 184,000 101,000
549 Offaly 71,000 39,000
543 Kildare 186,000 101,000
536 Monaghan 56,000 30,000
534 Galway 232,000 124,000
517 Donegal 147,000 76,000
483 Dublin 1,187,000 573,000
468 Louth 111,000 52,000

08-04-2008 5:14am

EurasiaEndtoEnd wrote: »

Louth's lower level is intriguing. Any possible explanations ?

Lower Income?, greater Average age? i.e. greater proportion of elderly people, are the first things that spring to mind.

Stark · 08-04-2008 9:50am

Are NI regs included in the figure?

Victor · 08-04-2008 9:57pm

Indeed Stark.

It may also be down to (a) large young population under 18 (b) higher than average number of train commuters who don't have cars.

542 vehicles per 1,000 people .... not 359/1000

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