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Page added on September 16, 2015
People can’t imagine life without cars
A majority of people around the world could not imagine living their lives without a car, according to a study released Wednesday at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
The findings by the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (OICA), a group that defends the various interests of the car industry, revealed that 57% of people globally would find life harder or more challenging without access to four wheels.
OICA concluded that that 78% of people in Africa cannot imagine living their lives without a car, 63% in the Americas, 56% in Europe and 48% in Asia. The Paris-based organization surveyed 14,000 people in 18 countries.
“The conclusions are quite clear and positive, with the car seen as an object of desire, providing many important advantages compared to any other transport mode: globally, consumers view the car as comfortable, practical, fast, safe, and future-oriented,” said Matthias Wissmann, president of the German Association of the Automotive Industry and an OICA vice-president, in a statement.
“Also the industry itself scores extremely high and is largely considered as an industry that can be trusted and is innovative,” Wissmann said.
The study concluded that global consumers generally believe that the car industry is “doing its job” when it comes to investing in technologies that reduce carbon emissions and support renewable energy sources.
“There’s been a lot of effort by different companies bringing different technologies” to the emissions problem, Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn — who is also president of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) — told reporters in Frankfurt on Wednesday.
“We will we do what we can to get results at COP21,” he added.
COP21 is a United Nations-sponsored conference on climate change that will take place in Paris in December. Reducing long-terms carbon emissions from cars and other major infrastructure is one of its goals.
Erik Jonnaert, ACEA’s secretary-general, said Wednesday that the car industry is currently responsible for a 5% reduction in total global emissions. He said that was ahead of other industries.
The OICA study found that the car industry also largely enjoys a positive reputation despite a spate of highly publicized vehicle recalls involving nearly all major manufacturers.
That’s in large part because today’s cars are safer and more reliable than ever. In the U.S., road fatalities have dropped sharply, while vehicle dependability ratings are at all-time highs.
The car’s reign may still nevertheless be under threat, as a growing number of people live where car ownership is difficult, unnecessary and even dangerous.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 54% of the world’s population lives in urban centers — and that number is expected to grow to 66% by 2050.
In dense, city areas, congestion often means that owning a car is both inefficient and cost prohibitive, and urban dwellers regularly turn to public transit and car-and-ride-sharing services to get where they need to go.
In cities such as New York and Tokyo, the automobile is often the slowest way to get from one place to another.
Further, the regions where the OICA survey showed car ownership to be most coveted — in Africa, at 78% — correspond to places where public transit infrastructure is least developed.
Even as urbanization increases in Africa, inadequate access to mass transit and growing sprawl means that even city-dwellers depend on private vehicles. Road fatalities have also sharply increased in the developing world, as more individuals have access to cars.
According to the WHO, car accidents are now the fifth leading cause of death in developing countries, and vehicle-related air pollution is an increasing threat to human health.
Meanwhile, in the U.S. car sales have risen as the economy has rebounded and gas prices have dropped.
According to Autodata, analysts project that Americans will buy 17.8 million new vehicles in 2015, and new car sales in August were the best they’ve been for any month in a decade.
Globally, demand for new passenger cars was up 1.4% to 36.1 million in the first half of this year, with that modest rise driven mainly by consumer demand in China where rapid economic growth has slowed in recent months.
79 Comments on "People can’t imagine life without cars"
Plantagenet on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 1:34 pm
Billions of poor people in India, Africa, South America and Asia imagine life without cars quite nicely, thank you. In fact, they even live life without cars.
And tens of millions of affluent people in the USA and EU live life without cars. They choose to live in cities near their jobs so they can get by using bicycles and mass transit for all their transportation needs.
In the future I predict the number of people living without cars will continue to grow. Do any of the benighted posters here dispute that prediction?
CHEERS!
apneaman on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 1:46 pm
They choose to? Sure planty and if they won the lotto they would choose to buy a Hummer a couple of McMansions and go Carbon spewing jetting all over the planet just because. Then they would plant a few “carbon offset” trees and sleep like babies.
Aire on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 1:47 pm
One of the few things I agree with Mister or Miss Planty
Although your prediction seems to be vague. About when will this be the case and how many cars are you predicting will be driven on a daily basis. That might be too specific but who will be driving ??
Plantagenet on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 1:54 pm
Thank you Aire. YOu are one of the most sensible posters here.
Meanwhile poor ol Apeman struggles to understand the concept of someone choosing to live without a car by electing to ride a bicycle and take mass transit instead.
Hahahahaha!
Cheeers!
apneaman on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 1:55 pm
Miss Daisy
Plantagenet on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 1:59 pm
@Aire
as to the specifics and timing of my prediction that more people will choose to live without owning cars—its all dependent on Moore’s law.
Let me explain: The car industry is facing technological disruption. Its common knowledge that Google, Apple and other high tech companies are developing driverless cars. This will become de facto mass transit. In the future people will more easily be able to live without cars because they will be able to rely on walking, bicycling, mass transit and driverless taxi cars (these will be EVs by the way) summoned via cell phone app to take care of ALL their transportation needs.
Get it now?
CHEERS!
apneaman on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 2:07 pm
Planty, you mean I don’t understand how I chose to sell my truck a few years ago when I moved back to the city even though I did not have to? and how I now take mass transit? and eat very little meat and all the rest of that bullshit I did that will not make one damn bit of difference while you go jetting off to India and the like then come on here with your finger wagging and holier than thou bullshit? No planty I think I understand perfectly. You’re a self styled fake compassionate conservative who is completely full of shit. Just say a few PC enviro talking points so you can come off like you are a upstanding responsible citizen who cares. You’re a phony cunt and not fooling anyone. You would be much happier if you stopped pretending.
apneaman on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 2:16 pm
planty why don’t you combine the never ending Flying Cars empty promise with the Driverless Cars empty promise and have a twofer? Flying driverless cars on Mars in 2020 – Elon said so.
apneaman on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 2:36 pm
Transportation Infrastructure: Moving America
“Infrastructure is critical to economic growth, but the aging U.S. transportation system suffers from insufficient investment. As this CFR Progress Report and Scorecard, Road to Nowhere, explains, other nations are building new highways as the United States’ crumble. U.S. transportation fell from fifth in the World Economic Forum’s rankings in 2002 to twenty-fourth in 2011, passed by nations such as Spain, South Korea, and Oman. Making a U-turn will take some time since major infrastructure projects require several years to plan and execute.
The decline can be attributed to a general trend of under-investment in infrastructure; the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has only awarded overall grades of D or D+ to U.S. infrastructure in all five report cards issued from 1998 to 2013. Current infrastructure requires more investment—for instance, one in nine U.S. bridges are structurally deficient—while new projects are needed to address issues such as road congestion, which costs American drivers $101 billion annually in wasted time and fuel, and airport delays that are a $22 billion drag on the economy.
While experts have been warning about crumbling infrastructure for more than a decade, the federal government has not addressed underinvestment. The Obama administration has attempted to prioritize transportation infrastructure by making it the second largest component of the 2009 Recovery Act, and proposing the GROW AMERICA Act to provide four years of comprehensive funding to modernize highways, railways, and mass transit. But the former was a temporary measure and the latter is unlikely to gain traction in Congress. Aside from the Recovery Act and a two-year reauthorization plan passed in 2012, Congress has only passed short-term reauthorizations to keep the Highway Trust Fund afloat.”
http://www.cfr.org/infrastructure/transportation-infrastructure-moving-america/p18611
GregT on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 2:37 pm
“Meanwhile poor ol Apeman struggles to understand the concept of someone choosing to live without a car by electing to ride a bicycle and take mass transit instead.”
Having 2 young adult children, and listening to them and their friends, they ‘choose’ to live without cars because they can’t afford them. Every last one of them would be driving a Porsche, if they could. And for most of them, the only reason why they remain poor renters in the city, is because they have chosen to pursue the career paths that they have spent so much time and money on, and because they have huge debts to pay off.
apneaman on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 2:44 pm
Presenting America’s $900 Billion Auto Loan Bubble In 6 Charts
Average loan term for new cars is now 67 months — a record.
Average loan term for used cars is now 62 months — a record.
Loans with terms from 74 to 84 months made up 30% of all new vehicle financing — a record.
Loans with terms from 74 to 84 months made up 16% of all used vehicle financing — a record.
The average amount financed for a new vehicle was $28,711 — a record.
The average payment for new vehicles was $488 — a record.
The percentage of all new vehicles financed accounted for by leases was 31.46% — a record
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-21/presenting-americas-900-billion-auto-loan-bubble-6-charts
Plantagenet on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 2:58 pm
@GregT
Hmmmmm—You don’t understand either.
Yes, there are people who can’t afford cars.
But there are also people who could easily buy a car but choose not to because they want to reduce their carbon footprint or otherwise simplify their life.
AND, as mass transit improves and the disruptive technology of driverless cars starts to break down the traditional model of people owning their own cars, we are likely to see more and more people choosing to live without cars.
CHEERS!
Davy on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 3:12 pm
Planter stop it, you are hurting my common sense. Your mass transit shit is dead. If it was a scenario of simple, slow, and low tech that would be different. Instead you are pushing the opposit that has no future. Your crew are done planter. Your are a museum piece and example of all that went wrong with the world. Driverless cars give me a friggen break. High tech is a dead man walking.
Plantagenet on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 3:16 pm
HI DAVY
I’m sorry to see you are amoung the people who can’t imagine life without cars.
Thats OK. We can have different opinions I trust.
Have a great day!
Cheers!
bug on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 3:31 pm
“And, as mass transit improves ”
Oh my, hahahahahaha
When, and in what area did this “mass transit” improvement occur?
HARM on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 3:31 pm
Planter is right. I live in one of the most affluent regions of the country (SF Bay area) and lots of well paid professionals here have chosen to go carless (or nearly so) b/c transit does not require impossible to find and/or prohibitively expensive parking spaces, and there are tons of alternatives: Uber, Lyft, SideCar, BART, Muni, your feet, etc.
Of course, out in the suburbs and exurbs where car alternatives and mass transit is slim to none, that’s a different story. Nonetheless, rideshare alternatives are quickly proliferating and spreading to mid-size cities now.
Plantagenet on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 3:40 pm
@HARM
You are 100% right. The Bay Area has SPECTACULAR mass transit—I lived in Berkeley for years and it was a joy to see how a modern mass transit system could be be developed. LA is building a tram system tight now. Portland had built a wonderful tram system. On my trip to India I took the new tram in Seattle downtown during a 12 hour layover. On my way back from India I had a 10 hour layover in DC and I took the metro there down to the national mall to go the museums.
Anyone who can’t see that more and more mass transit is being built in the USA should park their car and get out and walk and bike and travel to see the many growing urban systems of mass transit in the USA.
CHEERS!
bug on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 3:53 pm
The bay area is Uber liberal and wealthy.
Visit our fine old cities along the North east corridor and other poor cities, there the mass transit is still from the 60’s.
I am glad that some areas have great mass transit, I have seen it in Washington ,DC and in San Diego, but most cities are broke and can’t pay for it or don’t want to have anything to do with ” liberal government run mass transit “.
Plantagenet on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 3:58 pm
@Bug
I’m not sure what your point is. The NE is liberal and wealthy just like the west. Boston, New York, Providence etc. are all doing very well—these are NOT poor cities.
These cities also have excellent mass transit.
Face facts—your claim that US mass transit isn’t improving is wrong. Even in the exact areas you mention it is improving—NYC just opened two new subway stations, and plans are moving along for new mass transit train tunnels between New Jersey and downtown NYC. Its all in todays news —- if you actually bother to read the news.
CHEERS
Davy on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 4:02 pm
Planter, idiot, don’t put words in my mouth. I see a world without cars and phony high tech mass transit including fast trains. It is all going away dummy. What may happen if idiots like you don’t get in the way is slow, low tech, and low cost transport of any kind that works. This means if someone converts an F250 to haul 20 people great. It could also be hauling people on existing rail infrastructure with simple inexpensive people moving arrangements. Your phony take high tech wonders will be dead soon planter. Bye
Plantagenet on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 4:02 pm
OK—if you’re too lazy to read the news I’ll just link it for you here:
http://www.newsweek.com/new-yorks-newest-subway-station-34-street-hudson-yard-372165
CHEERS
Plantagenet on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 4:05 pm
Gosh Davy
Are you mad or something? Calm down, dude. No reason to blow your top.
Now—Why are you ranting about converting an F250 to run on train tracks? Obama has promised to create a high speed rail network of the USA, and he’s still got over a year to keep that promise.
And even if Obama fails to keep his promise about HSR—the new driverless cars are coming. You can rant and rave and swear and fulminate all you want, but one way or another change is coming.
Cheers!
apneaman on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 4:23 pm
HARM, not to discount your personal observation in you local, but I would need to see some national data to be convinced Have corny’s not posted data that gasoline sales and miles driven are up. planty itself has been pushing that if I am not mistaken as evidence to counter peak oil, which seems to counter the less people are choosing to drive spiel. Soon as gas prices dropped they suddenly lost their concern for the environment? I do not think people are intentionally lying, it’s just that apes have a tendency to come up with post hoc rationalizations for their behavior/choices. I also agree that “some” people who can afford the expense are choosing not to drive or driving less, but I think the numbers are rather small because when the price of gas goes down a significant number of people drive more and buy bigger vehicles. I also find the subprime auto lending and the lengthy, never before seen, financing terms to be telling as they are specifically targeting lower income people and many first time buyers. Why wouldn’t some people claim that they are choosing not to drive for lifestyle and environmental reason when the truth is they cannot afford it? It seems a very natural thing to do especially in a society that values people by their income and stuff. It saves people some social embarrassment, scores a few points and does not hurt any one – perfect natural response for social apes. As for SF Bay areas well paid professionals, they are spending their money on plenty of planet destroying goodies. If you take a whole systems look at the Tech industry, it’s a bloody environmental holocaust in it’s own right just like every part of techno industrial civilization.
penury on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 4:36 pm
So people cannot imagine life without cars. I not only can imagine it, I lived for twelve years in an are where there were no motor vehicles. At the time there was no electricity, newspapers or other things people consider important. Most of the things we cannot live without are totally unnecessary. Life will be slower, less crowded and in three generations the urge for a fat burger will be gone completely.
apneaman on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 4:45 pm
Davy, driverless cars and high speed rail and gazillion dollar mass transit projects. All this stuff is just high tech Ghost Dancing and I have long predicted it will only get louder as things get worse. You can hear the same deluded hopium from the left with AGW magical fixes and spiritual global awakenings and coming together just around the corner. Remember this is still the same ape brain were dealing with that has invented thousands and thousands of gods and demons and spirits to explain the world. What else would you expect as we approach the biggest and most horrific crisis in our history? Maybe we should be kinder to those with the fragile psyche’s? Nah. You know how doomers like to bring up the reindeer on St Mathews island as an analogy? If those deer were self aware and knew that they were trapped, do you think they would have stopped eating and breeding? I don’t. I think they would have stared making up stories about how everything was going to magically work out.
Davy on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 4:57 pm
Planter calling you an idiot is easy and fun. The asswipe from the P’s gets me angry. I will admit my weakness when appropriate. You are just a bozo the clown I play with like a doll. You are not worth talking to anymore today because you are putting word in my comments not written you glut freak.
Davy on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 4:58 pm
We are on the same page Ape Man as usual.
apneaman on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 4:59 pm
I agree, it is easy and fun.
Davy on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 5:00 pm
Likewise Pen, we are also on the same page. I am living in a 12×40 cabin. I drive as little as possible. I am downsizing with dignity with respect and humility to nature.
Rob on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 6:34 pm
I know people who would give up their first born in able to keep their automobile. Its no different then crack. A good example is watch how a person reacts if they have car problems (say a dead battery) and some (many/most) freak the $$$$ out because they got to be at A B or C right now…
Makati1 on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 8:04 pm
“People can’t imagine life without cars”
About 1 billion cars on the planet.
About 7 billion people on the planet.
Obviously some do not have cars as many Americans have 2 or 3 or more. It is Americans that cannot think of living without a car, but soon they will be thinking about living without houses too. $1,300,000,000,000+ in student loans will drag them to the bottom.
bug on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 8:08 pm
Wow, 2 new stations in the news in NY.
Saved.
What about Providence, RI, Bridgeport, CN, Phila. PA and countless other old US
East coast cities. Not so much in the news, as they are broke.
Listen to the radio in these liberal meccas and all that is heard is “sorry,money is scare”. Some improvements are going on in some tourist cities,in others, not much new is happening.
bug on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 8:13 pm
How much will a driverless car cost?
How about a driver less prius or tesla?
Are these things ever going to be worth the money or are they high priced toys for wealthy yuppies and Internet hippsters? Any articles?
GregT on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 8:51 pm
What this article doesn’t address is a life without tractor trailer trucks. Without a steady stream of them supplying urban areas with food, there will be no need for driverless cars.
Makati1 on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 11:15 pm
Got it in one GregT. ^_^
Fat Lady on Wed, 16th Sep 2015 11:35 pm
I conclude that the majority of American automobile drivers, do not give a rats ass about anything except the person driving in front of them on the road because, they are in the way and going to slow.
GregT on Thu, 17th Sep 2015 1:34 am
Fat Lady,
Are you really a “lady”? Or just another guy pretending to be so?
marmico on Thu, 17th Sep 2015 4:53 am
GreggieT is going to discover that a locavore on “his” Green Acres consumes more energy than a tractor trailer truck delivering food to a big box store.
Doomers are innumerates.
Davy on Thu, 17th Sep 2015 5:31 am
Marmer, we doomers at least don’t get in descriptive ruts like you and the Planter. Please show more creativity and dash with the vocabulary in your comments. I guess you are getting old and stale becuase your message of plenty is getting stale.
marmico on Thu, 17th Sep 2015 5:42 am
You are a kook. That’s why your spouse and kids live in town while you jerk off on your cabin phantom solar panels.
Call it what it is….a Davy-land man cave.
After you have been sucking “Dolly” the goat teat for milk (parenthetically warm goat milk and granola is quite tasty), you might want to slit “Dolly’s” throat for protein.
Davy on Thu, 17th Sep 2015 6:18 am
Marmer, I still laugh how I caught you in your sexual perversion of beastiality. I am good at catching idiots with foul minds in my traps.
Thanks for the above compliment. I do enjoy granola and goat milk. I have solar panels too. The wife loves the farm. Kids are only down twice a month thank God. I am getting too old for full time Kids. I am hoping someday my boys can run the doomstead. Hopefully by then, Good Lord willing and the creeks don’t rise, I will be a crazy old man preaching doom and prep as the world descends back into the Stone Age.
marmico on Thu, 17th Sep 2015 6:32 am
You are a fucking demented innumerate word salad prattle asshole.
Keep it up. I’m going to add “flag waving” to your profile soon.
You are simply a kook. Your 7 year old sons are going to run your “Dolly” cave man operation. ROTFLMFAO. What a moron. Why the fuck would they want to be a kook like Daddy when
Granny buys them finger tip computers.
peakyeast on Thu, 17th Sep 2015 6:58 am
There is possibly a lot to win by using mass transit…
However – The price for travelling with a well built out mass transit system like in Denmark is actually more expensive than having a car.
I suppose the management and rules concerning public transport are simply too inefficient and costly.
I must admit I see Danish public transport as yet another organisation controlled by mafialike nepotists and favors to incompetent and expensive bosses. – Like most other semi-government organisations..
marmico on Thu, 17th Sep 2015 7:21 am
There is possibly a lot to win by using mass transit
Probably not. The economy turns slowly (annual marginal improvements) and there is limited disruptive tech where the economy changes rapidly on a dime.
What is the utility a of cell phone in Africa for those that still live a subsistence life?
BobInget on Thu, 17th Sep 2015 8:24 am
Can we talk cars?
marmico on Thu, 17th Sep 2015 8:32 am
Sure.
Not much difference between the golden era of 1995 and the doomer era of 2015 when it comes to JoeSixpack hours worked to buy 10 gallons of gasoline and distance travelled.
https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.png?g=1RIc
Just ignore durability, safety and comfort.
Davy on Thu, 17th Sep 2015 9:38 am
Some more failed Econ speak by the Marmer whose above comment is a laugh. Economists are a failed branch of human knowledge that has usurped common sense and reality for the abstract and fantasy. The sooner these idiots are put out to pasture the better.
Mass transit is just another vital asset in our descent vehicle. My point has always been with mass transit and AltE we need to go low cost, robust reliability, low complexity, and slow. We need to turn away for the Disney World rides that are nothing more than titillations of the kid like techno people who are soon to be without a home.
marmico on Thu, 17th Sep 2015 9:54 am
The choice is yours:
1. Flag waiving fucking demented innumerate word salad prattle asshole
2. Fucking demented innumerate word salad prattle flag waiving asshole
The default is 2.
Kenz300 on Thu, 17th Sep 2015 9:57 am
Cities need to become more people centered and less auto centered.
There needs to be more linear parks that connect work, homes, schools and business.
Walking and riding a bicycle should become the first choice for travel in a city. Mass transit should be used for longer distance travel.
There once was a time when trolleys were common in most major cities. They provided easy access and a good transportation option for many.
GregT on Thu, 17th Sep 2015 10:14 am
“Not much difference between the golden era of 1995 and the doomer era of 2015 when it comes to JoeSixpack hours worked to buy 10 gallons of gasoline and distance travelled.”
Sure marmi.
My parents always had three automobiles. One for Dad to commute to work, one for Mom to drive the kids around and shop, and a truck to haul the camper/trailer. On one wage. They had the house and the cabin payed off when they were in their 40s.
My wife and myself always had two automobiles. One for myself to commute, and one for the wife to commute. The kids took transit or walked to school, and we did our shopping on the weekends. We paid our house off when we were in our 50s.
My daughter and her husband have one automobile. My son in law uses it to commute, and my daughter spends three and a half hours a day commuting on public transit. She hates it. They will never be able to afford a house in the city, on three wages. My son in law has two jobs.
My son is ten years younger than my daughter, and he makes three times as much money as I did when I was his age. He has parked his automobile because it is too expensive for him to maintain, and he takes public transit for two hours to work each and every day. He buys temporary insurance permits for when he can afford to go away on the weekends. He will never be able to afford to buy an apartment in the city, never mind a house.