The Motorization of North America: causes, consequences, and speculations on possible futures

North America is the most motorized or automobile-oriented part of the world. This is shown in Table 1 using data for vehicle registrations in several parts of the world. While Africa has a population of 46 people per registered vehicle (including trucks and buses) or 70 persons per passenger automobile, and Asia has 26 people per vehicle or 41 per passenger car, North America has reached the point of having only 1.92 people per vehicle and 2.8 people per passenger car. These figures for North America include Mexico, a country that can still be said to be in the process of developing rapidly, and which has relatively low numbers of vehicles in relation to its population. In the United States there is one vehicle per 1.32 people, including commercial vehicles or one passenger car per 1.96 people, and Canada is similar with 2.18 persons per vehicle of every type of 1.92 people per passenger car (American Automobile manufacturers Association, 1997).