Cars take up a LOT of space!

I have sometimes observed that "population density is not always measured in terms of people per square mile."

While some of you find and enjoy the double meanings, I will share another bit of population density information--this from the How We Drive blog of Tom Vanderbilt. If the roughly three hundred thousand US citizens lived in a concentrated area, at the population density, of, say, Brooklyn, which US state has enough area for us to live within its hypothetical borders? Have a look at this chart as you ponder this--the answer may surprise you.





Quoting from Vanderbilt:

An interesting point of departure from this graph that’s been making the rounds of the U.S. packed into one Brooklyn-style New Hampshire is one I’ve mentioned before, via the work of Brian Pijanowski:

If the percentage of parking lot area in the county (0.44%) is scaled to the area occupied by the conterminous United States, the entire states of Connecticut, and Massachusetts (12,550 + 20,305 = 32,855 km2 ) would be paved over with parking lots.

To put this another way: The American parking lot currently consumes much more space than the entire country’s population would if it were scaled to Brooklyn-style density.

I saw a comparison recently discussion cost-per-mile of roadway construction vs. vehicle-specific taxes paid on one automobile (can't remember where...). The summation was that the average motorist pays enough taxes on his or her car (license, fuel taxes, insurance taxes excise taxes on other car-related purchases) to pay for about two feet of roadway. Given that most cars are at least fifteen feet long, and given that there is no way anyone could drive anywhere if the roads were fully covered in cars, there is a LOT of space paved for car traffic that the car-specific taxes are not paying for.

I'd be interested in seeing some hard data on this, and will have to dig around a bit. Even if the numbers are off by a factor of two, it takes lots of wind out of the sails of the argument that "bicyclists don't pay for their use of the roadway!"