[sustran] Re: Transportation Expenditure

Todd Alexander Litman litman at vtpi.org
Thu Jul 10 00:48:43 JST 2008


We've done some research on these issues using North American data, 
published in our report "Transportation 
Affordability"   (http://www.vtpi.org/affordability.pdf ). The 
results show that in the U.S. in 2005, overall about 18% of household 
budgets were devoted to transportation, making it second to housing 
and larger than food - in fact the actual number is probably about 
20% if vehicle garages are categorized as a transportation cost 
rather than a housing cost - and the budget share devoted to 
transport has probably increased during the last three years due to 
rising fuel prices.

Household transportation expenditures increase with rates of 
automobile ownership and use. The portion of household budgets 
devoted to transportation increases for households located in 
automobile-dependent locations. The lowest income quintile devotes a 
relatively small portion of budgets to transportation overall, 
because so many do not own an automobile, but low-income households 
that do own a vehicle spend a relatively large portion of 
expenditures to transportation. This indicates the value to low 
income households of having good travel options that reduce their 
need to own motor vehicles. This is increasingly important with 
rising fuel prices.

My paper discusses a number of specific transportation and land use 
policies that can help reduce the financial burden of transportation 
to consumers, particularly those with lower incomes as automobile 
dependency increases.

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments about this 
analysis, or if you have any comparable data from other countries 
that we could incorporate into our study.


Best wishes,
-Todd Litman


At 04:33 PM 7/8/2008, sudhir gota wrote:
> >
> > Dear all,
>
>
>
>Taking the discussion little bit away into the "Transportation Expenditure"
>and "fuel costs" - many would be surprised to know
>that
>
>
>    1. An Average American Consumer pays more for Transportation and less for
>    Food !! ( "means" more important than "ends" ??)
>    2. Singapore is showing reduction in Family Transportation Expenditure (
>    its 2003 values are less than 1993 values ??)
>
>we in CAI Asia are looking in detail in these aspects and hopefully 2008
>survey in Singapore would show more results. Insights and available research
>and surveys would be helpful :-)
>
>Regards
>Sudhir
>
>
>
>
>
>--
>Sudhir Gota
>Transport Specialist
>CAI-Asia Center
>Unit 3510, 35th Floor, Robinsons-Equitable Tower,
>ADB Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig City
>Metro Manila, Philippines 1605
>Tel: +63-2-395-2843
>Fax: +63-2-395-2846
>http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia
>--------------------------------------------------------
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Sincerely,
Todd Alexander Litman
Victoria Transport Policy Institute (www.vtpi.org)
litman at vtpi.org
Phone & Fax 250-360-1560
1250 Rudlin Street, Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, CANADA
"Efficiency - Equity - Clarity"



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