Gasoline Consumption and Cities: A Comparison of U.S. Cities with a Global Survey

Abstract

Gasoline consumption per capita in ten large United States cities varies by up to 40 percent, primarily because of land use and transportation planning factors, rather than price or income variations. The same patterns, though more extreme, appear in a global sample of 32 cities. Here, average gasoline consumption in U.S. cities was nearly twice as high as in Australian cities, four times higher than in European cities and ten times higher than in Asian cities. Allowing for variations in gasoline price, income, and vehicle efficiency explains only half of these differences. We suggest physical planning policies, particularly reurbanization and a reorientation of transportation priorities as a means of reducing gasoline consumption and automobile dependence.