California has more cars than any other state

General Discussion
1

2018 car registrations by state

1 California _15,065,827
2 Texas _____8,248,322
3 Florida ____7,966,091
4 New York __4,712,779
5 Ohio ______4,603,594

2018 Population by state

1 California ____39,557,045
2 Texas _______28,701,845
3 Florida ______21,299,325
4 New York ____19,542,209
5 Pennsylvania _12,807,060
https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2018/estimates-national-state.html

I thought this was an interesting discussion topic, the relationship of car registrations per state and populations of states.

California, Texas, and Florida, the top 3 by car registrations are also the top 3 in population, but then things begin to go astray, a bit.

I’m sure there are more factors involved in the reasons that there’s not a matching correlation between the two ranking positions than one could enumerate, but it is interesting, nonetheless.

I only put up the top 5 in each ranking, but provided the links for anybody interested. I’m open to any observations or reasons why some of the rankings are unusual or notorious for the sake of a discussion.
CSA
:palm_tree: :sunglasses: :palm_tree:

2

It tracks fairly closely. About 1 car for 2-3 residents. Although NY is more like 1 in 3.5 likely because of NY city. Fewer big city dwellers with cars. Texas has families with kids so a bit higher than 3 people per car.

3

I was surprised, but it’s understandable, that Florida is number 3! Not long ago it was #4. I haven’t check the 2020 data, but it probably won’t be long until it hits #2. It seems everybody wans to be in paradise. I mean really, can you blame them?

Other statistics show that Florida is on better fiscal footing than 48 other other states. Feel the magic! Go Florida!
CSA
:palm_tree: :sunglasses: :palm_tree:

4

Florida’s lure for financially comfortable seniors does swing some stats to paint a grand picture for the state.But as in all states there is a great degree of change from county to county. While the retiree couples in Nassau county have 2 or more late model cars the overcrowded renters in Broward might own 3 cars each hoping to keep at least one running at any given time. But unless another theme park is in someone’s plans what would be the potential employer of hundreds of thousands?

5

Sounds good, but I’m not so sure about that guess. It costs a $ lot $ just to initiate a registration for a vehicle here. The “Tax Collector’s Office” runs a pretty tight ship, too. I can’t really see many low-budget folks owning several or “extras”.

I don’t think that’s it.
CSA
:palm_tree: :sunglasses: :palm_tree:

6

Agriculture is very big as is the hospitality business. Healthcare not far behind. Quite a few manufacturers of various products all over the state. Anything from air control valves to military contractors to aftermarket replacement air suspensions to the new commercial space business to glass furnace portals to home builders. LOTS of home builders. And remodelers. No single business to rival the first 3 but lots of smaller businesses to employ many, many workers. 10 million workers in a state of 22 million people with about 18% over 65.

Last report I heard, our unemployment is 4.3% all while the hospitality market is devastated.

7

Texas also has textbook urban sprawl. Just look at a map of any of Texas’ cities, and check out all the suburbs people commute from into downtown areas.

8

Florida’s mass transit is pretty bad, and Florida’s financial health is related to its reliance on taxing the hell out of tourists. Right now, that reliance isn’t such a good thing.

9

image
image740Ă—465 102 KB

2 Likes
10

Usually, we’ll let a gator play through.

The assortment of wildlife on our golf course is nothing short of spectacular, very interesting. I’ve had to wait a few seconds while one of our guys is snapping pictures. :grin:

I believe Florida is #1 in the number of golf courses (a perfect place to enjoy the game), another major industry, and another place one will find lots of cars on any given day all year long. Our governor has declared golf an essential activity! Smart, very smart.
CSA
:palm_tree: :sunglasses: :palm_tree:

11

I heard the alligators wore polo shirts with a little human embroidered on it, Guess it is not true, saw a statistic, average Californian uses 165 gallons of water a day, average wisconsin resident 65 gallons a day, go figure.

12

In much of California nothing grows unless it is watered. In Wisconsin it is hardly necessary to water anything. Just like NY, if you stop plowing or mowing, a forest results and it doesn’t take long.

I was in California visiting relatives and a neighbor of theirs was ranting about the Bureau of Land Management wanting to regulate and charge campers. I mentioned that in a national forest in PA you had to pay for a campsite in a campground but you could camp for free without services if you stayed a certain distance off the road.

He said, yes you could just turn off the road and park like we did.

I looked at him and said, you have obviously never seen an Eastern forest. first you would need to get across a drainage ditch and then unless you are following a deer or hiking trail you would have to fight your way into the forest on foot.

1 Like
13

Urban sprawl? Like LA county? Or Orange county? Or around San Francisco? Urban sprawl would tend to increase the number of cars per resident, not decrease it, wouldn’t it?

Unless Texans car pool more than Californians. :thinking:

14

Interesting… perhaps CA has the most because for one… There are a ton of wealthy people who are into cars out there… Also…maybe a larger number of the cars in CA tend to not go anywhere as in rusting into the ground “anywhere”.

You can park a vehicle out there and it just sits n waits…sun damage being the worst maybe, but not like on the East Coast where you could park something in a side lot and 5 yrs later you cant even find the thing because its overgrown with trees or vines or grass…or its enriching the soil with lots of the mineral FE. Perhaps the CA climate slows the owners from bringing a vehicle to the scrap yard? I wonder.

1 Like
15

If vehicles spend their entire lives near the salty ocean breeze, they will rust out, same as anywhere else

we have a few such vehicles in our fleet that I’m aware of

fuel lines and brake lines rusting all the way through, with devastating consequences

u-joints broken in half because of rust

and so forth . . .

1 Like
16

Oh yes, definitely @db4690… I was thinking more inland in my example at that moment. The New Jersey Coast taught me a bit about rusting steel near the Ocean and Bay… it was frightful to be honest. Being completely and totally honest as I strive to be…despite it being embarrassing at times, I am going to ask what may seem a silly question. One that I have been pondering since I must have been about 9 or 10yrs old. Many decades…without looking it up.

Today I am going to look into it finally…once and for all. I’m actually excited about this, silly I know, but I’ve meant to look into this quite a number of times. but something would always come up and then I would forget about it again…rinse and repeat, many times over across a long span of time.

So in my current and very long lasting state of ignorance…I’m going to ask you intelligent people to help explain this phenomenon.

The elementary and quick 20 minute lesson in school about evaporation and condensation…clouds and fog, taught simply that the body of water evaporated and then turned into clouds or fog or rain and fell back to earth or onto earthly items, etc… OK, fine, no problem, no further info needed. Not until you dig a little deeper. It was only later that I learned that H2O is the only thing involved in the process…and it is a trusted water purification method producing pure water in the end, nothing else, no dissolved minerals are carried by the water during the process… Anything in the water gets left behind…like dissolved minerals…including salt. My childhood self used to conduct experiments to verify this by tasting it (yes I’m that guy). Dew drops, fog, mist, were indeed NOT salty at all, in any way. I have long suspected that the salt must be coming in contact and rusting steel and oxidizing aluminum by some other mechanism.

My silly, childhood turned adult, question of…Without being dipped into the ocean…or driven through salt water, why do things rust so aggressively, at the coastlines?

My current answer or rather theory, is that the Salt water is deposited onto the roads and pavements near the coastline, during flood conditions…which occur often enough. Then the water evaporates… and the salt is left behind… and is then reconstituted by rain…and then comes into contact with cars and bikes and whatever else? That seems like an easy out, but many of the items that are being consumed by rust or corrosion, are not vehicles and do not travel on roads and yet… they Rusto with a Gusto !

So my esteemed colleagues…what say you? Am I asking an embarrassing question or one that is deceptively more complex than what one thinks initially?

17

The salt in the air near the oceans comes from the spray every time a wave hits the coast or crests at sea (“white caps”).

18

I think @Honda_Blackbird’s theory on salt deposition is pretty much right on. I’ve noticed that living near the Gulf, that late model cars that have been here all their lives, don’t rust much at all. Late model cars have nearly everything coated and painted so it resists the salt well. Is is in the air, no doubt.

A buddy’s 2002 Tahoe with lifetime Florida history is nearly as clean underneath as a new car. No rust on the fuel and brake lines at all. My 2004 Avalanche that spend 8 years slogging through snow and salt encrusted roads is a rusty mess underneath. That rust seems to have accelerated after moving to the Gulf coast. The salt air has accelerated the rusting of those areas already rusting.

1 Like
19

That’s is probably the vast majority of the difference. I have cousins who own a Law Firm in Brooklyn and the Bronx.Of the 8+ cousins (I can’t keep track) only 1 that I know of even has a drivers license. None of their adult kids have licenses. It’s just way too expensive to own a car. And NYC has an excellent public transit system.

I also know people who live in Boston who don’t have a license. Boston has a good public transit system and also the city is very walkable. A lot of cities in the North East have good public transit systems so there isn’t a need to own a car. My company has an office in Boston. One of the VP’s works out of it. The company pays his monthly parking ($800/mo).

1 Like
20

I was in NYC after Hurricane Sandy. The show American Chopper did a 911 tribute bike. It was submerged in salt water for a while. It was still on display at the store next to the Museum (museum hadn’t opened yet). The bike was a complete loss. Although I think they actually rebuilt it.

1 Like