Skip to Content
Streetsblog New York City home
Streetsblog New York City home
Log In
Bridge Tolls

A Reminder: Pricing Car Trips to Fund Transit Is Progressive Policy

3:28 PM EDT on April 21, 2017

Some 45 percent of city households own cars, but only around 30 percent of New Yorkers drive or carpool to work. Photo: Roman Kruglov/Flickr

Timed to coincide with this weekend's car-free events, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign has released a fact sheet on car ownership rates in NYC.

Compiled from 2015 U.S. Census data, Tri-State's fact sheet shows that most households citywide don't own a car, car-owning households tend to be more affluent than car-free ones, and the vast majority of New Yorkers don't drive to work. These facts have remained constant for years, but it's been some time since anyone compiled an update with current information.

Here's the full fact sheet:

tri-state_car-free_full

A few takeaways:

    • 54.5 percent of households citywide are car-free.
    • Citywide, the median income of households with cars is more than twice as high as the median income of car-free households.
    • The income disparity between car-owning and car-free households is stark in every borough, and most pronounced in Staten Island, where the median car-free household earns 73 percent less.
    • Manhattan has the highest share of car-free households (76.6 percent), and Staten Island the lowest (17.8 percent).
    • Many car owners don't drive to work. Though around 45 percent of households citywide have a car, only around 30 percent of workers drive or carpool to work.
    • The majority of workers in every borough take transit to their jobs -- except in Staten Island, where 56 percent drive.

The fact sheet is an update to those TSTC released in 2007 to bolster the case for congestion pricing. Since then, politicians have continued to cite the mythologized car-owning working stiff to oppose toll reforms that would cut traffic and fund transit. That narrative still doesn't mesh with reality.

There have been small fluctuations in the car ownership rate since 2000, when it stood at 44.3 percent. While the current rate is about a percentage point higher, it's down from 46 percent in Census data collected between 2005 and 2009.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog New York City

The Toll of History: MTA Board Approves $15 Congestion Pricing Fee

New York City's congestion pricing tolls are one historic step closer to reality after Wednesday's 11-1 MTA board vote. Next step: all those pesky lawsuits.

March 28, 2024

Company That Fought McGuinness Safety Project Wants to Seize Bklyn Street for Private Backlot

Broadway Stages to Greenpoint residents: "Street safety for me, not for thee."

March 28, 2024

SEE IT: Hit-and-Run Driver With Fake Plate Seriously Injures Cyclist

The 5 p.m. crash occurred at Flushing and Waverly avenue near the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

March 28, 2024

Thursday’s Headlines: Shakira Shakira Edition

Pop superstar Shakira performed for a crowd of 40,000 packed into the Times Square pedestrian plazas. Plus congestion pricing news and more.

March 28, 2024
See all posts