1. Every year, Massachusetts residents drive
37 Billion Miles.
That’s enough to travel to Jupiter
100times.
On average, that is 5,625
miles per person, per year.
That’s roughly the distance of a round-trip
flight from
TO
BOSTON San Francisco
If you drove the whole way at 30 mph, you
would be in
the car for
7.85 days.
Total Households Cars per Household
Are we car-dependent?
The state has 3,855,735 registered automobiles.
That’s 1.5 per household.
Larger cities provide more alternatives to car ownership.
Why does it matter?
11% of
Massachusetts’
land area is filled
by roads and
other paved areas.
Residents
consume
10,769,077
gallons of
gasoline daily.
37,000,000,000.
This
results in daily
greenhouse
gas emissions
of 97,523,010
kilograms
of CO2
equivalent
per day --
14.8 kg per
person
What can we do about it?
Our solutions will depend on which aspect of the
problem we hope to resolve.
Data Sources:
Massachusetts Vehicle Census
(Metropolitan Area Planning Council & MassDOT)
American Community Survey, 2012 (US Census Bureau)
How Far Away is Jupiter (Nola Taylor Redd, Space.com)
Travelmath.com
Infographic designed and created by:
Melanie Morgan
melaniem@unc.edu
University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
Department of City and Regional Planning
Master’s Candidate 2015
Edgartown
Rochester
Freetown
Nantucket
Brookline
Somerville
Cambridge
Boston
Private
Auto
Public
Transit
Bicycle
Walk
Work
from Home
2012 Commuting
In 2012,
nearly 80%
of residents
took a private
automobile
to work.
Congestion Emissions
• Facilitate
biking, walking,
and transit
• Plant trees
to sequester
carbon
• Increase
average fuel-
efficiency
• Encourage
hybrids and
electric cars
• Faster
response to
crashes
• Encourage
employers to
adopt flexible
hours or
allow tele-
commuting
• Decrease
average
trip length
• Encourage
carpooling