Left And Right Coast (And The Middle Too) Carbon Footprint Smackdown

Walt in Aiken, South Carolina, proposed a project:

I was curious to see how folks in Aiken are doing in reducing their carbon footprint. So one day I counted vehicles in the parking lot at work to see how many are driving gas guzzlers. My workplace is in a remote area; the nearest town with more than 5,000 people is 20 miles away. So most employees have a rather long commute.

Of 476 cars, the breakdown was thus:

sedans - 53%
SUVs & vans - 26%
pickups - 22%

Not a very environmentally conscious showing, considering that almost half the vehicles (SUVs, vans, and pickups) probably get 20 mpg or less. It was worse in town. While walking at the park on a weekday afternoon, I observed 400 non-commercial vehicles driving on the main street.

sedans - 44%
SUVs & vans - 35%
pickups - 21%

Overall, it looks as if Aiken residents do not choose their vehicles for gas economy, although they do tend to drive sedans to work, and use SUVs for running errands. I encourage you to take similar censuses in your cities. Let me know what you find.

I sat down outside at the Una Mas! Café one block from where I work, ate a burrito, and counted the mid-afternoon Monday traffic along J Street as it passed by. The location is just outside Sacramento’s urban core and includes many commuters on errands, local traffic, and commercial activity. I also counted the parked vehicles on the walk over. Since the object of interest is commuter vehicles, I tried to leave out heavy-duty vehicles and clearly-labeled commercial vehicles, but I likely-included poorly-labeled commercial vehicles. There is always the chance of some double-counting (vehicles circling for parking spaces; parked vehicles I counted driving past, etc.)

I was impressed by the noise in the counts. Sometimes there would be no pickups going past at all, and sometimes nothing but pickups.

Of 546 vehicles, the breakdown was thus:

sedans - 54%
SUVs & vans - 31%
pickups - 15%

The count is so close to Walt's, it’s quite eerie! The only significant difference is that SUVs/Vans seem to substitute somewhat for pickups. Californians like to preen over their eco-friendliness, but you can’t spot it these statistics.

[UPDATE:] Not to be outdone, John in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma writes:

OK, I did a count this morning on the street in front of my shop before opening and the results are as follows:

Of 437 vehicles counted, there were 241 sedans, 117 SUV's and 79 pickups for:

Sedans: 55%
SUV's and vans: 27%
Pickups: 18%

It seems that the numbers run fairly consistent on a national basis.