[SmartCat]

Rare whatsapp forward that actually contains interesting information:

[SmartCat]

Adding my own infographic so that we can draw some conclusions - GDP per capita for each state:

[ninjatalli]

Interesting infographic. But the view only gives the output, not a clear view that helps understand the reasons for the numbers. While GDP per capita might be one of the underlying factors for the split of car & 2-wheeler ownership in certain states (e.g. Punjab & Haryana, Goa, etc.), there are other factors in play that apply to other states too.

Here's a Indian railway coverage map. Very clearly some states have low railway coverage / density. That might answer (to an extent) the easy question of why certain border states are having high car and/or 2-wheeler ownership...

• J&K
• NE states (Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram, etc.)
• Sikkim
• Rajasthan

and other states that have low/moderate car and/or 2-wheeler ownership (with high railway coverage density).

• Bihar
• West Bengal
• Assam
• UP & MP

It'll be interesting to understand what other factors play a part along with all public transport coverage (incl. trains & buses) and GDP per capita.

[narayans80]

I really can't believe 2-wheeler percentage is lower in MH than GJ, and GJ and TN are par in terms of 2-wheeler %. DL also looks high for 2W. Little surprised at RJ and PB 2-wheel ownerships.

In terms of 4-wheelers, GJ and DL again seem lower.

Interesting to see the percentage distribution in the seven sisters.

[DicKy]

Was expecting the car numbers for Kerala, but the two wheeler numbers for Kerala seems less than what I expected. Maybe if we take district-wise numbers, some districts may have far greater number of two wheelers owners.

The greater number of motorists is kinda blessing in disguise. You are less likely to be seen as a bourgeois joy riding, but going about doing one's work. Parking facilities are a given in most establishments (atleast newer ones), speed bumps in panchayat areas are no longer little mountains that can only be crossed by essential vehicles, incidents of car owners being blamed outright for accidents has lessened (thanks moreso to CCTVs), you are less likely to be attacked on the infamous strike/harthal/bandh day, increased tax/toll/fuel prices see more public outrage (though it doesn't stop them from being high )

On the downside, the traffic conditions are to be seen. The starved for funds government is seeing motorists more as a way to squeeze more money than as a pressure group, not just in taxes but money grabbing in the guise of safety. For now, everything is fine. But I am expecting future Kerala to try out all the games in the book. Higher taxes, draconian rules like the NGT one in NCR, odd/even, London/SG style congestion charges. Maybe not now, but definitely in the future.

Originally Posted by narayans80

Interesting to see the percentage distribution in the seven sisters.

Believe the number for the North east states and states bordering the mountains may more to do with poorer public transport facilities. Am more surprised at the car ownership numbers for Maharashtra and Tamilnadu.

BTW, car ownership maybe relatively high in Kerala. But most of the owners are either Alto/Dzire kinda owners or used car buyers who keep them as garage queens while using two wheelers for daily commuting. The only times the car gets out are for weekend outings, marriage functions or when it rains.

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by DicKy

Am more surprised at the car ownership numbers for Maharashtra and Tamilnadu.

You mean the 7 or 8 % ownership is low or high?

[Red_Phantom]

I came across this graph made by u/PratapVardhan on reddit which he had posted on r/dataisbeautiful. It is made using the same data as this one (NFHS statistics) and shows the household usage of different appliances in India. Link

[fhdowntheline]

The % ownership should also be qualified with the actual population . So a lower % in UP may be numerically higher than say, Rajasthan. In fact the GDP per capita infographic is also very interesting. Punjab is lower than Haryana, HP and UK, which seems contrary to the popular perception of it being a state of relative wellbeing. UP and Bihar are really worse off compared to all other states.
I think a deeper dive needs to be done to gauge rural vs urban numbers in all these areas. There one will likely see that even for a large state like Maharashtra, the numbers are highly skewed towards Mumbai, Pune , Nasik , Nagpur.

[DicKy]

Originally Posted by narayans80

You mean the 7 or 8 % ownership is low or high?

Low. Compared to their economic prowess.

Ofcourse the population is higher, still.

[manpreetsj]

Impressive infographics! I am a Sikh who belongs to Bengal and now working in DNCR. These charts are way close to accurate representation of these states.

What amazes me is how a state like Punjab tops (one of top 5) in both Bike and cars % ownership, even though the State is under a debt of 3 Lakh Cr. One factor for such high % could be the agricultural income (not taxed - no revenue for state) & other factor could be high ratio of cash transactions (shadow economy, wherein people do have a lot of unaccounted cash [mostly corruption linked] and are spending on luxuries).

Other interesting observation is the ratio of Per Capita to % of car onwership:
1) Haryana - $3823 vs. 15.3% (State with only 1 high tax paying city of Gurgaon driving per capita to higher side, but with ROH having low earnings, represented by low ownership of cars)
2) Punjab - $2525 vs 21.9% (Tax free agriculture income driven higher per capita; but with better spread-out earnings represented by higher ownership %)

[sgmuser]

I am being terrorized by the thought of achieving 20% or 30% more cars on road and traffic! Personally, I never enjoyed the highway experience in India and it is always tiring and costly. This is going to get worse only by increasing numbers.

[vishnurp99]

@Smartcat : Do you know how the percentage of households are calculated? Are we just dividing the number of cars by number of households to arrive at the percentage of households?

If that is the case, this may be a misleading number. As we are all aware, India has huge income disparity. There will be a large number of households with multiple cars. So If you go with dividing the number of cars by number of households, then you may get a larger percentage of households which is not accurate.

[abhi_tjet]

Originally Posted by SmartCat

Rare whatsapp forward that actually contains interesting information:

This information was actually shared on Twitter from a handle ‘@indiainpixels’ .
Source as shared by them -

http://rchiips.org/nfhs/NFHS-5Report...DIA_REPORT.pdf

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by vishnurp99

@Smartcat : Do you know how the percentage of households are calculated? Are we just dividing the number of cars by number of households to arrive at the percentage of households?

Number of cars/bikes owned in a household is ignored. As long as a household owns a single car or bike, it is counted.

That is, out of a sample of 100 households, if 10 household own a car, then the percentage would be 10%. If these 10 households together own 20 cars, then the percentage would still be 10%

Originally Posted by abhi_tjet

This information was actually shared on Twitter from a handle ‘@indiainpixels’

Thanks! Found this infographic on their feed:



The percentages seem to be a bit high for bicycle ownership. I wonder if kiddie bicycles are included too!

[RakishRam]

Originally Posted by narayans80

You mean the 7 or 8 % ownership is low or high?

True, some of these numbers are a bit too weird. Recently a lot of discussion was done on huge vehicle population (i.e number of vehicles per 1000 people) in Kerala in connection with a speedrail project.

And it shows a stark difference of national average v/s state's and with China and USA. Of course, vehicles per household makes more sense from a untapped market point of view.

Kerala’s number of vehicles per 1,000 population as on March 2019 is 425 compared to the country’s 18 per 1,000 population, China’s 47 and United States 507 as per the World Development Indicators of 2015.

source : The Hindu. 2019-20 numbers though