New Jersey has one of the lowest rates of car ownership

It may come as a surprise, given how congested our roads are, but among the 50 states, we here in New Jersey have a relatively low rate of car ownership.

Of course, everything is relative and our ownership rates are at a healthy level, it’s just that other parts of the country rely a lot more on their vehicles to get them around.

According to an article in Forbes, 91% of American households have at least one vehicle and 37% have two vehicles. Twenty-two percent have three or more.

So, where does New Jersey rank for car ownership? Near the bottom at 88.7%; still a high number, but lower than most. We’re only ahead of the District of Columbia (64.3%), New York (71%), and Massachusetts (87.9%).

I guess more people use NJ Transit than I thought.

People out west are much more reliant on their vehicles; the top five states are Wyoming and Idaho (96%), then Utah, Montana, and New Hampshire.

There’s a lot of interesting stuff in the Forbes article, including the popularity of various vehicles. The most popular car model is actually a pickup truck: the Ford F150. This based on 2022 sales; the F150 is followed by two other trucks, the Chevy Silverado and the Ram. Next comes an SUV, the Toyota RAV4, before we finally get to a sedan, the Toyota Camry.

One more piece of trivia from the Forbes’ report: the most popular car color in the US is white, followed by black, gray, and silver.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Doyle only.

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