Colombia has 111 cars per 1000 people and Bogotá has some of the worst traffic in the world and traffic is terrible in a lot of the country’s cities. But the United States has 806 vehicles per 1000 people, and yeah there’s traffic, but it isn’t eight times worse than Colombia. Where does traffic come from in low vehicle ownership countries?
[Source](https://www.visualcapitalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Vehicles-Per-1000-People_02162024.jpeg)
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as many people have already posted – it’s about the quality AND quantity of road infrastructure.
when there aren’t many car owners, there is less incentive to build either high quality roads or a LOT of roads.
What passes for “local roads” in many countries with low automobile ownership per capita are what some people in “1st world” nations would consider dirt paths…not “roads” at all…..and they have to share the “road” with the local animal–pulled carts. Sometimes there is not even enough space for 2-way traffic. (pull over so i can get by…no YOU pull over!)
taxes to fix/build/expand such infrastructure are unpopular when the lion share of the population doesn’t own a car. Tolls won’t bring in much money, because there aren’t that many drivers.
It’s the Chicken and the Egg.
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