Car Bloat on San Mateo Streets
This article on how car bloat contributes to congestion made me curious how this plays out for parking in a medium sized city like San Mateo. Looking at census data from San Mateo, 2007 and 2023 are the minimum and maximum years for number of vehicles.
Wrangling data on the top 10 vehicles sold in those years as well as their sizes gives us an estimate of how changes in the auto industry are impacting our city. In 2007 4/10 top selling cars were trucks or SUVs while in 2023 that number jumped to 9/10. The average length went up by 8 inches while the average width went up by 4 inches. Individually these are small numbers but this amounts to a roughly 10% jump in the area needed to park a car.
| Year / Metric | Number of Cars | Area/Car (sq ft) | Total Area (sq ft) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 62,062 | 104 | 6,476,066 |
| 2023 | 74,287 | 113 | 8,419,628 |
| Percentage Change | 20% | 9% | 30% |
Because of car bloat San Mateo added 20% more cars in this time frame but needs 30% more space to store them!
Some comparisons of the 2007 vs. 2023 car populations in San Mateo:
| Metric | 2007 | 2023 | Increase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Length of all cars lined up | 200 miles | 250 miles | 25% |
| Area in football fields | 112 football fields | 146 football fields | 30% |
| Percentage of total area of San Mateo | 1.9% | 2.5% | 30% |
Based on this data cars getting bigger is as big of a factor to our streets feeling crowded as the growth of our city. San Mateo is a great place to live and will continue to grow. Finding ways to lower the average number of cars needed to live happily in our city is needed to counteract the growth in car sizes (some ideas that have worked in other cities: 🚍 🚊 🚲 🚶🏼).
Data
This isn't perfect comparison because all cars that exist in 2007 or 2023 aren't necessarily from that model year. I think it is still a useful high level look at changes over time.
There wasn't a good single source for best selling vehicle data so that came from two different places. All the size data came from Edmunds.
2007 best selling vehicle data: https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna22099975
2023 best selling vehicle data: https://www.kbb.com/car-news/the-25-best-selling-cars-of-2023/
Vehicle sizes (example page): https://www.edmunds.com/gmc/sierra-1500/2023/features-specs/
Car Sizes from 2007 and 2023
These tables aren't super interesting but for the sake of completeness here is the compiled data from the sources above.
Show raw data of vehicle sizes
2007
| Rank | Model | Units Sold | Width (in) | Length (in) | Height (in) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ford F-Series | 588,952 | 79.1 | 218.1 | 74.4 |
| 2 | Chevrolet Silverado | 526,575 | 80.3 | 230.3 | 74 |
| 3 | Toyota Camry | 398,868 | 72 | 189.4 | 58.3 |
| 4 | Honda Accord | 332,815 | 72 | 191.3 | 57.5 |
| 5 | Toyota Corolla/Matrix | 317,796 | 67.3 | 178.7 | 58.7 |
| 6 | Honda Civic | 278,764 | 69.3 | 176.8 | 56.7 |
| 7 | Chevrolet Impala | 270,504 | 73.2 | 200.8 | 59.1 |
| 8 | Nissan Altima | 239,800 | 70.9 | 190.2 | 58.3 |
| 9 | Dodge Ram | 214,569 | 79.9 | 229.9 | 73.6 |
| 10 | Honda CR-V | 184,003 | 72 | 178.3 | 66.5 |
2023
| Rank | Model | Units Sold | Width (in) | Length (in) | Height (in) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ford F-Series | 750,789 | 79.9 | 231.7 | 77.2 |
| 2 | Chevy Silverado | 543,319 | 81.2 | 231.9 | 75.5 |
| 3 | Ram Pickup | 444,926 | 82.1 | 232.9 | 77.6 |
| 4 | Toyota RAV4 | 434,943 | 73 | 180.9 | 67 |
| 5 | Tesla Model Y | 385,900 | 75.6 | 187 | 64 |
| 6 | Honda CR-V | 361,457 | 73.5 | 184.8 | 66.5 |
| 7 | GMC Sierra | 295,737 | 81.2 | 231.9 | 75.5 |
| 8 | Toyota Camry | 290,649 | 72.4 | 192.7 | 56.9 |
| 9 | Nissan Rogue | 271,458 | 72.4 | 183 | 66.5 |
| 10 | Jeep Grand Cherokee | 244,595 | 84.6 | 193.5 | 77.5 |