brand logo

WP vehicle ownership dependent on household’s income and male members: Study

18 May 2021

By Ruwan Laknath Jayakody   A household’s monthly income and its number of members (including the number of males and the number of members who are employed) have a significant impact on vehicle ownership, a study conducted in the Western Province found. This finding was made in a research article titled “Analysis of Vehicle Ownership Attributes in the Western Province”, authored by K.P. Dilini, P.T. Amalan, and A.S. Kumarage (all attached to the Department of Transport and Logistics Management of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Moratuwa) and published recently in the Journal of South Asian Logistics and Transport. Private vehicle ownership and the type of vehicle owned depends on several factors; according to P.D. Prevedouros and J.L. Schofer’s “Factors affecting automobile ownership and use” (1992) and Y. Maltha, M. Kroesen, B. Van Wee, and E. Van Daalen’s “Changing influence of factors explaining household car ownership levels in the Netherlands” (2017), it includes household income, household size, the number of license holders in the household, the household composition (including children), the education level of the household members, their gender, age, suburbanisation, their working status (members who are employed full-time), and their social status. For every 10% increase in income, car ownership increased by 12%, as G.K. Ingram and Z. Liu found in “Determinants of Motorisation and Road Provision” (1999) and L.W. Send, D. Junia, T. Yi, and D. Benjamin found in “What are the factors affecting car ownership? Is it possible to reduce the rate of the growth of car ownership?” (2010). Dilini et al. opined that when the quality – including the reliability and comfort – of public transport lessens and private vehicle ownership increases, people become reluctant to use public transport. T.V. Ha, T. Asada, and M. Arimura found in “Determination of the influence factors on household vehicle ownership patterns in Phnom Penh using statistical and machine learning methods” (2019) that income is the most potent variable influence on motorisation, while the presence of children in a household is another factor that determines the type of vehicles owned. W. Schievelbein, K. Kockelman, P. Bansal, and S. Schauer-West found in “Indian Vehicle Ownership and D Travel Behaviours: A Case Study in Bangalore, Delhi, and Kolkata” (2016) that the likelihood of four-wheeler vehicle ownership increases with the income and the household size. The study by Dilini et al. examined the vehicle ownership pattern in the Western Province with a set of socioeconomic characteristics of households, the latter observed in a home visit survey conducted by the Urban Transport System Development Project for the Colombo metropolitan region and suburbs from 2013 to 2014. The sample consisted of 35,850 households with 124,673 individuals. The availability of a motor vehicle in the households was used as the dependent variable in the modelling while the independent variables selected to test their influence on household vehicle ownership included the household income, the household size, and the household’s composition, the latter based on the percentage of those in the household who were employed, the percentage of school-going and kindergarten children (below five years) in the household, and the percentage of males in the household. Vehicles in the household survey were categorised into three basic categories: Two-wheeler (motorcycle), three-wheelers (three-wheeler), and four-wheelers (car, jeep, and pickup), with vans as a subcategory. Six different scenarios of motor vehicle ownership in a household were examined. They were: i) Households having any motor vehicle, ii) households having just one two-wheeler or three-wheeler, iii) households having more than one two-wheeler or three-wheeler, iv) households having just one van irrespective of any two-wheeler or three-wheeler but not having a four-wheeler, v) households having just one four-wheeler irrespective of the number of two-wheeler vehicles, three-wheeler vehicles, or vans, and vi) households having more than one four-wheeler irrespective of the number of two-wheeler vehicles, three-wheeler vehicles, or vans. In the household visit survey, the previous day’s travel activity information of each of the residents from each of the 35,850 households in the survey sample, along with the socioeconomic information of that household and its occupants over the age of five years and their vehicle ownership based on the type of vehicle, was collected through a structured interview survey. The vehicle ownership in the different households was categorised as being in the high-income group (monthly income more than Rs. 80,000), middle-income group (monthly income between Rs. 40,000 and Rs. 80,000), and low-income group (monthly income less than Rs. 40,000). In the sample, 36% of all individuals in these households were employed, while 23% were classified as school-going, kindergarten, and tertiary students; 41% were made up of the unemployed, the retired, housewives, and others. Also, 21% of household members were below 18 years while 64% were between 18 and 60 years. The majority (76%) were in the low-income group (mean household income was Rs. 24,009), while 19% were in the middle-income group (mean household income Rs. 56,810) and 5% were in the high-income group (mean household income Rs. 186,164). In terms of the socioeconomic variables of the household size, the number of those in the household who were employed, the number of students in the household, and the number of males in the household, it was found that there is a significant relationship between vehicle ownership and said socioeconomic variables. It was concluded that there is a significant association between the household income and the decision to own a vehicle where income is an influential factor in deciding to own a vehicle. Household income contributes to vehicle ownership in the high and middle-income groups more than the low-income group. Approximately 46% of the households in the province owned a vehicle, and out of this 20% of households owned more than one vehicle. It was revealed that most households owned only one vehicle, even though they had five or six members in the household. However, it was found that the percentage of households owning a vehicle decreases when there are four or more members, while the percentage of households owning two or more vehicles increases with the number of members. It was seen that most of the low and middle-income household groups have more than two two-wheeler vehicles or three-wheeler vehicles. The majority of the low-income households have two-wheeler vehicles and three-wheeler vehicles, while the middle-income households have two-wheeler vehicles and four-wheelers. Since the capital and operating costs increase from two-wheeler vehicles to three-wheeler vehicles to vans to four-wheelers, most low and middle-income households tend to own two-wheeler vehicles or three-wheeler vehicles, while the high-income households own four-wheelers. It was also found that low and middle-income households use vans for commercial purposes and two-wheeler vehicles for personal use. The majority of the low-income households own a two-wheeler vehicle or three-wheeler vehicle, while the majority of high-income households own a four-wheeler, and most middle-income households own two-wheeler vehicles. Even though the capital and operating costs of three-wheeler vehicles is higher than for a two-wheeler vehicle, the majority of low-income households own a three-wheeler vehicle. Parents tend to own either a four-wheeler or a two-wheeler vehicle when they have schoolchildren. However, it was found that this does not influence vehicle ownership as much as the percentage of those in the household who are employed does. Also, the percentage of those in the household who are employed has a greater influence on two-wheeler vehicle ownership than four-wheeler ownership. Most of the coefficients except the percentage of those in households who are employed are statistically significant. The household size is the most influential factor in the ownership of any motor vehicle. The percentage of males in a household is seen to have a higher impact than the percentage of school-going or kindergarten students, and the number of those in the household who are employed. The majority of low and middle-income-earning households demonstrate the ownership of two-wheeler vehicles or three-wheeler vehicles. The household size and the percentage of males in a household appears to have a more positive impact than the percentage of school-going and kindergarten students, and those in the household who are employed when a household owns just one two-wheeler vehicle or three-wheeler vehicle. Households with more members and more male members and those who are employed tend to own more than one two-wheeler vehicle and three-wheeler vehicle. Middle-income households have a high probability of owning more than one two-wheeler vehicle or three-wheeler vehicle than low-income households. A household having a van instead of a car is a positive coefficient for the household size, the number of school-going and kindergarten students, and the males in the household. The household size, together with the percentage of males in a household, has the largest positive coefficient in influencing van ownership. The percentage of school-going and kindergarten students and male members in a household have a positive impact on owning just one four-wheeler vehicle. However, having a low-income has a more negative impact on four-wheeler ownership than van ownership. The percentage of those in the household who are employed does not affect predicting a household having more than one four-wheeler vehicle. The low and middle-income households have a more negative impact on the ownership of more than one four-wheeler vehicle than in all the other cases. The low and middle-income households demonstrate a positive impact on the ownership of a two-wheeler vehicle and a three-wheeler vehicle, while high-income households show a greater likelihood of four-wheeler vehicle ownership. Household income has a positive effect on both the number of vehicles and the type of vehicles that a household owns, which means vehicle ownership is most affected by household income. The number of members in a household has a positive impact on the ownership of two-wheeler vehicles, three-wheeler vehicles, and vans. Households with more members prefer to own a van than a car. The number of members in a household is also observed to have a positive impact on both the type of vehicle and the number of vehicles owned. The ownership of motor vehicles in a household increases when the percentage of males in the household increases. This was found to be the most significant coefficient in the case of the ownership of two-wheeler vehicles, three-wheeler vehicles, and vans. Middle-income households mostly own a two-wheeler vehicle or three-wheeler vehicle. It was found that owning a van is influenced by the number of school-going and kindergarten children. The percentage of those in the household who are employed has less of an influence on the ownership of four-wheeler vehicles than the ownership of a two-wheeler vehicle. Households tend to have more than one two-wheeler vehicle when they have more who are employed.


More News..