Car use efficiency

This indicator is defined as the ratio between the number of kilometres a car travels and the number of kilometres travelled by the passengers in the car. It measures the efficiency of use of passenger cars in terms of their occupancy rate.

1.29 passengers/car

In 2017 the average occupancy rate of cars was 1.29 passengers. This is a 7% decrease compared to the average in 2010.

What do we see? 

Between 2010 and 2017 we see that car use efficiency has decreased slightly. The numbers for the years since 2017 have not been published yet so it is too early to tell how this has evolved over the past few years.



What’s the aim?

In a circular economic model, the goal is to maximise the occupancy of cars so that we use them more efficiently and as such minimise the amount of material needed to produce cars. 

A car journey with a higher number of people is more efficient than the same car trip with fewer people. An efficient business model that could help increase car use efficiency is carpooling.

What does this indicator measure?

This indicator measures car use efficiency and takes into account the number of occupied seats in cars. To calculate it, we divide the number of kilometers travelled by the passengers in a car by the number of kilometers the car travels. The data on passenger kilometers and car kilometers was obtained from Promovia, the Flemish Department of Mobility and Public Works.

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