Fewer D.C. residents own vehicles than in the past, according to a new report, but those who do are holding on to their cars for longer.
Vehicle registrations dropped 5.8 percent in the District between 2005 and 2008, from 258,100 vehicles to 243,200, according to the report slated to be presented Wednesday to the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board.
That drop occurred even as the D.C. population increased 1.7 percent during that time, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures.
But the cause of the drop isn’t clear, said Ronald Kirby, transportation planning director for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. “We need to spend some time to find the reason for that.”
Maryland and Virginia communities around the Washington region, meanwhile, increased registrations by 3 percent and 5.6 percent, respectively. But the report said the growth was smaller than forecasted.
It could be that families in the District are being replaced by young people or empty nesters who don’t own vehicles, Kirby said. The drop also could have been fueled partly by last summer’s spike in gasoline prices that prompted people to use public transit instead.
AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesman John Townsend blames the flagging economy, saying that vehicles represent an expensive budget item. In the District, he said, such vehicles may be expendable.
D.C. residents can walk, bike, take Metro or the D.C. Circulator instead of driving. The District also created a bike-sharing program in August and is planning to add 40 stations around the city housing hundreds more bikes. Car-sharing services have expanded, with Zipcar now offering more than 700 vehicles mostly clustered in the District.
But, he added, “The further out you go, you need a car.”
The study also found that the region had an older fleet of vehicles than it did in 2005 as drivers delay replacing their vehicles.
“You see the effect of the recession start to show in the vehicle age,” Kirby said.
That is especially a concern, he said, because older vehicles tend to produce more pollution. Regional planners have been relying on turnover to get cleaner vehicles on the roads, he said.
Now, Kirby said, local officials may need to find ways to encourage drivers to replace their older vehicles with more efficient and cleaner models.
