Thread by @Andrewwood17

How many people in Tower Hamlets have a car?
Last week @Dan_Bromley_N said 30% in a debate, a number routinely used
Part of the problem is that we do not have any up to date figures but we do have DC1401EW - Household composition by car or van availability from the 2011 census
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It says of 101,257 households in TH in 2011
63% had no car
32% had one car/van
5% more then one car/van
=37% had car/van at home
But we do not have breakdown by number of residents so lets look at breakdown by household type as not all households the same
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Groups with lowest levels of car ownership
People living alone 25% - but 35% of all households
Students 18% - 2% of all households
Lone parent with children under age 18 18% - 7% of all households
Other households 29% - 15% of all households
= 59% of all households
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What about opposite households with high car ownership?
Married family with children over 18 yrs 67% - 2% of households
Married family with children under 18 yrs 61% - 13% of households
In total all household with children at home (all ages) 51% had car/van- 32% of households
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So in summary 9 year ago I suspect almost half residents had a car/van in household if you look at family sizes
Lowest car ownership in single person, no children, student & 'other' households
This data is available from
nomisweb.co.uk/query/select/g…
But why should I have to spend
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morning summarising & formatting this Excel data?
This is the kind of data/information TH Council should be producing. It should be able to access more Census data then I can & calculate the true ratio of cars to residents (rather then households)
In addition I suspect quite a
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few of those non-car households especially older people are reliant on cars in other households, was true for my dad, sister & niece - did not have cars but used my car when necessary
A point @th_puru makes as well
But how many?
I suspect again mean more then 50% residents
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reliant on cars even if not in their household.
Since 2011 I suspect ratio has declined due to car free developments (still lots of cars linked to them) & low levels of parking in new build (8% in my ward i.e. for every 100 apartments, 8 parking spaces)
This is fundamentally
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changing demographic composition of TH & especially on families (lots of middle class home owners with kids & cars where my sister lives in Lewisham as it gentrifies)
But this is frustrating thing about TH Council, a sense that it is not making informed, data driven decisions
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but ones based on myth i.e. only 30% of people in TH have a car
I think it was in 2011 closer to 50%, easily proved with some detailed Census analysis
This is not to say we should not do LTN's but that those decisions have to be informed ones but also what does that mean for
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who lives in TH? lots of single people without kids or big families? or do we shift towards groups with no cars = less need for schools (we are already closing schools in part of TH despite increasing population)
Without even considering those people who might need vehicles
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for work or health or disability reasons
Plus some parts of TH do not have great public transport accessibility (redder the colour the better public transport, more blue/purple the worse it is)
Wonder where most development is happening :)
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