The US has the lowest average gasoline price per gallon of the 12 countries. Residents of the US, however, spend more of their annual income on gasoline than residents of the other countries surveyed. Lower gas prices tend to induce more driving, as a result, drivers in the US travel as much as 3.5 times the kilometers in the other countries.

	Average price of gasoline per gallon	% of annual income spent on gasoline	Cars owned per 1,000 persons	Vehicle kilometers traveled per capita	Biking frequency	Public transit usage	Road fuel consumption per capita
Australia	4.371	1.53	741	10,800	0.02	27	580
Canada	4.868	2.92	667	8,500	0.03	23	886
Denmark	8.444	0.95	508	6,300	0.25	–	244
France	7.925	0.59	590	6,250	0.04	28	106
Germany	7.491	1.09	610	7,000	0.13	33	222
Italy	7.687	0.99	707	6,250	0.12	–	158
Japan	4.831	1.38	718	4,000	0.16	31	329
Netherlands	7.516	1.17	543	6,150	0.25	–	242
Norway	8.57	0.53	754	6,500	0.16	–	213
Sweden	7.643	1.23	542	7,000	0.16	32	302
United Kingdom	6.896	1.08	544	6,250	0.04	37	220
United States	3.788	2.16	875	14,000	0.02	12	1106

SOURCES

Average price of gasoline per gallon: GlobalPetrolPrices.com

April 2023. Cost per gallon in U.S. dollars.

Percent of annual income spent on gasoline: Bloomberg

Quarter 3, 2018.

Cars owned per 1,000

European Automobile Manufacturers Association for European countries except Norway, 2016. Includes passenger cars per 1000. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2018.

World Data Atlas, for United States, Canada, Norway, Japan, 2015. Motor vehicles include cars, buses, and freight vehicles but do not include two-wheeled vehicles. Population refers to midyear population in the year for which data are available.

Vehicle kilometers traveled per capita: The Rand Corporation

2008. Values are estimated from figure.

Biking Frequency: UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies

2015 Mode Share, estimated based on data collected on selected cities.
*Sweden based on Nordic value, Australia based on other OECD Pacific value

Public transit usage: Greendex

Combined percentage who responded that they use public transit “at least once a week” or “every day or most days,” for 2014. Other options in survey included “at least once a month,” “a few times per year,” “once a year or less,” or “never.”

Road fuel consumption per capita: World Bank

Indicator from original source no longer available on World Bank data website. 2011.

NOTES

“Global cyclists say NO to carbon – opt for CDM” Leszek J. Sibilski

October 27, 2015.
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) promotes greenhouse gas reduction projects but there have been none so far targeting bicycling. Bicycling has a Carbon Intensity of Travel of 17 g CO2e/pkm compared to 191 g CO2e/pkm for a medium-sized car, a difference that some city planners are taking into account as bicycling is on the rise.

“Macron’s U-turn on eco-tax rise gives green lobby fuel for thought” Jonathan Watts

December 4, 2018.
The French president has been forced to postpone a raise on fuel eco-tax due to violent protests. This has been a warning to other politicians around the globe to plan carefully before introducing similar measures to reduce carbon emissions, lest it be received poorly.