This chart shows the number of private vehicles in five cities from 1950 to 2000. Five cities are London, Beijing, Tokyo, New York City and Los Angeles. There are a number of different trends for each city over the fifty-year period.
In London, it can be clearly seen that the number of private cars increased for 30 years and then leveled off. From 1980 to 2000 there was no noticeable increase in the number of private cars. Of all the cities on the chart, Beijing started with the fewest number of private vehicles in the 1950’s , but by the year 2000 had about 2.5 million private cars. Tokyo is the only city on the chart to have seen a year-to-year decreased in car ownerships. Though the number of private cars increased 2000 was greater than the number of owned cars in 1950, the number of private cars actually decreased from 1980. New York City and Los Angeles both saw substantial increased increases in car ownership from the 1950’s . In the year 2000, Los Angeles and London had the most number of private vehicles out of all the cities on the chart.
The graph shows that the number of privately cars owned increased considerably over the 50 years. Even with the exception of Tokyo from 1980 onward, there were still many more vehicles on the road at the end of the 20th century than there were mid-century.