subject: Car Ownership In Blacktown [print this page] Blacktown is a very large suburb of Sydney, Australia. This area is also one of the most culturally diverse locations in NSW and has a colourful colonial history.
Outside Blacktown, the area has a bad reputation. Aside from Bankstown, Blacktown has the dubious honour of being the only area in Sydney that is experiencing higher crime rates instead of reduced crime rates.
Blacktown also has a reputation for drag-racing and car ownership. People from other areas come into the region to play car games that often put them at cross purposes with police. Speeding, noise infringements and modifications that impact a vehicles road-worthiness are all points of tension.
What is the Relationship between Car Ownership and Blacktown?
Despite the rising financial and environmental costs of owning a car, unfortunately, car ownership in NSW is often a necessary evil, particularly so in Blacktown. In Sydney a large proportion of people work in the city centre. Being a bit further out, many Blacktown residents opt to drive into the city centre or catch a train into town. Not surprisingly, in 2006, the Sydney Statistical Division showed that 78% of households owned at least one car. Another independent study showed that 82% of households owned at least one car.
Car Ownership: Not Just Skin Deep?
Practical considerations aside, people love their cars, with a passion sometimes that transcends their friendships and romantic relationships. For some, it is the freedom owning a car offers that inspires this devotion. For others, car ownership is a form of self-expression. For still others its their best friend ever present, dependable, helpful. Car owners in Blacktown, like the wider population, express this commitment to their cars in their own unique way.
Undoubtedly, people become very attached to their cars, but does it go deeper than that?
Love Our Car But Not Driving It?
Interestingly, a poll by AP-AOL Autos in the United States revealed that people who earn less than US $25,000 are more likely to say they enjoy driving than people earning more than US$75,000. In addition, people aged between 30 and 39 are less likely than young adults and older people to say they enjoy driving. Perhaps the same curious trend applies in Australia.
If so, with a higher proportion of people on lower incomes than in other parts of Sydney (41% earning $400 or lower per week) it would follow that car ownership in Blacktown was a significant part of the social psyche for the area. Interestingly, despite these lower incomes in Blacktown, the majority of households (80%) own at least one car. It seems the trend holds firm.
What Your Car Says About You
If your car is not simply a tool to get you from A to B, then what is it? According to the poll, most people (62%) think the type of car someone drives makes a statement about their personality. The car you choose, the modifications you do to it, the accessories and trims you buy, the car seat covers, stereo and other furnishings you select may reveal more about you than you realise, a bit like wearing your heart on your sleeve.
On the motorway that passes Blacktown, heading up to the mountains, you see cars of all shapes, sizes, colours and states of repair, a veritable parade of individuality. In the city on a weekend night you also often see hotted up cars in bright colours with all kinds of accessories and trims. What does a lime green ute say about its driver, when compared to a black European coupe? Perhaps thats a question the local cops may be better able to answer!
