Transportation policy generally restricts the predictors of car ownership to socio-economic variables without consideration of cultural factors. However, culture – the ideas, norms, and objects that a society shares – affects consumption decisions. Excluding this cultural context may limit consideration of potentially successful policy interventions. The research presented here statistically tests the impact of religious culture on rural car ownership in the United States by incorporating religious adherence rates into statistical models of countywide motorization rates. This research explores whether religious affiliation is a statistically significant predictor of car ownership and whether the addition of those religious variables results in a statistically significant improvement in model fit. The findings suggest that religious affiliation, expressed as countywide adherence rates, is a statistically significant predictor of car ownership and that its inclusion improves model fit; however, while statistically significant, that improvement in model fit is quite small. This research concludes that considering culture is a valuable direction for targeting car consumption policies aimed at curbing climate change. This research also demonstrates the need for additional exploration using disaggregated cultural data to better understand the import of this approach to policy development.

运输政策通常将汽车保有量的预测因素限制在社会经济变量中，而不考虑文化因素。但是，文化（社会共享的观念，规范和对象）会影响消费决策。排除这种文化背景可能会限制对潜在成功的政策干预措施的考虑。通过将宗教参与率纳入全县范围机动化率的统计模型中，此处提出的研究从统计学上测试了宗教文化对美国农村汽车拥有量的影响。这项研究探讨了宗教信仰是否是汽车拥有量的统计显着预测指标，以及那些宗教变量的添加是否会导致模型拟合具有统计学上的显着改善。研究结果表明，宗教信仰，以县范围内的遵守率表示，是汽车拥有量的统计上重要的预测指标，并且其包含可以改善模型的拟合度；但是，尽管具有统计意义，但模型拟合的改善很小。这项研究得出的结论是，考虑文化是针对旨在遏制气候变化的汽车消费政策的重要方向。这项研究还表明，需要使用分类的文化数据进行进一步的探索，以更好地理解这种方法在政策制定中的重要性。这项研究得出的结论是，考虑文化是针对旨在遏制气候变化的汽车消费政策的重要方向。这项研究还表明，需要使用分类的文化数据进行进一步的探索，以更好地理解这种方法在政策制定中的重要性。这项研究得出的结论是，考虑文化是针对旨在遏制气候变化的汽车消费政策的重要方向。这项研究还表明，需要使用分类的文化数据进行进一步的探索，以更好地了解这种方法在政策制定中的重要性。