How many petrol stations are there in the United States?

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Estimate the number of petrol (gasoline) stations in the United States. Give at least two independent routes to the answer, check that they agree to within a factor of two, and name the assumption you are least sure of.

Accepted Answer

About 150,000, with both routes landing between 100,000 and 200,000. Route 1: demand and capacity. The US has about 280 million registered vehicles. A typical car fills up about once a week, giving about 280 million fills a week, or 40 million fills a day. A station with 8 pumps, each serving a car every 6 minutes for 16 hours a day, handles about 8 × 10 × 16 = 1,280 fills a day at full stretch; real stations run well below capacity, say 300 fills a day on average. Stations needed: 40 million / 300, about 130,000. Route 2: geography. The population is about 330 million. A town of 10,000 peopl…

How many petrol stations are there in the United States?

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