We were reading over the latest Transportation Energy Data Book, which was released last summer, and noticed a really eye popping chart.

It shows the history of US auto usage per capita, going back to the early 1900s, and then shows where other countries have been/are on the continuum.

See China there? It's basically where the US was in the mid-1910s in terms of autos per capita.

The chart continues...

The current cycles aside, if you figure China has years and years of development ahead of it, and it traverses anywhere along the US automobile path, the boom is going to be insane.

Meanwhile, the bet among some companies, like Yum brands -- owners of the KFCs that have grown like wildfire in China -- is betting on China doing lots more development in the interior, laying the groundwork for rail and road infrastructure that really completes the analogy between US and Chinese growth patterns.