AASHTO Journal, 23 August 2013
The Federal Highway Administration this week released a report on the nation’s busiest interstate highways, revealing that California, Texas, and Florida are the three busiest states by interstate vehicle-miles traveled.
The data, which uses 2011 numbers (the most recent available), shows that Interstate 5 in California stands as the nation’s busiest interstate with 21.4 billion miles traveled by the public in one year alone. The state’s I-10 and I-110 followed as the second and third busiest interstates. Texas experienced 55.7 billion miles traveled on its interstates, and Florida boasts 34.7 billion miles traveled. States rounding out the top 10 of most vehicle-miles traveled on highways in 2011 (in order) are Ohio (31.4 billion miles traveled), Illinois (31 billion miles traveled), Georgia (28.5 billion miles traveled), Virginia (24 billion miles traveled), Pennsylvania (23.7 billion miles traveled), North Carolina (21.2 billion miles traveled), and Michigan (20.7 billion miles traveled).
FHWA Administrator Victor Mendez said compiling this data helps state transportation departments and the federal government better utilize the funding they have for projects that can have the largest impact.
“Data like these help us better understand the highway system and its needs,” said FHWA Administrator Victor Mendez in a statement. “Analysis of the nation’s traffic patterns and areas of changing traffic volume will lead to safer, less congested roads and greater mobility for all Americans.”
The data was collected through FHWA’s Highway Performance Monitoring System, which computes miles-traveled information for all highways and interstates. The data is based on automatic traffic recorders operated by state transportation departments.
The complete list of FHWA data on busy interstate highways is available here.