AASHTO Journal, 5 September 2014
The latest data released last week by the Federal Highway Administration show that American driving in the last year has reached levels not seen since 2008.
“More people driving means our economy is picking up speed,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx in a statement. “It also means we need to increase our investment in transportation to meet this demand, which is why Congress needs to pass the President’s four-year, $302 billion GROW AMERICA Act.”
The FHWA monthly “Traffic Volume Trends” report shows that drivers traveled 261.7 billion vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) in June, which according to FHWA is the most since June 2010. Travel on all roads increased by 3.7 billion miles in June, 1.3 percent more than June 2013. June also showed the largest single-month gain this year and the fourth consecutive month of VMT growth.
Overall, Americans drove more than 2.97 trillion miles between July 2013 and June 2014, the most recent month for which data are available. In the first half of 2014, drivers traveled 1.466 trillion miles – the largest since 2010 and the fourth-highest in the report’s 78-year-history.
The “Traffic Volume Trends” reports, which are based on information collected from more than 2,000 road-mounted sensors nationwide, are available online at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/travel_monitoring/tvt.cfm.