AASHTO Journal, 4 December 2015
September was another in a long string of record-breaking months for U.S. roadway traffic, the Federal Highway Administration said.
The FHWA’s latest monthly “Traffic Volume Trends” report shows that “the miles driven in September were the most ever in September of any year,” the agency said.
U.S. driving reached 259.9 billion miles that month, up 4.3 percent from the same month a year earlier, September 2015 was the largest single-month percentage gain – 4.3 percent – since January, which was up 4.9 percent.
The figures include passenger vehicle, bus and truck travel, and the new data marks 19 straight months of consecutive year-over-year mileage increases. The FHWA said that record volume trend “reinforces calls to increase federal investment in transportation infrastructure as demands on the nation’s highway system continue to grow.”
The report also includes seasonally adjusted data prepared by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics as a way to even out the impact of weather, holidays and other factors. For September, seasonally adjusted vehicle miles traveled were 264 billion, up 3.4 percent from September 2014.