2015 On Pace to Be Most Heavily Traveled Year, New Federal Data Show

[cpzilliacus]

FHWA press release: 2015 On Pace to Be Most Heavily Traveled Year, New Federal Data Show

New data released today by the U.S. Department of Transportation's (USDOT) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) show that U.S. driving reached 2.88 trillion miles by the end of November, making it likely that U.S. drivers will make 2015 the most heavily traveled year in history.

The new data, published in FHWA's latest "Traffic Volume Trends"  report — a monthly estimate of U.S. road travel — show that more than 253 billion miles were driven in November alone, reaffirming the growing demands challenging the nation's roads and underscoring the value of the recently enacted "Fixing America's Surface Transportation"  (FAST) Act, which will invest $305 billion in America's surface transportation infrastructure — including $226 billion for roads and bridges — over the next five years.

[Duke87]

So much for "peak driving", eh?

Of course this confirms what a sensible person would have expected: higher gas prices will put a damper on people driving. So will a recessed economy. Now that we don't have either of these things holding us back, driving is on the rise again.

That said, it's worth noting that 2015 is only threatening to be a record year because of population growth. Vehicle miles traveled per capita peaked in 2004 at 10,126 miles per person and is still down more than 5% from that, although the downward trend has started to reverse.

[AlexandriaVA]

Any major changes in VMT per person? Changes in raw VMT can be accounted for by population growth even if micro factors stay the same.

[hotdogPi]

Lower gas prices mean more travelers.

[SSOWorld]

a farse in winter as they will fill up more often due to the winter mix.