Memorial Day traditionally marks the beginning of the driving season. But new figures suggest the roadways may be a little less crowded this summer, as gas prices discourage road trips.
According to estimates released this week by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the number of miles driven in March 2008, compared to March 2007, shows the sharpest drop for any month since the FHWA began keeping statistics.
The FHWA’s "Traffic Volume Trends" report, produced monthly since 1942, shows that estimated vehicle miles traveled (VMT) on all U.S. public roads for March 2008 fell 4.3% as compared with March 2007 travel. This is the first time estimated March travel on public roads fell since 1979.
The 11 billion fewer miles travelled in March 2008 continues a trend that began over a year ago. Though February 2008 showed a modest 1 billion mile increase over February 2007, cumulative VMT has fallen by 17.3 billion miles since November 2006. Total VMT in the United States for 2006, the most recent year for which such data are available, topped 3 trillion miles.
Additionally, the U.S. Department of Transportation estimated that greenhouse gas emissions fell by an estimated 9 million metric tons for the first quarter of 2008.
The FHWA’s Traffic Monitoring Analysis System (TMAS) computes VMT for all types of motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, buses and trucks) on the nation’s public roads. These data are collected through over 4,000 automatic traffic recorders operated round-the-clock by state highway agencies.
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