Miles Traveled Rises in June From Year Ago

This story appears in the Sept. 7 print edition of Transport Topics.

Total vehicle-miles traveled on U.S. highways increased 2% in June to 256.7 billion miles compared with June 2008, the second year-over-year increase in the past three months, the Federal Highway Administration reported.

The increase follows a revised 0.2% decline in year-over-year travel in May. FHWA initially had reported that miles traveled rose in May by 0.1%.

FHWA also said the total number of vehicle-miles traveled on U.S. highways was 1.446 trillion through the first half of 2009, down 0.4% from the first-half total for last year.

The agency does not calculate the amount of truck-miles traveled on a monthly basis.

Transportation researchers said the recession was still likely limiting overall travel and that the recent increases were more a result of the lower fuel prices this summer compared with last year.

David Ellis, a researcher at Texas A&M University’s Texas Transportation Institute, told Transport Topics the modest increases were “not surprising when comparing it to a year ago, when VMT was really depressed because of the high price of gasoline.”

“Certainly, the decrease last summer was due to the price of fuel, so it is certainly logical to assume that as fuel comes down, VMT should start going up,” said Darrin Roth, director of highway operations for American Trucking Associations.

Last spring and summer, as gasoline and diesel prices were approaching $5 a gallon in some parts of the country, overall vehicle-miles traveled fell 3.7% in May and 4.7% in June, according to FHWA figures.

“In the summer months, when you have more discretionary driving, the price of gasoline makes a big difference,” Texas A&M’s Ellis pointed out.

Ellis added that the price of diesel is more subject to “overall economic conditions, as opposed to price,” a fact that may be hampering even further growth in miles traveled.

The sustained declines in miles traveled has reduced revenues flowing to the federal Highway Trust Fund, which has forced Congress to transfer funds from the general treasury on two occasions, most recently in August.

Roth said the increases in miles traveled, while somewhat helpful for generating highway funds, is probably not enough to overcome the current financial predicament.

“Assuming that the economy starts to improve and assuming the price of fuel continues to come down, we should see an increase in VMT,” he said. While that trend would lead to an increase in revenue from fuel taxes, Roth said, “the other major factor that reduced revenue to the trust fund was a slowdown in sales of heavy trucks because of the 12% excise taxes.”

“For those revenues to start increasing, we need to see an improvement in freight volumes and trucking industry performance . . . so if the economy doesn’t improve and freight volumes don’t improve, that decreased excise tax revenue could by itself hold down Highway Trust Fund revenue,” he said.

The most recent injection of $7 billion into the fund will expire soon, so when Congress returns from recess later this month, the highway funding issue will need to be addressed.

The Senate has backed a large infusion of cash into the Highway Trust Fund, coupled with an 18-month delay in renewing the law that authorizes the federal highway program, an approach opposed by leaders in the House.