US Motorists Drive Record 1.54 Trillion Miles in First Half of Year
U.S. motorists drove a record 1.54 trillion miles in the first half of 2015, beating the previous high of 1.5 trillion set in June 2007, according to new estimates released by the Federal Highway Administration.
The new data, published in FHWA’s latest “Traffic Volume Trends” monthly report, show that 275.13 billion miles were driven in June by cars, trucks and buses combined, also the highest vehicle miles traveled for the first half of any year. The report does not break down the numbers by vehicle type.
According to the report, the nation’s driving has increased for 16 months in a row.
The seasonally adjusted vehicle miles traveled for June 2015 were 261.9 billion, a 3.4% increase — or 8.7 billion more VMT — compared with the previous June and a .1% decrease — or 2 million more miles traveled — compared with May 2015.
The North Central region, consisting of 12 states, was the nation’s most-traveled for June, representing the seventh consecutive month of VMT growth. The region’s unadjusted VMT was 63.1 billion.
The Northeast, a region of nine states stretching from Pennsylvania to Maine, showed the smallest growth, rising only 1.1%, or 38.8 billion VMT, compared with the same month a year earlier.
At 10.8%, Hawaii led the nation with the largest unadjusted single-state traffic percentage increase compared with the same month a year earlier, followed by Colorado at 7.8% and Montana at 7.5%, the report said.
