• August 29th, 2017

U.S. Driving Increases for Sixth Straight Year, New Federal Data Show
New Federal Highway Data Show Drivers Topped 1.58 Trillion Miles in First Half of 2017

WASHINGTON – New data released today by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) show that U.S. driving topped 1.58 trillion miles in the first six months of 2017 – or more than 8,500 roundtrips from Earth to the Sun – continuing a streak of steadily increasing vehicle miles travelled (VMT) that began in 2011.

The new data, published in FHWA’s latest “Traffic Volume Trends” report – a monthly estimate of U.S. road travel – show that more than 280.9 billion miles were driven in June 2017 alone, which is 3.4 billion miles more than the previous June. The increase in driving over the first half of the year highlights the growing demands challenging the nation’s roads, and reaffirms the importance of improving the nation’s infrastructure investments and streamlining the environmental and permitting processes.