• October 4th, 2017

AASHTO: Motor vehicle travel on all U.S. roads rose again in July to continue a streak of setting ever-higher record volume levels with every new monthly report. The Federal Highway Administration in its latest “Traffic Volume Trends” report said motorists drove 2.2 billion more vehicle miles in July than in the same month last year, for a 0.8 percent gain over July 2016.

For the first seven months of 2017, the FHWA said vehicle miles traveled increased by 1.5 percent, after setting an all-time annual high in 2016. That steady increase in traffic helps explain why so many areas of the country continue to face worsening highway congestion, fraying pavement and other signs of stress on the U.S. transportation infrastructure. The new evidence of growing traffic pressure on the road system also comes at a time when various federal sources of infrastructure funding have been delayed, which in turn can delay some project investments that could improve roadway mobility and safety along with pavement conditions.