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American Driving Survey: 2014-2017
The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety is dedicated to saving lives through research into the causes of traffic crashes and educating the public about ways to prevent crashes and reduce injuries based on research. One of the fundamental elements of any traffic safety research is quantifying traffic risks, which requires two types of data: 1) the number of motor vehicle crashes and people who are involved, injured, and killed in such crashes; and 2) people’s exposure to risk; for example, the number of miles that they travel.
To address the need for concrete information regarding driving patterns of the public in the United States (number 2 above), the Foundation launched its data collection system — the American Driving Survey — in May 2013 and has collected data almost every day of the year until December 2017. This research brief summarizes survey results regarding the American public’s driving exposure in relation to selected demographic characteristics in calendar years 2014 through 2017.
During 2016 and 2017, the American Driving Survey found that on average, drivers spent 51 minutes driving approximately 31.5 miles each day, making an average of 2.2 driving trips. Nationwide, drivers made 183 billion trips, driving 2.6 trillion miles, in 2016 and 2017. Also, all driving metrics increased when comparing statistics with the previous period measured, 2014-2015.