Miles driven in Missouri down 6.1 percent

The Federal Highway Administration has released a report showing that the number of miles Americans drive is decreasing by the largest amounts recorded since the 1970s:

The FHWA's "Traffic Volume Trends" report, produced monthly since 1942, shows that estimated vehicle miles traveled (VMT) on all U.S. public roads for March 2008 fell 4.3 percent as compared with March 2007 travel. This is the first time estimated March travel on public roads fell since 1979. At 11 billion miles less in March 2008 than in the previous March, this is the sharpest yearly drop for any month in FHWA history.

According to a Kansas City Star story:

Missouri saw a 6.1 percent drop in driving in March. It was the third largest decline among the dozen states in the North Central Region, which includes Kansas, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and Indiana. Kansas reported a decrease of 4.9 percent in March.

FWHA's monthly traffic volume reports are available here (though as of 5/23/2008 the March report is not yet posted.)

The numbers quoted above are based on the March 2008 data and the chart above shows the driving trend through February 2008--and of course some dramatic increases in gasoline price have happened since that data was collected. So it remains to be seen what effect these yet higher prices will have on the traveling habits of Americans.

Many of the goals of MoBikeFed's Vision of Active Transportation in Missouri are designed to give Missourians real transportation choice that allows us to take needed trips while reducing cost, pollution, greenhouse emissions, and congestion and improving health and community liveability.