Miles driven in U.S. down even more

Since about 1980, miles driven in the U.S. has increased at an amazingly steady rate of about 3% per year--until 2006, when miles driven rose by under 1%, then held steady through about November 2007.

Since November 2007, miles driven has taken a sharp nosedive.

All that is according to figures collected by the Federal Highway Admnistration.

In the North-Central region, which includes Missouri, miles driven is down by 2.1% for April 2008 compared with April 2007.

In Missouri, miles driven was down 6.1% in March 2008 compared with March a year earlier and down 3.1% in April 2008 compared with April a year earlier.

All this has important ramifications for Missouri's transportation policy--all of which is based on the assumption that people will continue to drive more and more miels, regardless of the cost of fuel, and will not under any circumstances choose other transportation options.

For instance, MoDOT's Long-Range Transportation Plan is built on the assumption of ever-increasing miles traveled (see page 7) and includes this statement, which data already showed to be false even as it was written: "History shows that even when fuel prices rise dramatically, Missourians are generally unwilling or unable to turn to other modes of transportation, continuing to drive their personal vehicles and to purchase fuel to do so" (page 18).

Individual projects around the state are also planned around the assumptions that Missourians will drive at an ever-increasing rate and will never choose to use transit, walk, or bicycle, even if those options are presented.

The result is that projects are currently being built to handle a traffic volume that will never be reached unless gasoline prices return to prices below $2/gallon, and Complete Streets elements--which will accomodate the significant fraction of the population that will choose to walk, bicycle, and use transit at current and future fuel prices--are being omitted because officials feel they will not be used.

With the change in driver behavior happening now, now is the time to change our transportation policies to accommodate the very real needs of Missourians.

It will take only a few percentage points drop in miles driven to double, triple, or even quadruple the amount of trips Missourians take by walking, bicycling, and transit--because Missourians still need to get to work, school, shopping, recreation, and all their other destinations. They are simply looking for a healthier and more economical way of doing so.

See the FHWA's press release summarizing the traffic volume data here.