US driving miles fall for 14th straight month

Driving up slightly in Texas

Steve Hawley, Feb 20, 09.

UPDATE (04/28/09, 10:57 am): More complete figures from the FHWA reveal that vehicle miles decreased for just the fourth time since World War II in 2008. The other three years were 1974, 1979, and 1980, resulting from international oil crises. However, the drop in 2008 was much larger than in previous years. Driving miles decreased by 3.6 percent last year, compared to 2.5 percent (1974), 1 percent (1979), and 0.1 percent (1980).

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Americans drove less in December 2008 than December 2007, marking the 14th straight month of decreasing highway miles, according to Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) statistics reported by Reuters. However, the article notes that the 1.6 percent decline is significantly smaller than previous decreases. Over the entire year, driving miles dropped 3.6 percent, or 108 billion miles. Americans drove over 2.9 trillion miles in 2008, the lowest number since 2003. Last year also marked the first year of declining driving miles since at least 1983, the earliest year for which FHWA provided statistics.

The FHWA report indicates that Texas drivers drove slightly more in December 2008 than one year earlier. Texans logged an estimated 19.1 billion miles in December, an increase of 0.1 percent. December marked the first increase in monthly driving in Texas since January 2008.