INTRODUCTION
This publication brings together annual series
of selected statistical tabulations relating to highway transportation
in three major areas: (1) highway use--the ownership and operation
of motor vehicles; (2) highway finance--the receipts and expenditures
for highways by public agencies; and (3) the highway plant--the
extent, characteristics, and performance of the public highways,
roads, and streets in the Nation.
The arrangement of contents follows this general
order, with the first three sections devoted to motor-fuel use
and taxation, vehicle ownership, and driver licensing. The fourth
section deals with financing of highways by all government agencies;
the fifth section provides data on highway mileage and performance;
the sixth section gives statistics for the U.S. Territories and
the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; the seventh section shows selected
international data; and the eighth section contains metric tables.
Statistics in this publication have been analyzed
and reported using procedures that provide comparability of values
among States. Therefore, some values reported here may differ
from values reported by other agencies for similar items.
The cooperation of Federal, State, and local
agencies in providing the basic data from which these statistical
series are derived is acknowledged and greatly appreciated.
While the Office of Highway Information Management
is responsible for the preparation of this publication, a number
of the statistical summaries are prepared by other units within
the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) as indicated by notes
on the tables involved.
Responsibility for administering the highway
network of the United States, providing funds for its continued
improvement and maintenance, and regulating its use is a complex
affair involving Federal and State agencies, together with nearly
39,000 county, township, and municipal governments and, to a limited
degree, the private sector. These agencies work in concert in
many ways in the management of the Nation's highway plant.
FEDERAL AGENCIES
The FHWA is the principal highway agency of
the Federal Government. Under the Federal-aid highway program,
the initiative for selecting routes eligible for improvement with
Federal-aid funds rests with the States. These routes continue
to remain under the jurisdiction of the State or local governments
which are responsible for administering and maintaining them as
part of the State or local highway systems.
The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) created the National Highway System (NHS) and other Federal-aid highway categories. The congressional approval of the final system occurred on November 28, 1995.
The FHWA also administers the Federal Lands
Highways Program. This program is funded from the Federal Highway
Trust Fund and consists of three separate programs: Park Roads
and Parkways, Indian Reservation Roads, and Public Lands Highways.
The Department of Defense and the Bureau of
Land Management in the Department of the Interior provide funds
for the construction of roads leading to military installations,
timber areas, etc., but these funds are usually transferred to
the FHWA to manage the construction program.
Some Federal agencies also provide funds for
road and bridge work which is incidental to their major functions.
For example, the Corps of Engineers in the Department of the Army
and the Bureau of Reclamation in the Department of the Interior
expend funds for highway and bridge construction and reconstruction
on projects involving water resources and navigable rivers. Other
Federal agencies, such as the Forest Service and the Bureau of
Land Management, provide funds through a policy of sharing with
States and counties some of the income derived from timber sales
and oil and mineral royalties on Federal lands, a portion of which
is placed in road funds.
Additional Federal funds are provided from
the General Treasury to States, counties, and cities through the
programs of other Federal agencies such as Urban Development
Block Grants for various purposes including highways. The different
Federal assistance programs for highways are summarized in the
FHWA publication, Highway Taxes and Fees, How They Are Collected
and Distributed, table F106.
The Treasury Department's Internal Revenue
Service collects the Federal road-user taxes and deposits the
revenues in the Federal Highway Trust Fund. Amounts dedicated
by Congress for mass transportation are credited to a separate
mass transit account.
STATE AGENCIES
In the Federal Highway Administration's analyses,
special State commissions and authorities, both toll and nontoll,
as well as State highway and transportation departments, are classified
as State highway agencies. Other executive branches of State governments
also have been included when, and to the extent, they are responsible
for the collection and distribution of road-user taxes or perform
highway and related functions. Examples of these executive agencies
are treasury and revenue departments, motor-vehicle departments,
public-safety departments (highway police and law enforcement
activities), and conservation departments when they are responsible
for roads within State parks, forests, or reservations. The District
of Columbia is treated as a State.
LOCAL GOVERNMENTS
Local governments include: counties, townships,
and municipalities. Included with local governments are subordinate
agencies, road districts, commissions, and authorities, both toll
and nontoll.
All States have organized county governments
except Connecticut and Rhode Island. Counties, however, have limited
or no responsibility for roads in the New England States, or in
Delaware, North Carolina, Virginia (with some exceptions), and
West Virginia. In Alabama and Maryland, the State has assumed
responsibility for roads in certain counties. Counties are called
parishes in Louisiana, boroughs in Alaska, municipios in Puerto
Rico, and townships are known as towns in New England, New York,
and Wisconsin.
A municipality is a political subdivision where
a municipal corporation has been established to provide general
local government for a specific population concentration in a
specified area. Some counties have boundaries coextensive with
cities. Generally, these counties retain their identities only
for certain administrative purposes. Because some counties are
entirely urban in nature or have merged with municipalities, they
are classified as municipalities. A county may also be classified
as a municipality when its area consists predominantly of incorporated
cities, towns, and villages.
Although generally considered to be rural governments,
many townships, particularly in the Northeast, serve heavily populated
areas and perform the functions of a municipal government.
URBAN AREAS
The term "urban" is used in the summary
tables to denote the Federal-aid legislation definition of an
area. Such areas include, at a minimum, a census place with an
urban population of 5,000 to 49,999 or a designated urbanized
area with a population of 50,000 or more (or portions thereof
within State boundaries). The Federal-aid boundaries are fixed
by responsible State and local officials, subject to the approval
of the Secretary of Transportation. These Federal-aid urban areas
may extend beyond incorporated (with some exceptions) and census
boundaries, and thus are not necessarily coextensive with municipal
boundaries.
INDIVIDUAL UNIT STATISTICS
In general, the statistical series present
summary data primarily on a State-by-State basis. However, in
the highway finance section, special tabulations are included
for individual toll authorities. The roadway extent section includes
two tables detailing information for urbanized areas. While a
number of States compile selected motor vehicle and mileage statistics
on a county basis, this is not universal and tabulations of these
data are, therefore, not included in this publication. Inquiries
for information on a county-by-county basis should be directed
to the respective State highway agencies.
DUPLICATIONS
Users of these data must be careful to avoid
"double counting" of the statistical data that could
result from the effect of intergovernmental relationships. This
is particularly so with reference to tables in the finance and
mileage sections, because of the overlapping of Federal-aid activities
with the State and local highway activities, and the effects of
grant-in-aid programs. Examples are Federal-aid payments, which
are in turn reported as State receipts and included in State expenditures;
and Federal-aid highway system mileage, which are parts of the
State and/or local highway systems, and are also included in those
systems. Summary tables that give national statistics have been
included at the beginning of the finance and mileage sections,
and eliminate "double counting" or duplication. These
are then followed by table series that reflect the transactions
of each level of government, but which are not necessarily cumulative
to national totals.
CONVERSION TO METRIC
In accordance with Public Law 100-418 requiring
Federal agencies to use the metric system, we are also providing
the following tables in metric this year (metric tables will follow
the English tables at the end of the publication and will contain
an "M" at the end of the title):
MOTOR FUEL:
MF-21 and MF-33E.
ROADWAY EXTENT, CHARACTERISTICS, AND
PERFORMANCE: HM-10, HM-12, HM-14,
HM-15, HM16, HM-18, HM-20, HM-30, HM-36, HM-50, HM-60,
VM-1, VM-2, VM-3, and FI-1.
The chart in the front of this book (back of
the Technical Report Documentation page) may be useful in preparing
your spreadsheets for metric/English conversion.
CHANGES IN TABLES
The following changes have been made in the
1995 Highway Statistics:
VEHICLE REGISTRATION:
MV-1--The three columns that compare prior-year total motor vehicle
registrations to current- year registrations have been eliminated.
The Private and Commercial Automobiles per Capita map has
been eliminated but the data has been included in table MV-1.
DRIVER LICENSES:
Table DL-1A and DL-1B have been combined into one table-DL-1C.
A column showing the ratio of licensed drivers to registered
private and commercial vehicles has been added and the map showing
same has been eliminated.
FINANCE:
Table MF-205 which shows State tax rates on motor fuel for 1981-1995
has been added. Table FA-5a has been renamed FA-21 (Federal equivalency
of SF-21 and LGF21).
ROADWAY EXTENT, CHARACTERISTICS, AND
PERFORMANCE: Table HM63
has been changed to remove all references to APavement
Condition@ and to eliminate all IRI
data. This table now contains only Present Serviceability Rating
(PSR) data for the three functional systems for which IRI data
are not required and routinely reported Rural Major Collectors,
Urban Minor Arterials, and Urban Collectors. In addition, the
verbal descriptors good, fair, poor, etc. have been deleted
with the determination of what constitutes a Agood@
pavement based upon PSR data left to the user. Numerical ranges
have not been changed to facilitate multiyear comparison
of the data. IRI data for the other functional systems are included
in Table HM64, which is unchanged from previous issues.
As with the PSR data included in Table HM63, the determination
of what constitutes a Agood@
or other pavement rating based upon IRI data is left to the user
to decide.
Table PR1 has been eliminated and data
for Puerto Rico has been merged into other tables.
Please refer to specific sections for more
information regarding these tables.