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FHWA Home / Policy & Governmental Affairs / Highway Policy Information / Highway Statistics Series / 2008 / Office of Highway Policy Information

policyinformation/statistics/2008 Table VM-1M - Highway Statistics 2008 - FHWA

Highway Statistics 2008

Annual Vehicle Distance Traveled in Kilometers and Related Data - 2008 1/ By Highway Category and Vehicle Type

April 2011
Table VM-1M (Updated)

Excel Version (28 kb)
PDF Version (28 kb)

YEAR ITEM
LIGHT DUTY
VEHICLES
SHORT WB 2/
MOTOR­CYCLES
BUSES
LIGHT DUTY
VEHICLES
LONG WB 2/
SINGLE-UNIT
TRUCKS 3/
COMBINATION
TRUCKS
SUBTOTALS ALL
MOTOR
VEHICLES
ALL
LIGHT DUTY
VEHICLES /2
SINGLE-UNIT
2-AXLE 6-TIRE
OR MORE AND
COMBINATION
TRUCKS
  Motor-Vehicle Travel: (millions of vehicle-kilometers)
2008 Interstate Rural 217,408 2,659 3,311 68,360 19,264 80,424 285,769 99,688 391,426
2008 Other Arterial Rural 366,818 5,288 3,446 143,121 32,470 51,131 509,939 83,601 602,273
2008 Other Rural 381,032 5,200 3,409 149,821 31,037 26,211 530,853 57,248 596,711
2008 All Rural 965,258 13,146 10,166 361,303 82,771 157,766 1,326,561 240,537 1,590,410
2008 Interstate Urban 540,115 4,068 3,429 134,266 26,959 57,395 674,381 84,354 766,231
2008 Other Urban 1,753,157 16,278 10,261 478,819 94,423 80,678 2,231,976 175,101 2,433,616
2008 All Urban 2,293,272 20,346 13,690 613,085 121,382 138,073 2,906,357 259,455 3,199,847
2008 Total Rural and Urban 5/ 3,258,531 33,492 23,856 974,388 204,153 295,839 4,232,918 499,992 4,790,257
2008 Number of motor vehicles registered 2/ 196,762,927 7,752,926 843,308 39,685,228 8,288,046 2,585,229 236,448,155 10,873,275 255,917,664
2008 Average kilometers traveled per vehicle 16,561 4,320 28,289 24,553 24,632 114,434 17,902 45,984 18,718
2008 Person-kilometers of travel (millions) 4/ 5,148,478 42,534 505,782 1,689,275 204,153 295,839 6,837,753 499,992 7,886,060
2008 Fuel consumed (thousand liters) 323,990,553 1,852,653 7,786,319 132,206,657 64,895,287 115,685,521 456,197,210 180,580,808 646,416,990
2008 Average fuel consumption per vehicle (liters) 1,647 239 9,233 3,331 7,830 44,749 1,929 16,608 2,526
2008 Average kilometers traveled per liter of fuel consumed 10.1 18.1 3.1 7.4 3.1 2.6 9.3 2.8 7.4

* The current update is based on an enhanced methodology implemented in March 2011

1/ The FHWA estimates national trends by using State reported Highway Performance and Monitoring System (HPMS) data, fuel consumption data (MF-21 and MF-27), vehicle registration data (MV-1, MV-9, and MV-10), other data such as the R. L. Polk vehicle data, and a host of modeling techniques. Starting with the 2009 VM-1, an enhanced methodology is used to provide timely indictors on both travel and travel behavior changes.

2/ Light Duty Vehicles Short WB - passenger cars, light trucks, vans and sport utility vehicles with a wheelbase (WB) equal to or less than 121 inches. Light Duty Vehicles Long WB - large passenger cars, vans, pickup trucks, and sport/utility vehicles with wheelbases (WB) larger than 121 inches. All Light Duty Vehicles - passenger cars, light trucks, vans and sport utility vehicles regardless of wheelbase.

3/ Single-Unit - single frame trucks that have 2-Axles and at least 6 tires or a gross vehicle weight rating exceeding 10,000 lbs.

4/ Vehicle occupancy is estimated by the FHWA from the 2001 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS); For single unit truck and heavy trucks, 1 motor vehicle miles travelled = 1 person-miles traveled.

5/ VMT data are based on the latest HPMS data available; it may not match previous published results.

The data now on the website for 2000-2006 were estimated using a methodology developed in the late 1990s. FHWA recently developed a new methodology and used it for this year’s Highway Statistics. This methodology takes advantage of additional and improved information available beginning in 2007 when states were first required to report motorcycle data – before that time, the reporting was not mandatory and the data were missing for a few states. Also, the new methodology does not rely on data from the national vehicle inventory and use survey which provided critical data for the original methodology but was not collected in 2007 as planned.

In April 2011, FHWA recalculated the 2000-2008 data along with the 2009 data to estimate trends. However, after further review and consideration, the agency determined that it is more reliable to retain the original 2000-2006 estimates because the information available for those years does not fully meet the requirements of the new methodology. Thus, the original 2000-2006 estimates are now used, whereas the 2007-2009 data are still based on the new methodology.

Page last modified on November 7, 2014
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