Public road mileage in 1997 reached 3.95 million
miles. This mileage was overwhelmingly local and rural.
However, while locally owned mileage increased between 1987 and 1997, rural
mileage has decreased as metropolitan areas have expanded to incorporate
mileage that was formerly rural.
About 3.11 million miles were in rural areas in 1997, or 79 percent of total
mileage. The share of rural mileage decreased by about 0.2 percent
annually between 1987 and 1997.
![Miles Traveled 1997](cpesg_03.gif) About 2.97 million miles were locally owned in 1997, 75.3 percent
of the national road system. Federally owned roads comprised 169,000 miles in
1997 (4.3 percent), and State-owned roads comprised 808,000 miles (20.4
percent). Locally owned road mileage has steadily increased, by an average of
0.4 percent annually. State road mileage has remained relatively constant.
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![{short description of image}](cpesg_04.gif) Federal ownership has dropped by about
2.3 percent annually largely because of reclassification of some routes to
non-public road status.
While highway mileage is mostly rural, a majority of highway travel
occurs in urban areas. Overall, nearly 61 percent of total vehicle miles
traveled (VMT) of 2.5 trillion miles in 1997 was urban travel. Urban travel
grew at an average annual rate of 3.2 percent since 1987, while rural travel
increased by about 2.6 percent annually. VMT increased on every highway
functional system.
VMT for combination trucks has grown faster than VMT for passenger vehicles
since 1987, increasing at an average annual rate of 3.8 percent.
![{short description of image}](cpesg_05.gif) The 582,976 bridges in the Nation are a critical
element of the infrastructure network. Approximately 47 percent of bridges are
State-owned, while 51 percent are locally owned. The remaining 2 percent are
federally owned, privately owned, or their ownership is unknown or
unclassified.
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