Our Nation’s Highways 2026
Beginnings to Today
It has been over eight decades since the first publication of Highway Statistics in 1945, but the collection of highway data and its distribution began long before the end of World War II. As early as 1892, the Good Roads Movement attempted to get a bill passed in Congress that would make an inquiry into the condition of highways throughout the United States and what means would be necessary to improve them.
This bill did not succeed, but the following year a bill authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to "make inquiry regarding public roads" and to "make investigation for a better system of roads." With this bill’s enactment and an appropriation of $10,000, the Secretary established the Office of Road Inquiry (ORI) on October 3, 1893, and appointed General Roy Stone as Special Agent and Engineer for Road Inquiry. General Stone's authority, however, was limited to investigating and disseminating information, and he was "not to direct and formulate any system of organization, however efficient or desirable it may be." The ORI is considered the antecedent of today's Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).
Another stipulation of the 1893 Act was to make investigations regarding the best methods of road-making and to assist agricultural colleges in disseminating this information. General Stone and his one clerk immediately set to work soliciting information from governors, Secretaries of State, members of Congress, State geologists, and railroad presidents regarding highway laws, materials, and hauling rates. By the end of June 1894, the ORI had issued nine bulletins on these subjects.
By the turn of the century, there were about 8,000 automobiles in the United States, practically all concentrated in major cities and owned by the wealthy for convenience and pleasure. But a host of State and local laws restricted pleasure driving. Furthermore, States began charging motor-vehicle registration fees, and there were often problems of reciprocity among States. Some cities required a "wheel tax," and there might be a personal property tax on the vehicle in some States. All of these obstacles placed a burden on the vehicle owner.
One of the tasks undertaken by ORI, which became the Office of Public Roads in 1905, was to collect data about all the roads in the United States. Through mailed questionnaires, the investigation inquired about taxation, sources of revenue, road laws, and total expenditures. The task ultimately involved about 60,000 printed and typewritten letters sent out during the investigation, an average of about 20 per county. The results were so voluminous that it took over two years to tabulate them. The introduction to Bulletin 32 “Public-Road Mileage, Revenues, and Expenditures in the United States in 1904” summarizes the purpose of the endeavor:
“While it is known in a general way that some parts of the country have made greater progress than others in the improvement of the public roads and that enormous sums are expended annually on road construction and repairs, there has been no information compiled up to the present time showing just what has been accomplished and how much is expended annually for this purpose in the United States.” (Eldridge, 1907, p. 5)
This first national road inventory showed 2,151,570 miles of public roads in the U.S. Only 153,664 miles, or 7 percent, had any improvement, usually gravel. There was 1 mile of road for every 35 Americans or 0.03 miles (about 150 feet) of road per person. However, a limitation of these statistics is that they do not include “streets or boulevards in incorporated cities and villages.” Total expenditures for public roads during 1904 were $79 million. This amounted to $37.07 per mile of public road and $1.05 per American.
Federal Aid and System Selection
By 1912 most members of Congress recognized that some form of Federal aid to roads was necessary. After lengthy investigations by a joint committee, the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916 became law. It provided a matching basis of funding, an apportionment formula, and the requirement for the establishment of State highway departments.
When the United States entered World War I in 1917, men, materials, and equipment were diverted to the war effort. Heavy truck traffic severely damaged highways that lacked load limit protections. Following the war, Thomas H. MacDonald became the new Chief of the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) in 1919, a position he would hold for 34 years. During his tenure, he championed the need for a connected system of interstate highways.
The Federal Highway Act of 1921 provided for the selection and approval of a system made up of no more than 7 percent of the highways in each State, interconnected with neighboring States. By November 1923, the job of designating and approving the 48 State systems was completed. In 1926, a uniform numbering system was approved and marked with the familiar black and white shield markers that still guide American motorists today.
The Beginning of Modern Planning
The Great Depression brought a new challenge: the diversion of highway funds to non-highway purposes. Congress responded with the Hayden-Cartwright Act of 1934, which withheld Federal-aid funds from States that diverted highway revenues. It permitted States to use 1.5 percent of their matched Federal-aid funds for plans, surveys, and engineering investigations.
This led to comprehensive highway planning surveys involving:
- Road inventories: Recording width, type, condition, and geographic features of rural highways.
- Traffic surveys: Utilizing automatic traffic counters to measure volume, weigh commercial vehicles, and sample origins and destinations.
- Financial tracking: Recording expenditures and revenues across all units of government.
The data from these surveys proved invaluable. It formed the foundation for the 1939 report Toll Roads and Free Roads and the 1944 report Interregional Highways, which provided the blueprints for the modern Interstate System. This massive data effort also led to the publication of the first Highway Statistics in 1947 with the 1945 data. Highway Statistics have been updated every year since, providing an unbroken statistical narrative of American roadways.
Technology and the 21st Century Future
The Federal Highway Administration, or FHWA, began operations in the newly formed Department of Transportation in 1967. Today FHWA continues the legacy of collecting transportation statistics started by ORI. The evolution of highway data collection mirrors the rapid advancement of technology over the last century. As discussed above, early collections involved sending letters through the mail and performing calculations by hand. The 1960s brought mainframe computers, followed by high-speed electronic computers in the 1970s and personal computers in the 1980s. New electronic data systems, such as the Highway Performance Monitoring System started in 1978, developed in response to these changes. Similarly, the annual Highway Statistics, once known as the “Yellow Book,” has outgrown its physical bindings. While still a cornerstone of transportation data, it now lives primarily as a series of electronic files.
Today, in the 2020s, highway data collection has entered the era of big data and artificial intelligence. The physical rubber pneumatic tubes of the 20th century, while still in use, are being augmented or replaced by inductive loop detectors and magnetometers; image detection and radar, microwave, and infrared sensors; and more recently, continuously streaming data from connected vehicles and smartphone telematics. Video cameras on vehicles, high-resolution LiDAR, and drone mapping offer opportunities to enhance highway data and the associated Geographic Information Systems. And static, electronic data files are giving way to online dashboards and digital portals that allow researchers, legislators, and the public to query data, visualize trends, and forecast future needs in real-time. However, as we continue deeper into the 21st century, Federal-State partnership remains the bedrock of America's highway stewardship. Collecting accurate, complete, consistent, and timely highway data will continue to require cooperation across all levels of government. And while data collection methods will continue to modernize, the mission remains the same as it was in 1904: to understand, measure, and improve the roads that connect our Nation.
2024 Moving Numbers
Today, highways remain central to American life, reflecting immense historical growth in travel habits and infrastructure. In 2024, our 339 million residents traversed over 4 million miles of public roads, logging 3.3 trillion vehicle-miles. That’s a massive leap from the mid-20th century, averaging out to 10,000 miles per person today. Our Interstate System, which has steadily expanded to nearly 50,000 miles, handled 854 billion of the overall vehicle-miles. While early automobiles were scarce, today’s 240 million drivers own 298 million vehicles — about 1.2 vehicles per driver. On average, each vehicle covered 11,100 miles and burned roughly 577 gallons of fuel, contributing to a staggering 172 billion gallons of gasoline and special fuels consumed nationally and demonstrating a scale of motorized travel unimaginable just a few generations ago.
- 240 Million Licensed Drivers
- 172 Billion Gallons of Fuel Consumed
- 4.2 Million Miles of Public Road
- 49 Thousand Miles of Interstate
- 3.3 Trillion VMT
- 854 Billion Interstate VMT
- 298 Million Registered Vehicles