Office of Highway Policy Information - Policy | Federal Highway Administration

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

Highway Statistics 2008

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

April 2011
Updated Table VM-1*

Excel Version (36 kb)
PDF Version (21 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
YEAR	ITEM	LIGHT DUTY VEHICLES SHORT WB 2/	MOTORCYCLES	BUSES	LIGHT DUTY VEHICLES LONG WB 2/	SINGLE-UNIT TRUCKS 3/	COMBINATION TRUCKS	ALL LIGHT DUTY VEHICLES /2	SINGLE-UNIT 2-AXLE 6-TIRE OR MORE AND COMBINATION TRUCKS	ALL MOTOR VEHICLES
	Motor-Vehicle Travel: (millions of vehicle-miles)
2008	Interstate Rural	135,091	1,652	2,057	42,477	11,970	49,973	177,568	61,943	243,221
2008	Other Arterial Rural	227,930	3,286	2,141	88,931	20,176	31,771	316,861	51,947	374,235
2008	Other Rural	236,762	3,231	2,119	93,095	19,286	16,287	329,857	35,573	370,779
2008	All Rural	599,784	8,168	6,317	224,503	51,431	98,031	824,287	149,463	988,235
2008	Interstate Urban	335,612	2,527	2,131	83,429	16,752	35,663	419,041	52,415	476,114
2008	Other Urban	1,089,361	10,115	6,376	297,524	58,672	50,131	1,386,886	108,803	1,512,179
2008	All Urban	1,424,973	12,642	8,506	380,953	75,423	85,794	1,805,927	161,218	1,988,293
2008	Total Rural and Urban 5/	2,024,757	20,811	14,823	605,456	126,855	183,826	2,630,213	310,680	2,976,528
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 miles traveled per vehicle	10,290	2,684	17,578	15,256	15,306	71,106	11,124	28,573	11,631
2008	Person-miles of travel (millions) 4/	3,199,116	26,430	314,278	1,049,667	126,855	183,826	4,248,783	310,680	4,900,171
2008	Fuel consumed (thousand gallons)	85,589,249	489,419	2,056,928	34,925,304	17,143,521	30,560,882	120,514,553	47,704,403	170,765,303
2008	Average fuel consumption per vehicle (gallons)	435	63	2,439	880	2,068	11,821	510	4,387	667
2008	Average miles traveled per gallon of fuel consumed	23.7	42.5	7.2	17.3	7.4	6.0	21.8	6.5	17.4

* 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.