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FHWA Home / Policy & Governmental Affairs / Highway Policy Information / Highway Statistics Series / 2009 / Office of Highway Policy Information

Highway Statistics 2009

Annual Vehicle Distance Traveled in Kilometers and Related Data - 2009 1/ By Highway Category and Vehicle Type

April 2011
Table VM-1M* (Revised)

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)
2009 Interstate Rural 224,698 2,382 2,577 67,595 17,688 74,316 292,293 92,004 389,256
2009 Other Arterial Rural 369,130 5,303 3,320 143,543 31,164 46,968 512,674 78,132 599,429
2009 Other Rural 364,513 5,636 4,033 157,534 30,856 26,267 522,046 57,123 588,837
2009 All Rural 958,341 13,320 9,930 368,672 79,707 147,551 1,327,013 227,259 1,577,522
2009 Interstate Urban 538,753 3,738 3,493 140,199 25,185 53,012 678,952 78,197 764,379
2009 Other Urban 1,743,217 16,417 9,683 483,938 88,491 69,552 2,227,155 158,043 2,411,298
2009 All Urban 2,281,970 20,154 13,176 624,137 113,676 122,564 2,906,107 236,240 3,175,677
2009 Total Rural and Urban 5/ 3,240,311 33,475 23,107 992,809 193,383 270,116 4,233,119 463,499 4,753,200
2009 Number of motor vehicles registered 2/ 193,979,654 7,929,724 841,993 40,488,025 8,356,097 2,617,118 234,467,679 10,973,214 254,212,610
2009 Average kilometers traveled per vehicle 16,704 4,221 27,443 24,521 23,143 103,211 18,054 42,239 18,698
2009 Person-kilometers of travel (millions) 4/ 4,502,040 36,056 489,862 1,326,343 193,383 270,116 5,828,383 463,499 6,817,800
2009 Fuel consumed (thousand liters) 323,880,727 1,797,728 7,074,147 135,380,700 61,861,986 106,483,968 459,261,427 168,345,954 636,479,256
2009 Average fuel consumption per vehicle (liters) 1,670 227 8,402 3,344 7,403 40,687 1,959 15,342 2,504
2009 Average kilometers traveled per liter of fuel consumed 10.1 18.4 3.1 7.4 3.2 2.6 9.2 2.8 7.5

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 2009 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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