Travel Trends - October 2020 - Policy | Federal Highway Administration

October 2020 Traffic Volume Trends

Travel Trends (October 2020)

Based on preliminary reports from the State Highway Agencies, travel during October 2020 on all roads and streets in the nation changed by -8.8% (-25.0 billion vehicle miles) resulting in estimated travel for the month at 259.0** billion vehicle-miles.

This total includes 82.3 billion vehicle-miles on rural roads and 176.8 billion vehicle-miles on urban roads and streets.

Cumulative Travel changed by -13.9% (-380.7 billion vehicle miles).

The larger changes to rural and urban travel are primarily because of the expansion in urban boundaries reflected in the 2010 census. Travel estimates for 2014 and beyond will also reflect this adjustment.

Travel for the current month, the cumulative yearly total, as well as the moving 12-month total on all roads and streets is shown below. Similar totals for each year since 1995 are also included.

**Travel in Millions of Vehicle Miles All Roads and Streets**
Year	October	Year to Date	Moving 12-Month
1995	206,745	2,035,303	2,418,464
1996	215,654	2,081,096	2,468,568
1997	221,219	2,150,629	2,551,735
1998	228,523	2,197,882	2,607,626
1999	233,631	2,236,138	2,663,619
2000	236,491	2,305,717	2,749,037
2001	241,050	2,335,516	2,776,725
2002	245,556	2,390,601	2,850,696
2003	254,048	2,417,986	2,882,894
2004	254,496	2,479,964	2,952,200
2005	251,419	2,500,587	2,985,412
2006	257,939	2,520,583	3,009,426
2007	261,423	2,543,753	3,037,286
2008	255,848	2,495,302	2,981,371
2009	252,209	2,479,907	2,958,114
2010	256,395	2,486,887	2,963,744
2011	251,906	2,467,057	2,947,437
2012	253,574	2,489,499	2,972,844
2013	258,748	2,506,989	2,986,059
2014	265,144	2,531,934	3,013,225
2015	268,469	2,587,106	3,080,827
2016	275,610	2,654,475	3,162,743
2017	278,888	2,686,230	3,206,162
2018	281,382	2,709,483	3,235,601
2019	284,036	2,732,626	3,263,469
2020	259,029	2,351,941	2,886,697

Traffic Volume Trends is a monthly report based on hourly traffic count data. These data, collected at approximately 5,000 continuous traffic counting locations nationwide, are used to determine the percent change in traffic for the current month compared to the same month in the previous year. This percent change is applied to the travel for the same month of the previous year to obtain an estimate of travel for the current month. Because of the limited sample sizes, caution should be used with these estimates. The Highway Performance Monitoring System provides more accurate information on an annual basis.

** System entries may not add to give "All Systems" total due to rounding for Page 2 to 8.

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Page last modified on December 11, 2020