The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), a branch of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), recently published new data that demonstrates the year 2015 may be the most heavily traveled year yet.
The data, taken from November 2015, shows U.S. drivers traveled 2.88 trillion miles from January through November. The data from December has not yet been calculated. Experts estimate that 2015 will break records for being the most heavily traveled year in U.S. history. Over 253 billion miles were driven just during November.
The data, available in “Traffic Volume Trends” from FHWA, is an estimate of data on road travel for each month in the U.S. The data for November 2015 report has been seasonally adjusted and serves to balance out seasonal fluctuations in travel patterns, better allowing analysts to compare vehicle miles traveled (VMT) with other months.
The recently enacted Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act will spend $305 billion on national surface transportation infrastructure, with approximately $226 billion spent on roads and bridges alone, over the next five years.
