I read today that Americans drove 1.4 billion fewer highway miles in April as compared to the same time last year. That was a “hmmm” moment, but the number alone didn’t mean much too me. 1.4 billion is a huge number. I can’t even wrap my head around that, especially without context.
Fortunately, I turned up the DOT Statistics on Traffic Volume. The estimated total miles driven in the US for April were 245.9 billion, down from about 250 billion last year, or a decrease of 1.8%. This change isn’t in isolation though. The trend tells more of the story.
I think this graph speaks for itself:
