Climbing Mount Auto | The End of Traffic and the Future of Transport

| David Levinson
Quarterly figures reveal that vehicle travel per person dipped for most of the 2000s and the early 2010s (total vehicle travel has dipped too, but not as severely owing to population gains). Per-capita vehicle travel is roughly where it was in the late 1990s. And vehicle miles traveled, the number of miles that cars are moving is moving mostly sideways, only surpassing the 2007 peak in 2014. Context helps put the significance in perspective. These trends are following 90 years of steady, almost uniform increases in the amount of automobile traffic. Barring a few exceptions owing to economic downturns or energy shocks, vehicle miles traveled increased almost every year in the US for the entire twentieth century! From Levinson and Krizek (2015) The End of Traffic and the Future of Transport. Figure 1.1. Note: The graph shows both linked and unlinked transit trips, as the way transit trips are counted has changed, and there is no continuous series of both over the entire period. Source: US Census Statistical Abstract http://www.census.gov/prod/2/gen/96statab/app4.pdf and US Federal Highway Administration: Highway Statistics http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics/2012/vmt422c.cfm
Quarterly figures reveal that vehicle travel per person dipped for most of the 2000s and the early 2010s (total vehicle travel has dipped too, but not as severely owing to population gains). Per-capita vehicle travel is roughly where it was in the late 1990s. And vehicle miles traveled, the number of miles that cars are moving is moving mostly sideways, only surpassing the 2007 peak in 2014. Context helps put the significance in perspective. These trends are following 90 years of steady, almost uniform increases in the amount of automobile traffic. Barring a few exceptions owing to economic downturns or energy shocks, vehicle miles traveled increased almost every year in the US for the entire twentieth century!
From Levinson and Krizek (2015) The End of Traffic and the Future of Transport.
Figure 1.1. Note: The graph shows both linked and unlinked transit trips, as the way transit trips are counted has changed, and there is no continuous series of both over the entire period. Source: US Census Statistical Abstract and US Federal Highway Administration: Highway Statistics