August Travel Shows 5.6 Percent Drop from 2007

Travel during August 2008 on all roads and streets in the United States dropped 5.6 percent from August 2007 at an estimated total of 253.7 billion miles, according to the most recent report from the U.S. Department of Transporation's Federal High Administration (FHA), released this week. This figure reflects a drop by 15 billion vehicle-driven miles from the previous year.

Though July 2008 had seen a 1.8 percent increase over June 2008, the numbers again tumbled downward in August-showing a 0.8 billion drop (a .3 percent drop).

When broken down by region, miles driven compared to August 2007 were down in all regions.

Estimated Miles Driven by Region
(in millions)

Region	Total Miles Traveled in August 2007	Total Miles Traveled in August 2008	Pergentage Change
Northeast	41,193	39,722	-3.6
South-Atlantic	56,190	52,046	-7.4
North-Central	59,789	56,962	-4.7
South-Gulf	52,630	49,132	-6.6
West	58,881	55,821	-5.2
Total	268,680	253,684	-5.6

For cumulative miles driven throughout the year, current numbers are down 4.4 percent from 2007; in August 2007, 2012.7 billion cumulative vehicle miles had been driven, while this year, only 1945.5 billion cumulative miles had been driven as of this August.

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