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U.S. vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in December 2015 finished out the year on a very strong note, according to just-released Department of Transportation data, and made the full-year travel total the highest in records going back two and a half decades.
The VMT metric, as measured by the Federal Highway Administration, reached 3,147.8 billion for all of 2015. That beat out the previous record of 3,040.7 billion in 2014. The yearly change in cumulative travel — up 3.5% versus 2014 – – also reflects the strongest year-on-year growth in those same records.
In fact, the 2015 year-on-year growth rate was twice that of 2014 (1.7%) and five times the strongest up-year of the preceding 10 years — 0.7% in 2010. For the years 2004 through 2015, nine showed gains and three (2007, 2008 and 2011) showed contraction.
California — the most motor-traveled state in the U.S. — played a large role in setting the U.S.-wide high-water marks, recording blistering year-on-year growth of 11.3% in December. In recent months, only Hawaii — one of the least traveled of all the U.S. states — has come as close to such a gain (10% in July).
The same factors likely to have motivated vehicle use in November 2015 — stronger employment levels, mostly temperate weather and cheap gasoline — were also in play in December. The retail price of regular gasoline in December stood some 50.5cts/gal below a year earlier.
The Energy Information Administration hasn’t issued final gasoline demand numbers for December, but the agency’s weekly data suggest demand for the month at 9.072 million b/d, up 1.5% year on year.
Western Gains in Travel Dominate Rest of U.S.
Regional growth patterns seen during 2015 held in December. The most miles driven were in the West (61.6 billion) and VMT there rose the most of any region at 6.9% year on year.
The second-highest growth came in the South Atlantic at 4.4%, where motorists logged 54.9 billion VMT.
More miles were driven in the North Central region (58.5 billion) compared to the South Gulf (50.5 billion) and the Northeast (38.7 billion) but year-on-year growth in all three regions was 3.0%.
After California, the next highest-mileage states saw moderately stronger growth compared to December 2014: 3.4% for Texas; 5.3% for Florida; 4.5% for New York; 2.4% for Ohio; 4.5% for Georgia and 3.1% for Pennsylvania.
States hardest hit by the financial pullback in oil and gas exploration and production featured among those showing year-on-year declines in travel: Wyoming; Oklahoma and North Dakota.
–Beth Heinsohn, bheinsohn@opisnet.com
Copyright, Oil Price Information Service
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