3 - MobilityTable 6 Per Capita Passenger Travel and Freight Transportation
3 - Mobility
The U.S. transportation network provides a high degree of personal mobility and freight activity. In 1999, the transportation network supported 4.8 trillion passenger-miles and about 3.9 trillion ton-miles. The data in this section confirm that local and long-distance travel and freight shipments continue to grow. Several factors influence this growth: greater vehicle availability, reduced travel costs, population increases, an expanding economy, and higher consumer incomes.
Table 6 Per Capita Passenger Travel and Freight Transportation
| Number | |
|---|---|
| Passenger travel (1995) | |
| Local trips per person,a annual | 1,568 |
| Local trips per person,a daily | 4.3 |
| Long-distance tripsb per person, annual | 3.9 |
| Local miles per person,a annual | 14,115 |
| Local miles per person,a daily | 39 |
| Long-distance miles per person, annual domestic only | 3,129 |
| Freight transportation (1997) | |
| Tons per person, annual | 55 |
| Ton-miles per person, annual | 14,383 |
a Persons aged 5 and over. A trip is defined as travel from one address to another address.
b Each time a person goes to a destination at least 100 miles away from home and returns.
Notes: Data used for local travel are from the Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey travel-day file and include trips of all lengths made by respondents on a single day; about 95% of these daily trips were 30 miles or less. Per capita calculations are based on population estimates within each survey, not from the Census Bureau estimate reported in the table.
Sources: U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), Federal Highway Administration, Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey, Our Nation's Travel (Washington, DC: 1997.); USDOT, Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) and U.S. Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, 1997 Commodity Flow Survey: United States (Washington, DC: 1999); USDOT, BTS, American Travel Survey data, October 1997, person trip and demographic files; plus additional estimates prepared for the BTS by Oak Ridge National Laboratory.