Chapter 2 - Transportation Indicators

Thursday, March 2, 2017

Introduction

The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century¹ charged the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) with compiling, analyzing, and publishing a comprehensive set of transportation statistics, including information on:

productivity in various parts of the transportation sector;
traffic flows;
travel times;
vehicle weights;
variables influencing traveling behavior, including choice of transportation mode;
travel costs of intracity commuting and intercity trips;
availability of mass transit and the number of passengers served by each mass transit authority;
frequency of vehicle and transportation facility repairs and other interruptions of transportation service;
accidents;
collateral damage to the human and natural environment;
the condition of the transportation system; and
transportation-related variables that influence global competitiveness.

For this report, BTS has added three additional topics: transportation and economic growth, government transportation finance, and transportation energy. Each of these topics is represented by a series of key indicators. Data tables supporting all the indicators are in appendix B at the end of the report. Appendix table numbers correspond to the figures numbers in this chapter.

See box for About the Data in this Report

¹ 49 U.S. Code 111(c)(1).

Labor Productivity in Transportation

Labor productivity (output per hour) in the for-hire transportation services and petroleum pipeline industries increased by 20 percent from 1990 to 2000. This compares with an increase of 45 percent for all manufacturing and 23 percent for the overall business sector (figure 1). Labor productivity, a common and basic productivity measure, is calculated as the ratio of output to hours worked or to the number of full-time employees.

The growth of individual transportation subsector labor productivity between 1990 and 2000 varied (figure 2). Compared with the overall business sector, several transportation modes had considerably higher rates of increases in labor productivity, and some lower, over the same period. Railroad labor productivity increased 65 percent, as did local trucking, while pipeline productivity grew 38 percent. On the other hand, labor productivity in air transportation increased 19 percent, “trucking except local” increased 18 percent, and Class I bus carriers rose 16 percent.

Comparing annual growth rates is another way to interpret changes of labor productivity over time. For overall business, labor productivity grew at an average annual rate of 2 percent between 1990 and 2000. Labor productivity in rail transportation—where productivity has been affected by consolidation of companies, more efficient use of equipment and lines, increased ton-miles (output), and labor force reductions—increased by 5 percent annually. Labor productivity of local trucking also grew at 5 percent annually.

The lowest annual labor productivity growth rates were for pipelines (3 percent), trucking except local subsector (1.7 percent), and air transportation (1.8 percent). Bus carriers’ productivity grew 1.5 percent but with considerable fluctuation over the period of analysis.

Multifactor Productivity

Multifactor productivity (MFP) in rail transportation increased by 30 percent between 1990 and 1999 (an average annual rate of 3 percent), while in the overall private business sector, MFP increased by 8 percent (less than 1 percent annually) (figure 3). Thus, the rail industry has contributed positively to increases in MFP in the business sector and to the U.S. economy over this period.

While MFP measures are difficult to construct, they provide a much more comprehensive view of productivity than labor productivity measures. The conventional methodology for calculating multifactor productivity, which is used here, employs growth rates of inputs weighted by their income shares. This methodology has been developed and used by various academic researchers and government agencies, such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics.¹

Transportation MFP data are currently available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the rail sector only. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics is developing MFP measures for other transportation industries, such as air, pipelines, and so on. The objective is to provide information on the relative importance of changes in the inputs and on the productivity of the inputs relative to changes in transportation output. This research should also provide information on the relative importance of transportation in increasing the productivity of the U.S. economy and, hence, transportation’s contribution to the economic growth of the country.

¹ See, for instance, discussion on MFP by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the BLS Handbook of Methods, available at http://www.bls.gov/opub/hom/homch11_a.htm.

Passenger-Miles of Travel

Estimated passenger-miles of travel (pmt) in the United States increased 24 percent between 1990 and 2000 (see box). Pmt totaled an estimated 4.7 trillion in 2000,¹ about 17,000 miles for every man, woman, and child [2, 3].

Just over 85 percent of passenger travel in 2000 was made in personal vehicles (passenger cars and light trucks, including sport utility vehicles, pickups, and minivans) (figure 4). Most of the balance (11 percent) occurred by air. Passenger travel in light trucks accounted for a little under one-third of all pmt. Transit, excluding bus transit, made up less than 1 percent of pmt in 2000; with transit bus included, it accounts for 4 percent.

Travel increased every year between 1990 and 2000 at an annual average rate of 2 percent [3]. Pmt by air and by light truck grew the fastest over this period, at 4 percent per year on average (figure 5). Pmt by intercity train (Amtrak) declined, although there has been modest growth since 1996. Likewise, transit pmt has grown since the mid-1990s.

Passenger travel has increased during the 1990s for a variety of reasons. The resident population of the United States grew by nearly 33 million people over this period [2]. Moreover, the economy also grew significantly. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased by 37 percent² and GDP per capita grew 21 percent between 1990 and 2000 (figure 6) [1].

Sources

1. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, National Income and Product Accounts, summary GDP table, available at http://www.bea.doc/bea/dn1.htm, as of May 2003.

2. U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2002 (Washington, DC: 2003), for population data.

3. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, National Transportation Statistics 2002 (Washington, DC: 2003), table 1-34, also available at http://www.bts.gov/.

¹ This calculation excludes travel in heavy trucks, by bicycle, by walking, and by boat (including recreational boat). Pmt in heavy trucks is excluded because such travel is assumed to be incidental to the hauling of freight, the main purpose of such travel. Bicycle, pedestrian, and boat travel are excluded because there are no national estimates available on an annual basis.

² Calculation is based on chained 1996 dollars.

Domestic Freight Ton-Miles

Excluding gas pipelines, all modes of freight transportation, combined, generated nearly 4 trillion domestic ton-miles in 2000, 20 percent more than in 1990. This represents an average growth rate of almost 2 percent per year during the decade [1].

Domestic ton-miles for all modes, except water, grew during this decade (figure 7). On an average annual basis, air grew the fastest (5 percent per year), followed by rail and truck (4 percent each). Rail and truck accounted for the majority of domestic traffic, representing 39 percent and 30 percent of domestic ton-miles, respectively, in 2000 (figure 8). Truck data, however, do not include retail and government shipments and some imports and, therefore, understate total truck traffic.

Water transportation and oil pipelines¹ accounted for 16 and 15 percent of domestic ton-miles, respectively, in 2000. Although domestic waterborne ton-miles decreased 23 percent between 1990 and 2000, waterborne vessels continued to play a prominent role in international trade [1, 2]. Ships transported 78 percent (by ton) of U.S. imports and exports in 2000.

Air freight tends to transport high value, relatively low weight goods. Thus, on a ton-miles basis, air freight accounted for less than 1 percent of domestic freight in 1998, whereas on a value basis, this mode accounted for 12 percent of domestic freight²[3].

Ton-miles is the primary physical measure of freight transportation output. A ton-mile is defined as one ton of freight shipped one mile and, therefore, reflects both the volume shipped (tons) and the distance shipped (miles). Ton-miles provides the best single measure of the physical volume of freight transportation services. This, in turn, reflects the overall level of activity in the economy.

Sources

1. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, National Transportation Statistics 2002 (Washington DC: 2002), table 1-44, also available at http://www.bts.gov/.

2. _____, U.S. International Trade and Freight Transportation Trends (Washington, DC: 2003).

3. U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, The Freight Story (Washington, DC: 2002).

¹ The Bureau of Transportation Statistics developed data for gas pipelines in 2003 but not in time to include in this report.

² The most recent year for which freight value basis data are available is 1998.

Geography of Domestic Freight Flows

The U.S. transportation system carried 20 percent more ton-miles of domestic freight in 2000 than in 1990 [1]. This growth was unevenly distributed in terms of geography and mode. The Federal Highway Administration developed the Freight Analysis Framework (FAF) to estimate geographic freight flows on the nation’s infrastructure [2]. These results can be depicted on maps like figure 9, figure 10, and figure 11.

Nearly one-third of urban Interstate highways carried more than 10,000 trucks each day on average in 1998,¹ according to FAF estimates. By 2020, the portion of heavily used urban Interstates is expected to rise to 69 percent [2]. Rail freight flows appear to be more concentrated than trucking flows. In addition to growth in domestic freight shipments, increased trade with Mexico and Canada has altered the distribution of freight movement within the United States, creating high traffic areas near borders [3].

For waterborne freight, domestic flows are highly concentrated along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. Domestic waterborne ton-miles decreased 23 percent between 1990 and 2000 [1].

Sources

1. U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), calculation based on USDOT, BTS, National Transportation Statistics 2002 (Washington, DC: 2002), table 1-44, also available at http:// www.bts.gov.

2. U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Freight Analysis Framework website, available at http://www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freight/adfrmwrk/index.htm, as of March 2003.

3. _____, The Freight Story (Washington, DC: November 2002), also available at http://www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freight/, as of March 2003.

¹ At the time this report was prepared, 1998 was the most recent year for which data were available.

Scheduled Intercity Travel Times

Intercity air, bus and rail schedules in many major intercity markets are tending to grow longer. Between February 1995 and February 2002, advertised travel times in selected city-pairs experienced varying degrees of schedule lengthening in most service categories.

A Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) study in 2003 found that the extent of changes in scheduled travel time differed by mode (figure 12). In at least half of the direct service city-pairs (no transfer en route) studied for each mode, scheduled travel times were longer. Scheduled trip time increased in 177 of 261 nonstop airline city-pairs studied (68 percent), 44 of 72 direct rail service city pairs (61 percent), and 67 of 129 direct service intercity bus city-pairs (52 percent). For rail, 108 of 174 city-pairs (62 percent) with an en route transfer experienced longer travel times in 2002 compared with several years earlier. Although slightly more than half of direct service bus markets experienced longer scheduled travel times, 73 of 121 connecting bus city-pairs (60 percent) experienced equal or shorter travel times. Overall 46 percent of the intercity bus city-pairs had longer schedules.

BTS weighted the city-pair results by the number of scheduled frequencies to quantify the degree of scheduled travel time change in the markets studied. Overall, intercity bus scheduled trip time decreased by 1.2 percent while airline schedule times increased by 3.2 percent. While a majority of rail markets saw longer trip times, a 7.8 percent decrease in scheduled trip time in the high-frequency Northeast Corridor (NEC) markets resulted in an overall 0.4 percent decrease in weighted average Amtrak city-pair scheduled travel time.

A variety of factors contribute to scheduled travel time change, and more than one factor may affect the same mode. For example, scheduled trip times for direct intercity bus service increased, but in city-pairs involving an en route transfer, scheduled trip times decreased as greater frequencies compared to 1995 resulted in shortened transfer times. For rail service, route changes, breaking of direct connections between trains, introduction of mail and express package handling at intermediate stations, and congestion or changes in track conditions on routes shared with freight trains all resulted in longer scheduled times. On the other hand, technology and infrastructure improvements in conjunction with the start of Amtrak’s Acela Express helped decrease intercity rail scheduled travel time in NEC city-pairs. The largest percentage increases in airline trip times came in the shorter distance city-pairs. This is likely due to airport congestion, which affects all flights but has a greater proportional impact on shorter flights.

See box for City-Pairs Analysis

Sources

1. National Railroad Passenger Corp. (Amtrak), National, Northeast and Schedule Change Timetables, 1994/1995 and 2001/2002 issues.

2. Greyhound Lines, System Timetable (Dallas, TX: January 1995).

3. OAG Worldwide Limited, OAG Flight Schedules database (Downer’s Grove, IL: February 1995 and February 2002).

4. Russell’s Guides, Russell’s Official National Motor Coach Guide (Cedar Rapids, IA: January 1995 and February 2002).

Urban Highway Travel Times

Highway travel times increased between 1990 and 2000 in 70 of the 75 urban areas studied by the Texas Transportation Institute. The average Travel Time Index (TTI) for these areas in 2000 was 1.39, an increase from 1.31 in 1990 [2]. This means that in 2000, it took 39 percent longer, on average, to make a peak period trip in urban areas compared with the time it would take if traffic were flowing freely (see box).

Travel times tend to deteriorate as urban area size increases (figure 13). For instance, Los Angeles, California, had the highest TTI (1.90) in 2000, while Anchorage, Alaska, and Corpus Christi, Texas, had the lowest (each 1.04). Of the urban areas with the highest index in 2000, only three had a population under 1 million: Austin, Texas (1.27); Charlotte, North Carolina (1.27); and Albuquerque, New Mexico (1.26). At the other end of the spectrum, urban areas of over 1 million people with low indices include Buffalo-Niagara Falls, New York (1.08) and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (1.09).

Between 1990 and 2000, the greatest increases in TTI generally occurred in small- and medium-sized metropolitan areas, while the increases were more moderate in the very large and small areas¹ (figure 14). Overall, the average index for large urban areas increased by 10.2 percent, while that for medium urban areas was up by 8.3 percent. In small and very large areas, the increases were 4.7 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively.

The Texas Transportation Institute analyzed congestion for the Federal Highway Admin-istration (FHWA) for almost 400 urban areas between 1987 and 2000 [3]. In 2000 for those areas, an average peak period trip required 51 percent longer than the same trip under nonpeak, noncongested conditions, equivalent to an index of 1.51. The values in the FHWA report differ from those in the Texas Transportation Institute annual study, due to differences in the scope of the two analyses.

In urban areas, where highway infrastructure is typically well developed, the principal factor affecting travel times is highway congestion resultings from both recurring and nonrecurring events. Recurring delay is largely a phenomenon of the morning and evening commute, although in some places congestion may occur all day and on weekends. National estimates, based on model simulations, of the effect of nonrecurring events on freeways and principal arterials suggest that about 38 percent are due to crashes, followed by weather (27 percent), work zones on freeways(24 percent), and breakdowns (11 percent) [1].

Sources

1. Chin, S.M., O. Franzese, D.L. Greene, H.L. Hwang, and R. Gibson, “Temporary Losses of Highway Capacity and Impacts on Performance,” Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 2002.

2. Texas A&M University, Texas Transportation Institute, 2002 Urban Mobility Report (College Station, TX: 2002).

3. U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transit Administration, 2002 Status of the Nation’s Highways, Bridges, and Transit: Conditions & Performance, Report to Congress (Washington, DC: January 2003).

¹ Very large urban areas have a population of over 3 million; large urban areas, 1 million to 3 million population; medium urban areas, 500,000 to 1 million; and small urban areas, less than 500,000.

U.S. Air Carrier On-Time Performance

Just over 82 percent of domestic air flights arrived on time in 2002, compared with 75 percent in 1996. Late flights totaled 16 percent in 2002, down from 23 percent in 1996 (figure 15). Over this period, late, cancelled, or diverted flights peaked at 1.6 million in 2000, declining to just below 942,000 in 2002.

The total number of flight operations at the nation’s airports decreased by 5 percent, to 64.9 million, between 2000 and 2002 after having increased by 8 percent, from 63.0 million to 67.7 million, between 1992 and 2000 [2]. The decrease in flight operations due to the air system shutdown on September 11, 2001, and the aftermath, along with the consequences of a weak economy, affected overall airline performance. However, a trend to improved on-time performance began in early 2001 when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and major airlines began implementing the National Airspace System Operational Evolution Plan [1].

Air carriers with at least 1 percent of total domestic scheduled service passenger revenues are required to report these on-time performance data to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).¹ A flight has an “on-time departure” if the aircraft leaves the airport gate less than 15 minutes after its scheduled departure time, regardless of the time the aircraft actually lifts off from the runway. An arriving flight is counted as on-time if it arrives less than 15 minutes after its scheduled gate arrival time. Most delays take place while a plane is on the ground, although the actual cause of a delay may occur elsewhere in the system. Weather, usually the most common cause of delays, was responsible for 72 percent of FAA-recorded delays in 2002 [2]. BTS began collecting causes of delays and cancellations in June 2003 (see chapter 3).

Sources

1. U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, NAS Operational Evolution Plan, available at http://www2.faa.gov/programs/oep/index.htm, as of May 2003.

2. _____, OPSNET database, as of May 2003 (not publicly available).

¹ Alaska Airlines, America West Airlines, American Airlines, American Eagle Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, and US Airways were required to report in 2002. Beginning in January 2003, reports were also required from Atlantic Southeast Airlines, AirTran Airways, ATA (formerly doing business as American Trans Air), Atlantic Coast Airlines, ExpressJet Airlines, and SkyWest Airlines. In addition, JetBlue Airways started voluntarily filing on-time performance data in 2003.

Amtrak On-Time Performance

Seventy-seven percent of Amtrak trains arrived at their final destination on time in 2002 [1]. While this represented a 2 percent improvement compared with 2001, it still fell short of the system’s performance during the 1998 to 2000 period (figure 16). Amtrak counts a train as delayed only if it arrives more than 10 to 30 minutes beyond the scheduled arrival time, depending on the distance the train has traveled.¹ Amtrak on-time data are based on a train’s arrival at its final destination and do not include delay statistics for intermediate points.²

In addition to the system total, Amtrak reported the performance for short- and long-distance trains through 2000.³ Over the years, short-distance trains—those with runs of less than 400 miles—have consistently registered better on-time performance than long-distance trains—those of 400 miles or more. Annual on-time performance for short-distance trains reached as high as 81 percent in recent years, while the peak for long-distance trains was 61 percent on time in 1999 [2].

Amtrak collects data on the cause and cumulative hours of delay (figure 17). (A change in reporting methodology in 2000 has resulted in data that cannot be compared with data from 1999 and earlier years.) Since 1995, freight-related delays have consistently represented the cause of about half of total Amtrak delay time. In addition to interruptions in service due to freight trains, freight-related delays also stem from signal problems, trackwork, and speed restrictions while Amtrak trains are using tracks of other railroads. Amtrak trains operate over tracks owned primarily by private freight railroads except in most of the Northeast Corridor, along a portion of the Detroit-Chicago route, and in a few other short stretches across the country [2].

Sources

1. National Passenger Railroad Corp. (Amtrak), personal communication, Mar. 3, 2003.

2. _____, Amtrak Annual Report (Washington, DC: 2000 and 2001 issues), statistical appendix.

¹ Amtrak trips of up to 250 miles are considered on time if they arrive less than 10 minutes beyond the scheduled arrival time; 251–350 miles, 15 minutes; 351–450 miles, 20 minutes; 451–550 miles, 25 minutes; and greater than 550 miles, 30 minutes.

² Accordingly, a train traveling between Chicago and St. Louis (282 miles), for example, could arrive 15 minutes late at all intermediate points, yet arrive 12 minutes late at St. Louis and be reported as “on time.”

³ Amtrak is no longer reporting short- and long-haul data separately.

Highway Trucks by Weight

The United States truck fleet grew 23 percent between 1992 and 1997, according to the Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey conducted once every five years [1, 2]. The fleet includes a variety of vehicles, ranging from large 18-wheel combination trucks used to transport freight to small pickup trucks, often used for personal travel.

The fleet of medium and heavy trucks grew 18 percent between 1992 and 1997 (figure 18). However, the number of trucks in one of the heaviest subcategories (those weighing 100,001 to 130,000 pounds) grew 46 percent, from 12,300 trucks to 17,900. Overall, the number of trucks in the heavy category (over 26,000 pounds) grew 37 percent between 1992 and 1997. Light trucks, which include sport utility vehicles (SUVs), minivans, vans, and pickup trucks, represented 86 percent of the truck fleet in 1997.¹ Within the light truck category, pickup trucks outnumbered minivans and SUVs.

However, the number of SUVs and minivans increased by 93 percent and 61 percent, respectively, over the previous five years—much faster than the growth rate for pickup trucks (8 percent). Light trucks represent a growing proportion of auto industry sales; consumers purchased more light trucks than passenger cars for the first time in 2001 [3].

Sources

1. U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau, 1997 Economic Census: Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey: United States, EC97TV-US (Washington, DC: 1999).

2. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, National Transportation Statistics 2002 (Washington, DC: 2002), table 1-21, also available at http://www.bts.gov/, as of April 2003.

3. U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Highway Statistics 2001 (Washington, DC: 2002), table MV-9, also available at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policy/ohpi/hss/index.htm, as of April 2003.

¹ Here, light trucks include trucks less than 6,001 lbs. In the original source of the data (the Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey), trucks between 6,001 lbs and 10,000 lbs are also categorized as light trucks. See figure 18 for further explanation.

Vehicle Loadings on the Interstate Highway System

Large combination trucks¹ represent a small portion of traffic on the U.S. Interstate Highway System [1]. However, because they are heavier and have more axles than other vehicles, they may cause more pavement damage, a measurement that is estimated in terms of vehicle loadings (see box). In urban areas, these trucks made up only 6 percent of traffic volume, but accounted for 77 percent of loadings in 2001 (figure 19). These trucks also make up a greater portion of the vehicles on rural segments of the Interstate Highway System, representing 17 percent of traffic volume and 89 percent of loadings in 2001 (figure 20).

Between 1991 and 2001, large combination truck traffic volume grew from 14 percent to 17 percent on rural roads, while remaining the same on urban Interstate highways [1]. Concurrently, their share of loadings decreased on both rural and urban Interstate highways. Passenger cars, buses, and light trucks, which the Federal Highway Administration aggregates into one category, followed a different trend— representing a declining percentage of traffic volume but a growing percentage of loadings in urban areas [1].

Source

1. U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Highway Statistics 2001, table TC-3, available at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policy/ohpi/hss/index.htm, as of Feb. 26, 2003. Source 1. American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Guide for Design of Pavement Structures (Washington, DC: 1993), p. I-10 and appendix D.

¹ Large combination trucks weigh more than 12 tons and have 5 or more axles.

Merchant Marine Vessel Capacity

Merchandise trade valued at over $718 billion moved by maritime vessels between U.S. and foreign seaports in 2001 [2]. Container shipments increased 71 percent between 1992 and 2001¹ [3].

The average capacity of containerships calling at U.S. ports increased 9 percent to nearly 40,000 deadweight tons (dwt)² between 1998³ and 2001 (figure 21). The world’s largest containerships, built primarily during the late 1990s and early 2000s, are over 3 football fields long (1,138 ft), 140 feet wide, and 50 feet deep [1].

Containership capacity increased faster than the average capacity of all types of vessels calling at U.S. ports, which grew 4 percent between 1998 and 2001. The average capacity of all vessels is larger than the average capacity of containerships because it includes tankers, which carry nearly 90,000 dwt on average and dock at specialized ports. Excluding tankers, average vessel capacity was just over 32,000 dwt in 2001.

Sources

1. Maersk-Sealand, Vessels web page, available at http://www.maersksealand.com/, as of April 2003.

2. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, U.S. International Trade and Freight Transportation Trends (Washington, DC: 2003).

3. _____, Maritime Trade and Transportation 2002 (Washington, DC: 2002).

¹ 1992 is the first year for which data are available. Percentage change was calculated in terms of 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs).

² Deadweight tons is an expression of vessel capacity. It is the lifting capacity of a vessel expressed in long tons (2,240 lbs), including cargo, commodities, and crew.

³ 1998 is the first year for which data are available.

Railcar Weights

The volume of freight carried by railroads increased 26 percent (in tons) and 30 percent (by carload) on railcars between 1991 and 2001 (figure 22). However, on average, the weight of each railcar remained fairly constant. The average weight of a loaded railcar ranged from 63 to 67 tons during the same period (figure 23).

The relatively steady average weight of a loaded railcar masks countervailing trends among selected freight commodities. The average weight of a carload of coal, which represented 46 percent of rail freight tonnage in 2001, was 110 tons in 2001, up from 99 tons in 1991 (figure 24). Farm products, food and kindred products, nonmetallic minerals, and chemicals and allied products, which together represented 29 percent of tonnage in 2001, were also shipped in heavier average carloads in 2001 than in 1991 [2].

Miscellaneous mixed shipments is the only category of goods that was transported in lighter average carloads [2]. Miscellaneous mixed shipments are primarily intermodal freight composed of shipping containers on flatbed railcars [1]. The containers, which are primarily used to move manufactured goods that tend to be lighter and more valuable than raw materials, may be transported by waterborne vessel and truck, as well. Miscellaneous mixed shipments increased by 54 percent in terms of tonnage and by 79 percent in terms of carloads between 1991 and 2001, resulting in carloads that were 14 percent lighter in 2001 [2].

Sources

1. Association of American Railroads, Railroad Facts 2001 and 2002 (Washington, DC: 2001 and 2002).

2. Calculations based on Association of American Railroads, Railroad Ten-Year Trends, 1990–1999 (Washington, DC: 2000).

Daily Passenger Travel

In their daily nonoccupational travel, people in the United States journeyed about 4 trillion miles in 2001, or 14,500 miles per person per year¹ [1]. On average, people traveled 40 miles per day, 88 percent of it (35 miles) in a personal vehicle² such as an automobile (figure 25). The total number of vehicle-miles for this passenger travel in 2001 was nearly 2.3 trillion.

Americans took 411 billion daily trips annually, or an average of 1,500 trips per person per year. On a daily basis, individuals averaged about four trips per day (figure 26) [1].

See box for 2001 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS)

Source

1. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics and Federal Highway Administration, 2001 National Household Travel Survey, Preliminary Data ReleaseVersion 1 (day trip data only), available at http://nhts.ornl.gov/, as of January 2003.

¹ These data differ from those in section 2, Passenger-Miles of Travel. See box for a discussion on differences between these two datasets.

² Personal vehicles are cars, vans, sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks, other trucks, recreational vehicles (not including watercraft), and motorcycles.

Travel by Purpose

Commuting—trips made to and from work—accounted for 15 percent of all personal trips in 2001. In addition, other work-related trips (e.g., travel to meetings and conferences) accounted for 3 percent of all trips. The average length of a commuting trip was 12 miles,¹whereas the average length of a work-related trip was just under 30 miles figure 27).

People made the greatest number of daily trips, 45 percent, to shop, to visit doctors and dentists, and for other family and personal business such as using professional or personal services, attending a wedding or funeral, walking the dog, attending meetings, and dropping off or picking up someone else (figure 28). Most family and personal business trips tended to be relatively short, averaging about 7 miles, although visits to doctors and dentists averaged 10 miles each [1].

Social and recreational reasons for daily travel, including visits to friends and relatives, motivated just over one-quarter of all trips in 2001. These trips included going to the gym, exercising, or playing sports and going to the movies, a restaurant, or a public place, such as a park. The average distance of these trips was 8 miles, with trips to visit friends and relatives being longer than average at about 14 miles [1].

Trips to school and church accounted for 10 percent of trips in 2001 and averaged 6 miles in length. By contrast, vacation trips (including those for rest and relaxation) are taken relatively rarely but far from home. In 2001 (for daily trip reporting),² they accounted for less than 1 percent of trips but averaged 37 miles in length [1].

Source

1. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics and Federal Highway Administration, 2001 National Household Travel Survey, Preliminary Data Release Version 1 (day trip data only), available at http://nhts.ornl.gov, as of January 2003.

¹ The 2001 National Household Travel Survey defined a trip as each time a person went from one address to another. “Commute” trips were defined as those trips made for the purpose of going to or returning from work. However, given the definition of a trip, those reported as commuting trips were not necessarily anchored by the home or workplace (for return commutes). Therefore, care should be taken in analyzing work trips, recognizing that the distance for these trips is often, but not always, the distance from home to work.

² The 2001 National Household Travel Survey “travel period” data were not available when this report was prepared. Without these data, vacation trips and travel by air tend to be underrepresented.

Travel by Mode

Personal vehicles¹ are the predominant means by which people travel in the United States on a daily basis. In 2001, 87 percent of person trips and 88 percent of person-miles were made in personal vehicles (figure 29 and figure 30). Walking and riding a bicycle accounted for almost 10 percent oftrips and less than 1 percent of miles. Both transit and school bus trips accounted for 2 percent each of trips and 1 percent each of miles, whereas only 0.1 percent of all daily trips but 8 percent of miles were made by air² [1].

Within the personal vehicle category, in 2001 passenger cars were still the most widely used, accounting for 59 percent of person trips and 55 percent of person-miles. Vans and sport utility vehicles were used for 27 percent of trips and miles. Pickup trucks accounted for 15 percent of miles and 13 percent of trips. Together, other trucks, recreational vehicles, and motorcycles were used for almost 1 percent of trips and 3 percent of miles [1].

In the 2001 National Household Travel Survey, the definition of transit includes buses (but excludes charter, tour, and intercity buses, school buses, and shuttle buses), subway or elevated rail, street car and trolley car, commuter train, and waterborne passenger lines and ferries. Buses were the most widely used transit vehicle (67 percent of transit person trips and 53 percent of transit person-miles). Subway or elevated rail was the second most widely used, accounting for about one-quarter of these trips and miles. Commuter trains were used for only 6 percent of transit trips but because of the relatively long trip distances involved, accounted for 18 percent of the transit person-miles.

Source

1. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics and Federal Highway Administration, 2001 National Household Travel Survey, Preliminary Data Release Version 1 (day trip data only), available at http://nhts.ornl.gov, as of January 2003.

¹ Personal vehicles include passenger cars, vans, sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks, other trucks, recreational vehicles (not including boats), and motorcycles.

Vehicle Ownership and Availability

Slightly less than one-third of households said they had one personal vehicle¹ available for use in 2001. A little more than one-third of households (40 million out of 107 million households) had 2 vehicles and slightly less than one-quarter had 3 or more vehicles available (figure 31). Almost 8 percent of households (8.5 million) had no vehicle available [1].

The amount of travel people do and the way they travel is strongly related to the availability of personal vehicles in their household. For instance, persons in households without vehicles took approximately 1,000 trips per person in 2001, while persons in households with at least 1 vehicle took 1,500 trips each. Persons in households without a vehicle traveled about 6,900 miles annually, less than half the 14,900 person-miles traveled by those in households with at least 1 vehicle. In addition, persons in households with at least 1 household vehicle made nearly 9 of every 10 trips by personal vehicle compared with less than 4 of 10 for those in households without a vehicle. Persons in households without access to vehicles made 37 percent of their trips on foot and another 20 percent by transit. This compares with 8 percent and 1 percent by foot and transit, respectively, by households with at least one vehicle [1].

Households without vehicles tend to have characteristics different from households with vehicles. For instance, households with total incomes of less than $25,000 are almost 10 times more likely not to have a vehicle when compared with those with incomes greater than $25,000 (figure 32). Though related to income, households in rented residences are five times more likely not to have a vehicle. Household vehicle ownership is also closely related to the number of people living in the household. Eighteen percent of single-person households have no vehicle, as compared with only 4 percent of multiperson households. Furthermore, the unavailability of vehicles in households in urban areas is almost twice that of households in rural areas [1].

Source

1. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics and Federal Highway Administration, 2001 National Household Travel Survey, Preliminary Data Release Version 1 (day trip data only), available at http://nhts.ornl.gov, as of January 2003.

¹ Personal vehicles include passenger cars, vans, sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks, other trucks, recreational vehicles (not including boats), and motorcycles.

Household Spending on Transportation

On average, households spent $7,406 (in chained 1996 dollars¹) on transportation in 2001. This represented 21 percent of all household expenditures that year. Only housing cost households more (31 percent) [1].

Over the last 10 years, consumer spending on private transportation (mainly motor vehicles and related expenses) increased (figure 33). On average, households spent nearly $3,600 on new and used motor vehicles in 2001, up 47 percent from about $2,500 in 1991. Spending on other vehicle expenses, including insurance, financing charges, maintenance, and repairs, also increased from about $1,720 to nearly $2,400 (14 percent). Meanwhile, gasoline and oil expenditures rose 3 percent, to nearly $1,100 in 2001. On average, households spent almost $400 on “other transportation”² in 2001, an increase of 6 percent between 1991 and 2001.

Source

1. U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Survey, available from http://www.bls.gov/cex/home.htm, as of February 2003. Note: the survey data are collected in terms of consumer units rather than households. There are an average of 2.5 persons in each consumer unit.

¹ All dollar amounts are expressed in chained 1996 dollars, unless otherwise specified. Current dollar amounts (which are available in appendix B of this report) were adjusted to eliminate the effects of inflation over time.

² In its survey, the Bureau of Labor Statistics uses the term “public transportation,” rather than “other transportation.” This category includes both local transit, e.g., bus travel, and long-distance travel, e.g., airplane trips.

Cost of Owning and Operating an Automobile

Driving an automobile 15,000 miles per year cost 50¢ per mile in 2001, or 16 percent more than it did in 1991, when total costs were 43¢ (figure 34). These data, which are expressed in 1996 chained dollars,¹ include fixed costs (e.g., depreciation, insurance, finance charges, and license fees) and variable costs (e.g., gasoline and oil, maintenance, and tires). Over the decade, fixed costs have consistently represented about 75 percent of total per-mile costs. Gasoline and oil, a component of variable costs, represented 14 percent of driving costs per mile in 2001, up from 12 percent in 2000 [1].

About 87 percent of the daily trips Americans took in 2001 occurred in highway vehicles, including their own automobiles [2]. The other 13 percent traveled via public transportation or air, rode bicycles, walked, or traveled by other means.

Sources

1. American Automobile Association, Your Driving Costs (Heathrow, FL: 2000 and 2001 issues).

2. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics and Federal Highway Administration, 2001 National Household Travel Survey, Preliminary Data Release Version 1 (day trip data only), available at http://nhts.ornl.gov, as of January 2003.

Cost of Intercity Trips by Train and Bus

Amtrak collected an average of 20¢ per revenue passenger-mile in fiscal year (FY) 2000 (in chained 1996 dollars¹), up 33 percent from 15¢ per revenue passenger-mile in FY 1993² (figure 35). During the 1990s, Amtrak shifted its focus to urban routes in the northeast and west. When Amtrak reduced its number of route-miles by 3 percent in 1995, revenue per passenger-mile increased by 13 percent the following fiscal year. When track operational length was further reduced by 7 percent in 1999, revenue per passenger-mile increased 7 percent the following fiscal year [1, 2].

Average intercity Class I bus fares rose 27 percent, from $21 to $26 (in chained 1996 dollars), between 1990 and 2000 (figure 36). The average bus fare is based on total intercity passenger revenues and the number of intercity bus passenger trips, as reported by carriers to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Since passenger-mile data are not reported, average bus fare per passenger-mile cannot be calculated and compared with similar Amtrak fare data.

Sources

1. Association of American of Railroads, Railroad Facts (Washington, DC: 1994–2002 issues).

2. National Railroad Passenger Corp. (Amtrak), Amtrak 2000 Annual Report, Statistical Appendix (Washington, DC: 2001).

² Amtrak published ticket yield data for FY 1991 through FY 2000 in its 2000 Annual Report. The 2001 Annual Report, published online in February 2003, contains consolidated financial statements only.

Average Transit Fares

Transit fares remained relatively stable during the 1990s (figure 37). Increases in fares per passenger-mile for some modes of transit were offset by lower fares per passenger-mile for other modes.

Local transit bus service, which accounts for 60 percent of public transportation ridership (by number of unlinked passenger trips¹), is slightly more expensive than it was 10 years ago (figure 38). Transit bus service cost 20¢ per mile in 2000, up from 18¢ per mile in 1990 (in chained 1996 dollars).² Bus ridership, which dropped by about 15 percent during the mid-1990s, rebounded by 2000. Rail transit—heavy, commuter, and light rail—was less expensive in 2000 than in 1990, with light-rail fares dropping the most, at 30 percent.

Heavy rail comprises most of the nation’s subway systems. It is the second most heavily used form of transit with over 30 percent of total transit ridership. The cost of using heavy rail declined from 19¢ to 18¢ per passenger-mile between 1990 and 2000 [1].

Source

1. American Public Transportation Association, Public Transportation Fact Book 2001, Tables 18 and 26, available at http://www.apta.com/stats/fares/faremode.htm, as of February 2003. Data for 2000 are preliminary.

¹ See Urban Transit Ridership in section 7, “Availability of Mass Transit,” for a discussion of unlinked trips.

² All dollar amounts are expressed in chained 1996 dollars, unless otherwise specified. Current dollar amounts (which are available in appendix B of this report) were adjusted to eliminate the effects of inflation over time.

Commuting Expenses of the Working Poor

The U.S. working poor¹ totaled more than 9 million (6 percent of all workers) in 1999 [1]. Half of these workers spent almost 10 percent of their income on commuting expenses in that year² (figure 39). This is over twice the percentage of income that the median of the total population spent on commuting (4 percent). This disparity grows to four times when compared with the median for workers earning $45,000 or more per year (2 percent of income).

Half of all workers who use their own vehicles spent 5 percent or more of their income in 1999 on commuting (figure 40). However, among the working poor using their own vehicle, half spent at least 21 percent of their income on commuting. For all workers taking public transit, half spent 3 percent or more of their income, compared with the median for the working poor of 13 percent of their income.³ Most workers used their own vehicle to commute in 1999; however, the working poor were more likely than other groups to use alternative commuting modes. For instance, 87 percent of workers earning $22,000 or more per year used their own vehicle to commute, compared with 66 percent of the working poor. A substantial number of the working poor used the less expensive options of carpool or vanpool (12 percent), public transit (6 percent), biking or walking (11 percent), or commuted some other way (8 percent).

See box for Commuting Expenses Data

Source

1. U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Annual Demographic Survey, March Supplement, table 10, available at http://ferret.bls.census.gov/macro/032000/pov/new10_001.htm, as of March 2003.

¹ The official government poverty line for a single adult with no dependents was $8,501 in 1999. (U.S. Census Bureau, 2002, http://www.census.gov/hhes/poverty/threshld/thresh99.html) Here, the working poor are defined as workers with an annual personal income of less than $8,000.

² Data are in current 1999 dollars. For further information, see U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Commuting Expenses: Disparity for the Working Poor, Issue Brief (Washington, DC: 2003).

³ In this analysis, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics found that 0.5 percent of workers reported using both their own vehicle and public transit to commute. Overall, 2 percent of workers reported using multiple modes.

Airfare Index Research Data

Commercial airlines offer a variety of discount fares to fill their flights, but these special discount airfares, facilitated by internet commerce and “frequent flyer” programs, complicate efforts to measure changes in the prices people pay for commercial air travel. To improve these measurements, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) have research underway to develop an Origin and Destination (O&D) Survey Airfare Index (see box). Some data from this ongoing research are presented here.

The O&D Survey index research data can be used to compare changes in prices among various cities. In one comparison of three medium-size cities, a dip appears between 1995 and 1998 for flights originating in Colorado Springs, Colorado (figure 41). This is a time during which the discount carrier Western Pacific operated flights from Colorado Springs and indicates the effect it had on bringing airfares down before it withdrew from the market. The O&D Survey index can be used to compare prices for international travel, as well. The third quarter spikes in a comparison of travel originating in Frankfurt, London, and Tokyo indicate that a high percentage of passengers traveling to the United States from these cities pay peak fares July through September (figure 42). These types of specific domestic and foreign points of origin comparisons are possible because of the size of the O&D Survey sample on which the index is based.

The O&D Survey index can be compared withthe official BLS Airline fare index (figure 43). As the BLS index covers only itineraries originating in the United States, it is most comparable to the O&D Survey “U.S. Origin Only” series. However, these two indices give different results. For instance, between the fourth quarter of 1998 and the fourth quarter of 2000, the BLS index increased 17 percent, while the similar O&D Survey index increased only 13 percent. This difference is probably due mainly to the O&D Survey index’s inclusion of special discount fares combined with consumers’ increasing use of special discount tickets during this period. The more comprehensive O&D Survey index, which combines U.S. and foreign flight origin data, rose even less (11.6 percent). The “foreign origin only” component increased just 4.1 percent but fluctuates more over the period.

Transit Passenger-Miles Traveled

Transit passenger-miles traveled (pmt) grew 24 percent between 1991 and 2001, from 37.5 billion pmt to 46.5 billion pmt [1, 2]. As they have historically, buses had the largest pmt share in 2001, generating 19.6 billion pmt or 42 percent of all transit pmt (figure 44). Also in 2001, heavy-rail pmt totaled 14.2 billion or 31 percent, commuter rail reached 9.5 billion pmt or 20 percent, light rail had 1.4 billion pmt or 3 percent, and other modes of transit, such as ferryboat and demand responsive,¹ generated 1.8 billion pmt or 4 percent [2].

The top 30 transit authorities (ranked by unlinked passenger trips) logged 35.1 billion passenger-miles in 2001 or 76 percent of all transit pmt that year [2]. In 2001, people riding New York City Transit traveled 10.1 billion passenger-miles (or 22 percent of all passenger-miles out of the top 30 authorities) and the Chicago Transit Authority generated 1.8 billion pmt or 5 percent [3].

Sources

1. U.S. Department of Transportation, FederalTransit Administration, National Transit Summaries and Trends, 1996, available at http://www.ntdprogram.com, as of May 2003.

2. _____, “National Transit Summaries and Trends,” 2002 draft, available at http://www.ntdprogram.com, as of February 2003.

3. _____, National Transit Database, available at http://www.ntdprogram.com, as of March 2003.

¹ Demand-responsive transit operates on a nonfixed route and a nonfixed schedule in response to calls from passengers or their agents to the transit operator or dispatcher.

Transit Ridership

Transit ridership has grown steadily since 1996, reaching 9.0 billion unlinked trips (see box) in 2001, an increase of 19 percent (figure 45). This represents an annual change of 4 percent compared with the growth in U.S. resident population of 1 percent over the same period. Between 1991 and 1996, transit ridership did not grow appreciably [1].

Among the various types of transit service, bus ridership comprised the majority of unlinked trips (5,215 million) in 2001, having grown 16 percent between 1996 and 2001. However, rail transit ridership, with almost 3,480 million trips in 2001, posted stronger growth (39 percent). Among the rail components, light rail grew 29 percent; heavy rail, 27 percent; and commuter rail, 19 percent (figure 46). Heavy-rail ridership posted 2,728 million trips; commuter rail, 418 million trips; and light rail, 334 million trips in 2001. Other modes, such as ferryboats and demand responsive, posted a combined 313 million trips [1].

Source

1. U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration, “National Transit Summaries and Trends,” 2002 draft, available at http://www.ntprogram.com, as of February 2003.

Transit Ridership by Transit Authority

Approximately 77 percent of all unlinked transit passenger trips since at least 1996 have been made within the service area of just 30 transit authorities. These 30 top authorities logged 6.9 billion unlinked trips in 2001¹ figure 47). New York City Transit alone reported 2.7 billion, or 30 percent, of all unlinked passenger trips. The Chicago Transit Authority followed with 485 million or 5 percent of all trips [2].

The top 30 transit authorities served a population of about 101 million in 2001 [2]. All transit authorities reporting to the National Transit Database determine their population-served data using definitions of bus and rail service in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and their own local criteria for other service such as ferryboat and vanpool. Some double counting of populations served occurs, especially among authorities operating in the largest metropolitan areas such as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco [2].

According to a Bureau of Transportation Statistics survey,² an average of 71 percent of household respondents indicated they had public transportation available in their area [1].

Sources

1. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Omnibus Survey, Summer 2002, available at http://www.bts.gov, as of June 2003.

2. U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration, National Transit Database, 1996 and 2001 issues, available at http://www.ntdprogram.com/, as of March 2003.

¹ In 2001, 602 transit authorities submitted data to the Federal Transit Administration. However, due to reporting omissions, only 580 transit authorities are reflected in that year’s database.

² In the summer of 2002, BTS’s Omnibus Survey collected data on public transportation in June, July, and August.

Lift- or Ramp-Equipped Buses and Rail Stations

The nationwide fleet of lift- or ramp-equipped transit buses increased to 87 percent (58,785 buses) in 2001 from 52 percent of the bus fleet (29,088 buses) in 1993 (figure 48). While increased compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements (see box) occurred from 1993 to 2001, the rate of compliance has differed among bus types (figure 49). The large bus fleet had the highest level of compliance in 1993 and articulated buses the lowest. By 2001, the large bus fleet continued to have the highest rate (95 percent, or 40,501 vehicles), followed by medium buses with 94 percent (7,337 vehicles). Meanwhile, small buses had the lowest level of compliance (85 percent, or 9,176 vehicles). Articulated bus compliance fell in the middle at 89 percent, or 1,771 vehicles [2].

Rail transit infrastructure consists of trackand stations. In 2001, 50 percent (1,374) stations were ADA accessible, serving automated guideway transit, cable cars, commuter rail, heavy rail, inclined plane, light rail, monorail, and the Alaska Railroad. In 2001, light-rail riders enjoyed 76 percent accessibility (408 stations), followed by commuter-rail riders with 50 percent accessibility (583 stations) and heavy-rail riders with 35 percent accessibility (352 stations) [1].

Sources

1. U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration, National Transit Database 2001, available at http://www.ntdprogram.com, as of March 2003.

2. _____, National Transit Summaries and Trends, 2002 draft, available at http://www.ntdprogram.com, as of February 2003.

Commercial Motor Vehicle Repairs

In the United States, there were nearly 600,000 motor carriers—common, contract, or private—using buses or trucks to provide commercial transportation of passengers or freight in 2000 [2]. These companies accounted for 28 percent of the nation’s freight ton-miles and 3 percent of passenger-miles that year¹ [1]. Repair data for most of this fleet are not public information.

Over 2.0 million roadside truck inspections were completed in 2001, up from 1.6 million in 1990, to ensure that trucks are in compliance with federal safety regulations and standards (figure 50). Nearly one-quarter of those inspected in 2001 were taken out of service for repairs (figure 51). Although the number of inspected trucks taken out of service for repairs has remained fairly constant, the proportion of those trucks as a percentage of all inspected trucks has declined from 34 percent in 1990 to 23 percent in 2001.

The downtime for a truck undergoing an inspection can vary from 30 to 60 minutes. Trucks that are placed out-of-service for repairs may be delayed from a few minutes to several days, depending on circumstances.

Sources

1. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, National Transportation Statistics 2002 (Washington, DC: 2002), tables 1-34 and 1-44, also available at http://www.bts.gov/, as of April 2003.

2. U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration data, as cited in American Trucking Associations, American Trucking Trends 2002 (Washington, DC: 2002).

¹ Ton-miles are calculated by multiplying the weight in tons of each shipment transported by the miles hauled. Passenger-miles are calculated by multiplying the number of passengers transported by the number of miles traveled.

Highway Maintenance and Repairs

Work zones on freeways cause an estimated 24 percent of the nonrecurring delays on freeways and principal arterials [1]. According to the Federal Highway Administration, the purpose of maintenance—which includes restoration, resurfacing, minor widening, and reconstruction—is to keep highways in usable condition not to extend service life. Pavement resurfacing represented just over half (51 percent) of the miles of federal-aid roads undergoing federally supported construction or maintenance in 2001 (figure52), up from about 42 percent in 1997.¹

The level of funding applied to highway maintenance is an indirect measure of the amount of maintenance activity and, thus, presence of work zones on highways. Although well-maintained roads are vital to a smoothly functioning transportation system, the maintenance activity may temporarily disrupt the flow of vehicles, causing traffic delays and congestion.

Funding for highway maintenance increased by 15 percent (in constant 1987 dollars)² between 1990 and 2001 (figure 53). The amount of funds disbursed by federal, state, and local governments for maintenance activities totaled $20.3 billion in 2001. This represented 24 percent of total disbursements for highways in 2001 [2].

Sources

1. Chin, S.M., O. Franzese, D.L. Greene, H.L. Hwang, and R. Gibson. “Temporary Losses of Highway Capacity and Impacts on Performance,” Oak Ridge National Laboratory, May 2002.

2. U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Highway Statistics 2001 (Washington, DC: 2002), table HF-2, also available at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim, as of February 2003.

¹ 1997 is the earliest year for which these data are available.

² Instead of chained 1996 dollars, constant 1987 dollars are used here because the Federal Highway Administration publishes its data accordingly.

Rail Infrastructure and Equipment Repairs

Class I railroads¹ provide vital freight transportation services—carrying more than one-third of domestic freight ton-miles² each year [2]. In order to provide efficient and timely services, these companies maintained nearly 170,000 miles of track in 2001, down from nearly 200,000 miles in 1991 [1]. Class I track mileage has been declining for many decades especially on lower density lines, in part because ownership and maintenance is expensive. As such, rail companies have focused more on replacing worn rails and crossties than on laying new track.

Throughout the 1990s, rail companies replaced an average of 743,000 tons of rail each year (figure 54). The yearly replacements, which can vary substantially because of the long life of rails, ranged from a high of 875,000 tons in 1992 to a low of 643,000 tons in 1997. Using the most common rail weight (130 to 139 lbs per yard), it would take approximately 120 tons of rail to cover one mile [1].

There was some growth in the amount of new rails added to the Class I system in the late 1990s as firms increased capacity to handle growing amounts of coal traffic and reconfigured their systems as a result of mergers. Over 200,000 tons of new rail were added both in 1998 and 1999, up from 19,000 in 1990.

Railroads also replace crossties periodically in order to ensure the integrity of their tracks. Throughout the 1990s, railroads replaced an average of 12.2 million crossties each year (figure 55). The yearly replacements ranged from a high of 14.1 million crossties in 1990 to a low of 10.4 million in 1998. There was some growth in the number of new crossties added to the Class I system in the late 1990s as firms increased capacity or reconfigured their systems. In 1998, 1.8 million new crossties were added; but by 2001, the number of new crossties added declined to almost the level seen a decade earlier.

Railroads also periodically replace or rebuild locomotives and freight cars. On average, new and rebuilt locomotives made up 4 percent of Class I railroad fleets between 1990 and 2001 (figure 56). The number of locomotives that were new or rebuilt varied from a low of 3 percent in 1992 to a high of 7 percent in 1994. Likewise, the number of freight cars that were new or rebuilt varied from 3 percent in 1992 to 6 percent in 1998.

Sources

1. Association of American Railroads, Railroad Facts 2002 Edition (Washington, DC: 2002).

2. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, National Transportation Statistics 2002 (Washington, DC: 2002), table 1-44 and appendix D, also available at http://www.bts.gov.

¹ Rail companies with annual operating revenues of $266.6 million or more in 2001.

² Ton-miles are calculated by multiplying the weight in tons of each shipment transported by the miles hauled.

Transit Vehicle Reliability

Transit service¹ interruptions due to mechanical failures remained relatively level from 1995 through 2000,² averaging between 18 and 19 mechanical problems per 100,000 revenue vehicle-miles [1, 2] (figure 57).

Among transit vehicles, buses and light rail had the highest rates of mechanical failure in 2000. Buses broke down an average of 28 times per 100,000 revenue vehicle-miles, while light-rail vehicles broke down 15 times per 100,000 revenue vehicle-miles. Light-rail vehicle breakdowns have changed the most since 1995. In that year, there were 32 mechanical failures per 100,000 revenue vehicle-miles. However, between 1995 and 2000, the number of light-rail authorities rose to 25, up from 22 in 1995 [1, 2].

Sources

1. U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration, National Summaries and Trends (Washington, DC: Annual issues), also available at http://www.ntdprogram.com/, as of April 2003.

2. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, National Transportation Statistics 2002 (Washington, DC: 2002), table 1-32 and Transit Profile, also available at http://www.bts.gov/, as of April 2003.

¹ Here transit service includes:
Light rail—streetcar-type vehicles operated on city streets, semi-exclusive rights-of-way, or exclusive rights-of-way. Service may be provided by step-entry vehicles or by level boarding.
Commuter rail—urban passenger train service for short-distance travel between a central city and adjacent suburb.
Heavy rail—electric railways with the capacity to transport a heavy volume of passenger traffic and characterized by exclusive rights-of-way, multicar trains, high speed, rapid acceleration, sophisticated signaling, and high-platform loading. Also known as “subway,” “elevated (railway),” or “metropolitan railway (metro).”
Demand responsive—nonfixed-route, nonfixed-schedule vehicles that operate in response to calls from passengers or their agents to the transit operator or dispatcher.

² Data prior to 1995 and later than 2000 were collected using different definitions of what constitutes an interruption of service and are not comparable.

Lock Repairs on the Great Lakes Saint Lawrence Seaway System

Great Lakes Saint Lawrence Seaway System (the Seaway) locks are usually closed during the winter for several months due to ice. Excluding the winter closure, the 2001 season consisted of 277 days. The lock system of the portion of the Seaway operated and maintained by the United States experienced 111 hours (about 4½ days) of downtime during the 2001 season. Lock equipment malfunctions caused only seven hours of delay during the 2001 season, 6 percent of all downtime. Weather-related poor visibility, high winds, and ice caused over half of all lock downtime. Vessel incidents caused another 45 percent of delays. Over the last decade, weather has been the cause of most delays (figure 58). Exceptions occurred in 1993 when water level/flow caused 124½ hours of delay and in 1998 and 1999 when vessel incidents caused over 40 hours of delay.

The Seaway is a waterway operated jointly by the United States and Canada. It encompasses the Saint Lawrence River, the five Great Lakes, and the waterways connecting the Great Lakes. It extends 2,300 miles—from the Gulf of the Saint Lawrence at the Atlantic Ocean in the east to Lake Superior in the west [1]. The U.S. Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation (the Corporation) operates and maintains the U.S. portion of the Saint Lawrence Seaway, which includes two locks.

Operations and maintenance represent the bulk of the Corporation’s expenditures. Over 80 percent of Corporation expenditures went toward personal services and benefits—mainly for staffing the locks—during fiscal year 2000. Maintenance and engineering cost $3.3 million. In December 1999, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers surveyed the two lock structures operated and maintained by the United States. They concluded that the locks were generally well maintained but recommended maintenance and capital improvements [2]. The Corporation has developed five-year capital and maintenance plans for the years 2001 through 2005 that include $6 million in capital expenditures.

Sources

1. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Maritime Administration, and U.S. Coast Guard, Maritime Trade & Transportation 2002 (Washington, DC: 2002).

2. U.S. Department of Transportation, Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corp., Fiscal 2000 Annual Report, Great Lakes Seaway System Moves Forward in the 21st Century (Washington, DC: 2001), also available at http://www.greatlakes-seaway.com/en/pdf/fy2000ar.pdf, as of February 2003.

Intermittent Interruptions of Transportation Services

Natural disasters, accidents, labor disputes, terrorism, security breaches, and other unforeseeable incidents can result in major disruptions to the transportation system. Although a comprehensive account of these unpredictable interruptions has not been undertaken nor data compiled on them, numerous studies and other analyses have sought to evaluate the effects of individual events on the transportation system.

Terrorist attacks and security alerts have affected transportation services for decades. However, efforts to increase transportation security have grown markedly since the attacks of September 11, 2001. The short- and long-term effects of September 11 on transportation and ancillary services are still being assessed. In the short-term, airport enplanements and flight activity were substantially lower immediately after September 11 (figure 59). In fact, all flights scheduled for September 12 were canceled, and many other flights were canceled during the remainder of the month and the months that followed. Air passenger traffic has not fully recovered two years after the attacks, however other factors, such as an economic downturn, may also be part of the cause.

Vehicle accidents are a common cause of transportation delays. National estimates, based on model simulations, suggest that nearly 40 percent of nonrecurring delays on freeways and principal arterials are due to crashes. Weather, another unpredictable factor, accounts for 27 percent of highway delays. Relatively fewer delays resulted from road work-zones (24 percent) and vehicle breakdowns (11 percent) [1]. Although motor vehicle accidents are, by far, the most frequent type of transportation accident, other modes also experience major disruptions due to accidents. A freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed in a Baltimore tunnel in 2001 [2]. The resulting fire lasted several days and forced the city to close some highways and rail passages. Freight and passengers were delayed as trains were diverted hundreds of miles throughout the Middle Atlantic region.

The United States, because of its size and varied geography, is vulnerable to many types of natural disasters that can affect transportation. The flooding of the Mississippi River in 1993 shut down large portions of the inland waterway system, washed out rail track, damaged rail bridges, and closed an estimated 250 highway segments and bridges [3]. The following year, the Northridge earthquake had a major impact on the Los Angeles metropolitan area transportation system. Measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale, the earthquake knocked out four freeways, caused the collapse of parking structures, and ruptured numerous natural gas distribution lines [4, 5].

Disputes initiated by labor or business and other business adjustments can disrupt the passenger and freight transportation system. For example, a strike by San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit employees caused huge traffic jams on bridges and highways in 1997; a strike by United Parcel Service employees stalled shipments of goods later that year; and a labor lockout by terminal operators shut down west coast ports for 10 days in 2002 [6, 7]. A different type of business-related disruption caused problems on the Union Pacific Railroad in 1997. Following a merger with Southern Pacific Railroad in 1996, accidents and congestion overwhelmed the expanded railroad, resulting in federal intervention [6].

Sources

1. Chin, S.M., O. Franzese, D.L. Greene, H.L. Hwang, and R. Gibson. “Temporary Losses of Highway Capacity and Impacts on Performance,” Oak Ridge National Laboratory, May 2002.

2. National Transportation Safety Board, “Update on July 18, 2001 CSXT Derailment in Baltimore Tunnel,” press release, Dec. 4, 2002, available at http://www.ntsb.gov/, as of April 2003.

3. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Transportation Statistics Annual Report 1994 (Washington, DC: 1994).

4. _____, Transportation Statistics Annual Report 1995 (Washington, DC: 1995).

5. _____, Journal of Transportation and Statistics: Special Issue on the Northridge Earthquake 1(2), May 1998.

6. _____, Transportation Statistics Annual Report 1998 (Washington, DC: 1998).

7. _____, U.S. International Trade and Freight Transportation Trends (Washington, DC: 2003).

Transportation Fatality Rates

There were 45,130 fatalities related to transportation in 2001, almost 16 fatalities per 100,000 U.S. residents [1, 2, 3, 5]. This is a decline of 11 percent from 18 fatalities per 100,000 residents in 1991, when there were 44,320 fatalities. Nearly 93 percent of all transportation fatalities in 2001 were highway-related (figure 60). Most of these people who died were occupants of passenger cars or light trucks (including pickups, sport utility vehicles, and minivans). Air, rail, transit, water, and pipeline transportation result in comparatively few deaths per capita (see box). Transit, for instance, led to about 0.11 deaths per 100,000 residents in 2001.

Highway safety improved between 1991 and 2001. Highway-related fatalities declined from 16 fatalities per 100,000 U.S. residents to 15 fatalities per 100,000 residents (or 6 percent) over the period. The decline in highway fatalities is most apparent for occupants of passenger cars (figure 61). During the period, only fatalities per 100,000 residents of occupants of light trucks rose, from 3 to 4 per 100,000 residents. (This is a period during which the number of registered light trucks increased from 53 million to 84 million [4].) Motorcyclist fatalities per 100,000 residents have been rising since 1997.

Similar trends in highway fatality rates are apparent when the rate is based on vehicle-miles traveled (vmt). Passenger car occupant fatalities per 100 million vmt declined 25 percent between 1991 and 2001, while light truck occupant fatalities per 100 million vmt rose slightly (figure 62). Motorcyclist fatalities grew 59 percent by 2001 after falling from 30.6 fatalities per 100 million vmt in 1991 to 21.0 fatalities per 100 million vmt in 1997.

Sources

1. U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000, available at http://www.census.gov/main/www/cen2000.html, as of June 2003.

2. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Coast Guard, Data Administration Division, personal communication, June 6, 2003.

3. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, National Transportation Statistics 2002 (Washington, DC: 2002), table 2-1, also available at http://www.bts.gov/, as of April 2003.

4. U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Highway Statistics 1991 and Highway Statistics 2001 (Washington, DC: 1991 and 2001), table VM-1, 2001 edition available at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policy/ohpi/hss/index.htm, as of June 2003.

5. U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration, National Trends and Summary 2001 (Washington, DC: 2002).

¹ These motorcycle data are not shown in figure 62 but appear in table 62 in appendix B.

Years of Potential Life Lost from Transportation Accidents

For people under 65 years of age, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has ranked transportation accidents as the third leading cause of death in the United States (after cancer and heart disease) each year from 1991 to 2000 [1]. During those years, an average of nearly 36,000 people under 65 died each year from transportation accidents.¹

While transportation accidents amounted to 6 percent of the deaths of those under age 65 between 1991 and 2000, these fatalities represented 10 percent of the total years of potential life lost (YPLL) during this period (figure 63). YPLL, which is computed by adding up the remaining life expectancies of all victims (up to 65 years of age) at their deaths, is a measurement that accounts for the age distribution among different causes of injury mortality and other common causes of death (see box). Accordingly, the difference between the percentage of deaths and YPLL indicates that people who die from transportation accidents tend to be younger on average than victims of other causes of death.

Motor vehicle crashes are the most frequent cause of transportation-related fatalities. YPLLs associated with deaths related to motor vehicle accidents can be compared with YPLLs for deaths from all other modes of transportation (figure 64). This shows that, over the 10 years, motor vehicle deaths also contributed to the bulk of YPLLs due to transportation accidents.

Source

1. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics Reports: Deaths, 1991–2000 issues, available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/, as of March 2003.

¹ Because of methodological differences, fatality data from the CDC differ from those collected by the individual modal administrations.

Transportation Injury Rates

Each year a far larger number of people are injured than killed in transportation-related accidents. An estimated 3.1 million people suffered some kind of injury involving passenger and freight transportation in 2001 (see box). Most of these injuries, about 98 percent, resulted from highway crashes¹ [1].

Highway injury rates vary by the type of vehicle used (figure 65). In 2001, 75 passenger car occupants were injured per 100 million passenger-miles traveled (pmt) compared with 58 light truck occupants. Occupants of large trucks and buses are even less likely to sustain an injury per mile of travel. Motorcycle riders are, by far, the most likely to get hurt. Transit-related injuries are also relatively high per mile. This is due, at least in part, to the inclusion of injuries on transit property, including those not caused by transit vehicle operations, such as injuries on escalators and in parking lots. (These transit injury data will be disaggregated starting with 2002 data.)

Injury rates for most modes declined between 1991 and 2001, with some exceptions.² Rates for light truck occupants rose 15 percent, from 50 per 100 million pmt in 1991 to 58 per 100 million pmt in 2001 (figure 66). Motorcycling has become safer per mile ridden over the decade, but since 1999, the injury rate has increased from 429 per 100 million pmt to 575 per 100 million pmt in 2001. Bus injuries per 100 million pmt have declined recently after increases in the mid-1990s.

Source

1. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, National Transportation Statistics 2002 (Washington, DC: 2002), tables 1-34 and 2-2, also available at http://www.bts.gov/, as of February 2003.

¹ There is the potential for some double counting involving highway-rail grade crossing and transit bus data.

² These calculations exclude bicycling, walking, and boating (including recreational boating), because there are no national annual trend data estimates of passenger-miles traveled for these modes of transportation.

Motor Vehicle-Related Injuries

There were an estimated 3.6 million highway-related injuries in the United States in 2001, according to data reported to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)¹ (see box) [1]. An estimated 3.3 million of these injuries involved motor vehicle occupants. The rest involved about 131,000 pedestrians, 111,000 motorcyclists, and 60,000 pedalcyclists.

More females than males were treated for minor injuries in 2001 across most age groups, with spikes for people aged 15 to 24 (figure 67). This age group sustained almost 1 million minor motor vehicle-related injuries. For serious injuries, more males than females were treated across all age groups up to about 65 years (figure 68). Again, serious injuries spiked at ages 15 to 24, but male injuries spiked substantially higher. This age group incurred about 84,000 serious injuries in 2001 of which 61 percent happened to males.

In summary, there were sharp peaks in injuries associated with youth: for motor vehicle occupants and motorcyclists, the peak spanned ages 15 to 24; for pedalcyclists and pedestrians, the peak spanned ages 10 to 14. Young males exhibited a substantially greater peak in serious injuries than young females. In addition, the percentage of injuries classified as serious was greater for motorcyclists (20 percent of all motorcyclist injuries were serious), pedestrians (19 percent), and pedalcyclists (10 percent) than it was for motor vehicle occupants (7 percent) (figure 69).

This analysis comes from a Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) comprehensive study using 2001 data from the CPSC’s National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. Only a small portion of the BTS study is presented here. The study included data on motor vehicle occupants, motorcyclists, pedalcyclists, and pedestrians injured on or near public roads,² but only on injuries involving collisions with moving motor vehicles.³ BTS also compared data on minor and serious injuries.

Source

1. U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS), information available at http://www.cpsc.gov/Neiss/oracle.html, as of June 2003.

¹ Because of methodological differences, highway injury data from CPSC differ from those estimated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of the U.S. Department of Transportation. For 2001, NHTSA reported an estimated 3.0 million highway injuries.

² This includes injuries involving traffic on public roads and in driveways and parking lots, and at other locations near, but not on, public roads.

³ This excludes occupants injured when entering or exiting parked vehicles, pedalcyclists injured by parked cars or other fixed objects, and pedestrians struck by pedalcyclists or off-road vehicles.

Economic Impacts of Motor Vehicle Crashes

Motor vehicle crashes in the United States cost an estimated $231 billion¹$820 per person or 2 percent of the Gross Domestic Product² [1]. The largest components of the total cost (26 percent each) are market productivity—the cost of foregone paid labor due to death and disability—and property damage (figure 70). Household productivity—the cost of foregone household (unpaid) labor—accounted for 9 percent of the total cost. Workplace cost (2 percent) is the disruption from the loss or absence of an employee such that it requires training a new employee, overtime to accomplish the work of the injured employee, and administrative costs to process personnel changes.

Alcohol-involved crashes cost $50.9 billion or 22 percent of the total costs. Costs related to speeding were estimated to be $40.4 billion, 18 percent of the total. The failure of drivers and passengers to wear safety belts cost an estimated $26 billion, but the use of safety belts saved $50 billion [1].

Ultimately, all people pay for the cost of motor vehicle crashes through insurance premiums, taxes, out-of-pocket expenses, and the like. About one-quarter of the cost of crashes is paid directly by those involved, while society in general pays the rest (figure 71). Insurance companies, funded by all insured drivers whether they are involved in a crash or not, paid about half the cost in 2000. Government paid 9 percent of the cost. “Other” (13 percent) includes unpaid charges of health care providers and charities, costs borne by employers, and the cost of delay borne by travelers.

Source

1. U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, The Economic Impact of Motor Vehicle Crashes 2000 (Washington, DC: 2002), also available at http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/economic, as of December 2002.

¹ The costs detailed here are the economic costs not the intangible consequences of these events to individuals and families, such as pain and suffering and loss of life.

² All dollar amounts are in current 2000 dollars.

Key Air Emissions

Transportation in 2001 emitted 66 percent of the nation’s carbon monoxide (CO), 47 percent of nitrogen oxides (NO_x, 35 percent of volatile organic compounds (VOC), 5 percent of particulates, 6 percent of ammonia, and 4 percent of sulfur dioxide.¹ Highway vehicles emitted almost all of transportation’s share of CO in 2001, 80 percent of the NO_x, and 75 percent of all VOC (figure 72). Marine vessels and railroad locomotives each contributed 10 percent of transportation’s NO_x emissions, and other nonroad vehicles² had a 20 percent share of VOC emissions. With the exception of ammonia, transportation air emissions have declined since 1991 (figure 73). NO_x shows only a slight decrease between 1991 and 2001.

Gasoline powered highway vehicles experienced the greatest decline in NO_x emissions, while diesel-powered highway vehicles and aircraft show increases between 1991 and 2001 (figure 74). New, tightened NO_x emissions standards for diesel and gasoline trucks are due to go into effect in 2007 and 2008 [1]. In addition, new NO_x standards will apply to certain marine engines built in 2004. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has also proposed new NO_x emissions standards for motorcycles and recreational boats. NO_x emissions standards for locomotives went into effect in 2000, and tightened standards will apply to locomotives built in 2005 and later [2].

These key air emissions data (see box) are the most widely used indicator of transportation’s impact on the environment. Key air emissions generated during the use of various vehicles, locomotives, aircraft, and vessels affect the nation’s air quality and human health.

Sources

1. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, National Transportation Statistics 2002 (Washington, DC: 2003), tables 4-30 through 4-32, also available at http://www.bts.gov/, as of January 2003.

2. U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration, personal communication, July 2003.

¹ With its 2001 updates, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is no longer estimating lead emissions. In 2000, transportation emitted 13 percent of the nation’s lead emissions. Aircraft emitted almost 96 percent of all transportation lead emissions. While the substance is no longer used in most fuels, it is still present in aviation fuels.

² Other nonroad vehicles include recreational marine vessels, airport service vehicles, and road maintenance equipment.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions totaled 6,936 teragrams (trillion grams) of carbon dioxide equivalent (TgCO₂Eq) in 2001,¹ of which 1,867 TgCO₂Eq (27 percent) were emitted by transportation. Transportation emissions have grown 22 percent since 1990, while total U.S. emissions rose 13 percent. Carbon dioxide (CO₂), the predominant greenhouse gas, accounted for 84 percent of all U.S. emissions in 2001 [1]. Nearly all (97 percent) of CO₂ emissions are generated by the combustion of fossil fuels. Transportation was responsible for 1,780.9 TgCO₂Eq, or 31 percent of all CO₂ emissions. Transportation CO₂ emissions grew 24 percent between 1991 and 2001, an average annual change of 2 percent.

Highway vehicle emissions rose at an average annual rate of 2 percent between 1991 and 2001 (figure 75). At the same time, locomotive emissions grew at 3 percent and domestic aircraft emissions rose less than 1 percent. Domestic maritime emissions increased 2 percent but were volatile throughout the period. Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change reporting guidelines, only domestic aircraft and maritime emissions are included in the modal data. The balance of emissions, labeled international bunker fuels, declined 2 percent on an annual average basis between 1991 and 2001.

Highway vehicles emitted 79 percent of all transportation CO₂ emissions in 2001. Passenger cars and light-duty vehicles, which include pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles, and vans, were responsible for 78 percent of those highway emissions (figure 76). Over the period 1991 to 2001, emissions of all other trucks grew fastest, at 4 percent annually. The second highest average annual growth rate among highway vehicles was 3 percent for light-duty trucks.

Most air pollutants impact local or regional air quality. Greenhouse gases, on the other hand, could alter the earth’s climate on a regional and global scale. These potential changes include long-term fluctuations in temperature, wind, precipitation, and other perturbations of the Earth’s climate system. GHGs, including CO₂, methane, and nitrous oxide occur naturally and as a result of human activities.

See box for Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Source

1. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990–2001 (Washington, DC: April 2003), tables ES-3 and ES-8.

¹ Including sinks, net U.S. emissions totaled 6,098 TgCO₂Eq in 2001. A natural sink, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is “A reservoir that uptakes a pollutant from another part of its cycle. Soil and trees tend to act as natural sinks for carbon.” Unnatural sinks are manmade depositories for pollutants (e.g., the Department of Energy is creating underground sinks into which CO₂ can be pumped).

Oil Spills into U.S. Waters

Transportation-related sources typically account for most oil reported to be spilled into U.S. waters reported each year.¹ For instance, transportation’s share of the total volume of oil spilled between 1991 and 2000 varied from a high of 97 percent in 1996 to a low of 77 percent in 1992. The volume of each spill varies significantly from incident to incident: one catastrophic incident can, however, spill millions of gallons into the environment. Consequently, the total volume of oil spilled each year is volatile (figure 77).

Maritime incidents are the source of most oil spills, particularly on a volume basis. On average, 1.8 million gallons of various types of oil were spilled each year by all transportation and nontransportation sources between 1991 and 2000. Of this, 77 percent of oil spilled came from incidents associated with maritime transportation, nearly 11 percent from pipeline incidents, and over 1 percent from all other transportation modes (figure 78). Oil cargo accounted for 58 percent of the total volume spilled in 2000 [1].

Failures in transportation systems (vessels, pipelines, highway vehicles, and railroad equipment) or errors made by operators can result in spillage of crude oil, refined petroleum products, and other materials and cause serious damage to the environment. The ultimate impact of each spill depends on the location and volume of the spill, weather conditions, and the natural resources affected. While data exist on oil spilled into U.S. waters, there is less information available on the resulting consequences to the environment.

See box for Aggregating Oil Spill Data

Source

1. American Petroleum Institute, Oil Spills in U.S. Navigable Waters: 1991–2000 (Washington, DC: Feb. 11, 2003).

¹ When an oil spill occurs in U.S. waters, the responsible party is required to report the spill to the U.S. Coast Guard. The Coast Guard collects data on the number, location, and source of spills, volume and type of oil spilled, and the type of operation that caused the spill.

Hazardous Materials Incidents and Injuries

Transportation firms reported more than 17,700 hazardous materials incidents in 2001.¹ These incidents resulted in 7 deaths and 143 injuries, compared with annual averages of 21 deaths and 445 injuries between 1991 and 2001. During that decade, the number of reported hazardous materials incidents in-creased (figure 79). However, much of the increase may be attributed to improved reporting and an expansion of reporting requirements² (see box).

Highway vehicles transported 56 percent of the tons of hazardous materials shipped in 1997 [2]. Between 1991 and 2001, 62 percent of the injuries and 53 percent of the fatalities attributed to hazardous materials were the result of highway incidents. Fatal hazardous materials transportation incidents in other modes tend to be infrequent. After a DC-9 aircraft crashed in Florida in 1996 killing 110 people, the National Transportation Safety Board found that the crash was caused by ignited oxygen leaking from improperly stored oxygen generators [1]. With the exception of occasional spikes, injuries generally declined in the 1990s, especially from highway incidents (figure 80). Of the 926 injuries attributed to rail incidents in 1996, 787 resulted from chlorine released when a train derailed in February in Alberton, Montana [3].

Environmental contamination can occur as the result of hazardous materials incidents, but data are not routinely collected on the extent of the damage. Their environmental impacts will depend on the concentration and type of material spilled, the location and volume of the spill, and exposure rates.

Sources

1. National Transportation Safety Board, NTSB Report AAR-97/06, Docket No. DCA96MA054.

2. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, and U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau, 1997 Commodity Flow Survey, Hazardous Materials (Washington, DC: December 1999).

3. U.S. Department of Transportation, Researchand Special Programs Administration, personal communication, May 2003.

¹ A reported incident is a report of any unintentional release of hazardous materials while in transportation (including loading, unloading, and temporary storage). It excludes pipeline and bulk shipments by water, which are reported separately.

² Incident reporting requirements were extended to intrastate motor carriers on Oct. 1, 1998, which may partly explain the subsequent increased volume of reports. Beginning in April 1993, there was a sharp improvement in reporting of incidents by small package carriers.

Transportation Capital Stock

Highway-related capital stock (highway infrastructure, consumer motor vehicles, and trucking and warehousing) represented the majority of the nation’s transportation capital stock, $2,166 billion in 2000 (in 1996 chained dollars¹). Highway infrastructure constituted 57 percent of highway-related capital stock in 2000, or $1,234 billion (figure 81). Rail—at $342 billion—also represented a substantial portion of transportation capital stock; although, it was still less than one-sixth of highway-related capital stocks. The combined value of capital stocks for other modes of the transportation system, including rail, water, air, pipeline, and transit, is less than the value of consumer motor vehicles alone (figure 82).

All highway-related capital stocks increased between 1990 and 2000. In-house transportation grew substantially (81 percent). Transportation services, a component of all modes, also experienced rapid growth, with an 83 percent increase in capital stock. In fact, rail and water were the only modes that experienced a decrease in capital stock, shrinking by 6 percent and 3 percent, respectively. Pipeline capital stocks increased only modestly, growing 5 percent between 1990 and 2000.

Capital stock is a commonly used economic measure of the capacity of the transportation system. It combines the capabilities of modes, components, and owners into a single measure of capacity in dollar value. This measure takes into account both the quantity of each component (through initial investment) and its condition (through depreciation and retirements).

With the exception of highway and street data, the capital stock data presented here pertain only to that owned by the private sector. For instance, railroad companies own their own trackage. All of these data are available from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Bureau of Labor Statistics [1, 2]. The Bureau of Transpor-tation Statistics is currently developing data on publicly owned capital stock, such as airports, waterways, and transit systems.

Sources

1. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Standard Fixed Asset Tables (table 7.1 and 8.1); Private Non-Residential Fixed Assets by Detailed Industry and Detailed Asset Type, Real Cost Net Stocks; National Income and Product Accounts, Quantity and Price Indexes, various tables; available at http://www.bea.gov/, as of March 2003.

2. U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Producer Price Indexes, All Urban Consumers, various series, available at http://www.bls.gov/ppi/home.htm/, as of March 2003.

Highway Condition

The condition of roads in the United States improved between 1993 and 2001.¹ For instance, the percentage of rural Interstate mileage in poor or mediocre condition declined from 35 percent in 1993 to 14 percent in 2001 (figure 83). Moreover, poor or mediocre urban Interstate mileage decreased from 42 to 28 percent over this period (figure 84).

Just over 40 percent of all U.S. urban and rural roads were in good or very good condition in 2001, while nearly 19 percent were in poor or mediocre condition. The rest were in fair condition.2 In general, rural roads are in better condition than urban roads. In 2001, for instance, 28 percent of urban road-miles were classified as poor or mediocre compared with only 15 percent of rural-miles.

See chart for Highway Functional Classification System

¹ The data presented here start at 1993; in that year the Federal Highway Administration changed to a new indicator for pavement condition. Thus, combining pre-1993 data and 1993 and later data is inappropriate.

² These percentages include all classes of roads except local roads or minor collector roads.

Bridge Condition

The condition of bridges nationwide has improved markedly since the early 1990s. Of the nearly 600,000 roadway bridges in 2001, the Federal Highway Administration found that 14 percent were structurally deficient and 14 percent were functionally obsolete. About 40 percent of bridges were either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete in 1991 [1].

Structurally deficient bridges are those that are restricted to light vehicles, require immediate rehabilitation to remain open, or are closed. Functionally obsolete bridges are those with deck geometry (e.g., lane width), load carrying capacity, clearance, or approach roadway alignment that no longer meet the criteria for the system of which the bridge is a part.¹ In the 1990s, while the number of structurally deficient bridges steadily declined, the number of functionally obsolete bridges remained fairly constant (figure 85).

In general, bridges in rural areas suffer more from structural deficiencies than functional obsolescence (particularly on local roads), whereas the reverse is true for bridges on roads in urban areas (figure 86 and figure 87) [1]. A large proportion of problem bridges nationwide are those supporting local rural roads: about 71,000 of the 165,000 deficient bridges in 2001 (43 percent) are rural local bridges. Problems are much less prevalent on other parts the highway network. Nevertheless, in 2001, 20 percent of urban Interstate bridges and 12 percent of rural Interstate bridges were deficient.

Source

1. U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Office of Engineering, Bridge Division, National Bridge Inventory database, available at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/bridge/britab.htm/, as of December 2002.

¹ Structurally deficient bridges are counted separately from functionally obsolete bridges even though most structurally deficient bridges are, by definition, functionally obsolete.

Airport Runway Conditions

Airport runway conditions improved at the nation’s major public-use airports between 1990 and 2001 [1]. At the nation’s commercial service airports, pavement in poor condition declined from 5 percent of runways in 1990 to 2 percent in 2001 (figure 88). At the larger group of National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) airports, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) found poor conditions on 5 percent of runways in 2001, down from 10 percent in 1990 (figure 89).

FAA inspects runways at public-use airports and classifies runway condition as good, fair, or poor. A runway is classified as good if all cracks and joints are sealed. Fair condition means there is mild surface cracking, unsealed joints, and slab edge spalling.¹ Runways are in poor condition if there are large open cracks, surface and edge spalling, and/or vegetation growing through cracks and joints [1].

See box for Classification of Airports in the United States

Source

1. U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) (2001–2005) (Washington, DC: 2002).

¹ Spalling refers to chips, scales, or slabs breaking off of surface pavement.

Age of Highway and Transit Fleet Vehicles

Because of improvements in the longevity of passenger cars, the median age of the automobile fleet in the United States has increased significantly, from 7.0 years in 1992 to 8.4 years in 2002. The median age of the truck fleet,¹ by contrast, began to increase in the early 1990s but has been declining since 1997 as new purchases of light trucks have increased substantially (figure 90). As a result, the truck median age of 6.8 years in 2002 is less than its 7.2 years in 1990.

The age of transit vehicle fleets varies by transit and vehicle type (figure 91). Ferryboats became substantially older between 1990 and 2000, increasing from an average of 21.7 years to 25.6 years. By contrast, the average age of full-size transit buses decreased over this period from 8.2 years to 8.1 years [1].

The age of fleets as a measure of condition is not very precise. Because of the different characteristics of vehicle fleets across the modes—some serving freight and other passenger, some owned predominantly by businesses, and others by individuals—the measure varies widely.

Source

1. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, National Transportation Statistics 2002 (Washington, DC: 2002), tables 1-25 and 1-28, also available at http://www.bts.gov/, as of June 2003.

¹ This includes all truck categories: light, heavy, and heavy-heavy.

Age of Amtrak, Aircraft, and Maritime Vessel Fleets

The average age of Amtrak locomotives and passenger train cars fluctuated in a narrow range for most of the 1990s (figure 92). The average age of locomotives was 11 years in 2000, down 7 percent from 12 years in 1990. Meanwhile, Amtrak railcar age dropped from 20 to 19 years over this period. Of the 20,028 Class I freight locomotives in service in 2000, 42 percent were built before 1980, 21 percent between 1980 and 1989, and 37 percent from 1990 onwards [1].

Overall, about 28 percent of the U.S. flag vessel fleet was 25 years old or more in 2000 (figure 93). This is up from 17 percent in 1990–1991.¹ Towboats are some of the oldest types of vessels plying U.S. waters, and they are getting older: about 50 percent were 25 years old or older in 2000, up from 33 percent in 1990–1991. Tank and liquid barges older than 25 years made up 43 percent of the total fleet in 2000, up from 27 percent in 1990–1991 [2].

The average age of U.S. commercial aircraft was 13 years in 2000, up from 11 years in 1991 (figure 94). Commercial airlines are air carriers providing scheduled or nonscheduled passenger or freight service, including commuter and air taxi on-demand services. Major airlines—those with $1 billion or more in annual revenues—accounted for nearly 80 percent of commercial aircraft in 2000 [3]. These aircraft were approximately one year younger on average than all commercial aircraft during the 1990s. The average age of major airlines aircraft was 12 years in 2000, up from 11 years in 1991.

Sources

1. Association of American Railroads, Railroad Factbook 2001 (Washington, DC: 2002).

2. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, National Transportation Statistics 2002 (Washington, DC: 20020, table 1-31, also available at http://www.bts.gov, as of January 2003.

3. Calculation based on U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Form 41, Schedule B-43, 1991–2000.

¹ These waterborne vessel data are normally surveyed as of December 31 each year. However, due to a system migration of the data in 1990, the annual survey was collected in June 1991, or half way between the dates when 1990 and 1991 data would otherwise have been collected.

Relative Prices for Transportation Goods and Services

The United States had relatively lower prices for transportation goods and services in 1999¹ than did 15 out of 25 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries (figure 95). However, the nation’s top two overall merchandise trade partners, Canada and Mexico, had lower relative prices in 1999 than did the United States. Prices in Japan and the United Kingdom—both major U.S. trade partners—were much higher than in the United States. Half of the OECD countries that had less expensive transportation goods and services than the United States are developing and transitional economies.

Further analytical research is needed to clarify transportation’s contribution to America’s global competitiveness. One theory is that Americans’ incomes would go further if transportation consumer goods and services were relatively cheaper than in other countries. Since transportation goods and services are a major input of business production, relatively lower transportation prices might also result in relatively lower production costs. Furthermore, it could be expected that an inexpensive and efficient transportation system would stimulate market expansion and result in more specialization, faster distribution, and lower production costs.

The comparisons here may indicate how domestic U.S. transportation industries, goods, and services fare against their foreign counterparts. The relative price for a good or service traded between two countries is the price for that commodity in one country divided by the price for the same commodity in another country, with the prices for the goods and services in both countries expressed in a common currency. However, relative prices alone do not reveal why transportation is more expensive in one country than another. Nor do they justify making transportation relatively cheaper than it is. They also do not reveal the quality or reliability of the transportation or fully take into account differences in geospatial factors between countries.

¹ The most recent year for which comparable international data were available at the time this report was prepared.

U.S. International Trade in Transportation-Related Goods

The United States traded $299.6 billion worth (in current dollars¹) of transportation-related goods (e.g., cars, trains, boats, and airplanes and their related parts) in 2002 with its partners (figure 96). Although motor vehicles and automotive parts constituted by far the largest share of U.S. international trade in transportation-related goods ($233.0 billion) in 2002, trade in aircraft, spacecraft, and parts ($61.9 billion) generated the largest single surplus of any transportation-related commodity category ($25.9 billion) [1]. This surplus was due to trade with several partners, particularly the United Kingdom. The only deficits for aircraft products were with France and Canada, countries that have large aviation manufacturing sectors (see box).

As is the case with overall international trade, the United States had a merchandise trade deficit in transportation-related exports and imports, totaling $82.1 billion in 2002 (figure 97). The deficit arose from a $108.0 billion U.S. trade deficit for motor vehicles and parts, which accounted for 23 percent of the total U.S. merchandise trade deficit of $470.3 billion. Over one-third of the motor vehicles and parts deficit involved U.S. trade with Japan, while about one-fifth was with Canada [2].

The United States had a relatively small deficit ($90 million) in trade of ships, boats, and floating structures in 2002, following a $693 million surplus in 2001 [1]. A $53 million trade surplus for railway locomotives and parts was down from $149 million in 2001. The 2002 surplus can largely be attributed to the United States supplying railcars and parts to Canada, the largest U.S. trade partner for rail products [2].

Sources

1. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, calculations based on data from U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. International Trade Commission, Interactive Tariff and Trade DataWeb, available at http://dataweb.usitc.gov/, as of February 2003.

2. _____, U.S. International Trade and Freight Transportation Trends (Washington, DC: 2003).

¹ All dollar amounts in this section are in current dollars. While it is important to compare trends in economic activity using constant or chained dollars to eliminate the effects of price inflation, it is not possible to do so in this instance (see note on the figure and tables 96 and 97 in appendix B).

U.S. International Trade in Transportation-Related Services

U.S. trade in transportation services in 2002 totaled $105.4 billion (in current dollars¹), down 2 percent from $107.6 billion in 2001 (figure 98). This decline was smaller than the 8 percent drop between 2000 and 2001. Of the trade in 2001, 57 percent was for imports (payments to foreign countries) and 43 percent was for exports (receipts by U.S. entities), resulting in a $14.9 billion trade deficit for transportation services.

The United States had a surplus in transportation services from 1990 through 1997 (figure 99). The trade surplus was highest in 1992, at $3.8 billion (in current dollars), but exports exceeded imports by over $3 billion in other years prior to 1997, as well. Then, between 1997 and 1998, imports increased 7 percent while exports decreased 5 percent, resulting in a $4.6 billion deficit. The deficit continued to grow at an average annual rate of 32 percent between 1998 and 2002, when the deficit reached $13.9 billion.

The United States exports and imports transportation services, including freight services provided by carriers; port services provided by airports, seaports, and terminals; and passenger travel services provided by carriers. U.S. trade in transportation services generates substantial revenues for U.S. businesses in receipts to U.S. carriers and ports. These services also result in payments by U.S. companies to foreign freight and passenger carriers and ports. Because an efficient transportation system puts a premium on system reliability and speed, the performance of freight carriers and ports directly influences the competitiveness of U.S. businesses engaged in international trade.

See box for Components of Service Trade

¹ All dollar amounts in this section are in current dollars. While it is important to compare trends in economic activity using constant or chained dollars to eliminate the effects of price inflation, it is not possible to do so in this instance (see the note on the figure and tables 98 and 99 in appendix B).

Transportation-Related Final Demand

Total transportation-related final demand rose by 37 percent between 1990 and 2001 (in 1996 chained dollars¹) from $719.8 billion to $984.1 billion (figure 100). However, transportation-related final demand as a share of GDP showed little change throughout the period. This implies that transportation-related final demand grew at about the same rate as GDP. In 2001, the share of transportation-related final demand in GDP was 11 percent, the same as in 1990.

Personal consumption of transportation—which includes household purchases of motor vehicles and parts, gasoline and oil, and transportation services—is the largest component of transportation-related final demand. It amounted to $751.8 billion in 2001 and accounted for 76 percent of the total transportation-related final demand (figure 101). Govern-ment purchases used to be the second largest component of transportation-related final demand. Since the mid-1990s, however, government purchases and private investment have accounted for about the same share. Government purchases and private domestic investment in 2001 reached $167.2 billion and $168.6 billion, respectively, for shares of 17 percent each.

Net exports were a negative component of transportation-related final demand between 1990 and 2001. In other words, the United States imported more transportation-related goods and services than it exported. This gap has widened in recent years. In 1990, net exports had a –4 percent share in total transportation-related final demand, hitting a low point of –5 percent in 1995. After rising somewhat through 1997, they dropped to –11 percent in 2001. Deficits in the trade of automobiles and other vehicles and parts have been the primary component of the negative net exports of transportation-related goods and services.

Transportation-related final demand is the total value of transportation-related goods and services purchased by consumers and government and by business as part of their investments.² Transportation-related final demand is part of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and its share in GDP provides a direct measure of the importance of transportation in the economy from the demand side. The goods and services included in transportation-related final demand are diverse and extensive, ranging from automobiles and parts, fuel, maintenance, auto insurance, and so on, for user-operated transportation to various transportation services provided by for-hire transportation establishments.

Source

1. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, calculations based on data from U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, National Income and Product Account Tables, available at http://www.bea.gov, as of October 2002.

² Also included are the net exports of these goods and services because they represent spending by foreigners on transportation goods and services produced in the United States. Imports, however, are deducted because consumers, businesses, and government purchases include imported goods and services. Therefore, deducting imports ensures that total transportation-related spending reflects spending on domestic transportation goods and services.

Transportation Services

The contribution of for-hire transportation industries to the U.S economy, as measured by their value-added (or net output), increased (in 1996 chained dollars¹) from $181 billion in 1990 to $270 billion in 2001 (figure 102). In the same time period, this segment’s share in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fluctuated slightly, increasing from 2.7 percent in 1990 to 3.0 percent in 1999 before declining to 2.9 percent in 2001. The decreased share of for-hire transportation services in 2001 can largely be attributed to the decrease in output of air transportation, reflecting significant reductions in personal and business air travel after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Among for-hire transportation industries, trucking and air contribute the largest amount to GDP (figure 103). In 2001, they contributed $99 billion and $78 billion, respectively [1]. Together, they accounted for more than two-thirds of the total for-hire transportation industries’ net output. Between 1990 and 2001, local and inter-urban transit grew significantly, followed by trucking and transportation supporting services. Railroad and pipeline transportation showed the least growth during this period.

There are two major components of transportation services—for-hire transportation, as detailed above, and in-house transportation services. For-hire transportation services are provided by firms for a fee. In-house transportation services are provided by nontransportation establishments for their own use. For instance, when a retail store uses its own trucks to move goods from one place to another it is providing an in-house service.

Time-series data on in-house transportation services are not readily available. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics last analyzed in-house transportation services in early 2000 using 1996 data. At that time, in-house transportation contributed $142 billion (in 1996 dollars) to the economy, while for-hire transportation contributed $243 billion.²

Source

1. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, “Gross Domestic Product by Industry and the Components of Gross Domestic Income,” available at http://www.bea.doc.gov/bea/dn2.htm, as of February 2003.

² The full results of that study appear in Transportation Statistics Annual Report 2000, available at http://www.bts.gov/.

Government Transportation Revenues

Federal, state, and local government transportation revenues earmarked to finance transportation programs¹ increased from $82.2 billion in 1990 to $113.6 billion in 2000 (in 1996 chained dollars²) for an annual inflation-adjusted growth rate of 3 percent (figure 104). However, the share of transportation revenues in total government revenues decreased slightly from 4.4 percent to 4.2 percent in the same period [1].

The federal government share of revenues averaged 32 percent per year between 1990 and 1997 and then rose to an average share of 38 percent per year from 1998 to 2000. On the other hand, the state government share of revenues dropped from an average share of 48 percent in 1990 through 1997 to a share of 43 percent between 1998 and 2000. The rise in the federal government share after 1997 can be attributed to increased federal motor fuel taxes, the introduction of new transportation user charges, and the shift of transportation receipts from the general fund for deficit reduction to transportation trust funds [1].

Among all transportation modes, highway usage generates the largest amount of transportation revenues, accounting for $79.2 billion or 70 percent of the total in 2000 (figure 105). Air transportation produces the second largest share of transportation revenues (17 percent). Transit revenues, a combination of money paid into the Mass Transit Account of the Highway Trust Fund and proceeds from operations of the public mass transportation system, represent 10 percent of the total. With annual growth rates of 11 percent and 5 percent, respectively, pipeline and air revenues grew faster than did other modes from 1990 to 2000 [1]. Rail is not represented in revenues because fuel and property tax receipts from rail are channeled into the general fund for deficit reduction and hence do not fall under the definition of transportation revenues used by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Amtrak generates revenues from passenger fares, but since Amtrak is not considered a government entity, its revenues are not included.

Source

1. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Government Transportation Financial Statistics 2001, available at http://www.bts.gov, as of February 2003.

¹ Money collected by government from transportation user charges and taxes, which are earmarked to finance transportation programs, are counted by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics as transportation-related revenues. The following types of receipts are excluded: 1) revenues collected from users of the transportation system that are directed to the general fund and used for nontransportation purposes, 2) nontransportation general fund revenues that are used to finance transportation programs, and 3) proceeds from borrowing.

Government Transportation Expenditures

Spending on building, maintaining, operating, and administering the nation’s transportation system by all levels of government totaled $149.0 billion in 2000 (in chained 1996 dollars¹). The federal government spent 30 percent of the funds; state and local governments, 70 percent (figure 106). Between 1990 and 2000, these transportation expenditures grew faster than total government expenditures, increasing transportation’s share in the total from 5.6 percent to 6.1 percent. State and local government spending grew faster (at an average annual rate of 3 percent) than the federal government’s spending (at 2 percent). State and local governments also spent a higher percentage of their total expenditures on transportation than the federal government. In 2000, the respective shares were 13 percent and 3 percent [1].

Among all modes of transportation, highways receive the largest amount of total government transportation funds. In 2000, this amounted to $93.6 billion and accounted for nearly 63 percent of the total (figure 107). Transit and air modes accounted for 19 percent and 13 percent, respectively, while rail and pipeline modes accounted for less than 1 percent each. Between 1990 and 2000, government expenditures on highway, transit, and air transportation increased at about the same rate, leaving the overall modal distribution of government transportation expenditures almost unchanged [1].

Source

1. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Government Transportation Financial Statistics 2001, available at http://www.bts.gov, as of February 2003.

Government Transportation Investment

Gross government transportation investment,¹ including infrastructure and vehicles, has increased steadily over the last decade. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics has estimated that total gross government transportation investment reached $76.0 billion in 2000 (in chained 1996 dollars²), compared with $59.0 billion in 1990, an average annual growth rate of 3 percent (figure 108). Government transportation investment grew faster than did other government investments. As a result, the share of transportation in total government investment increased from 24 percent in 1990 to 27 percent in 2000 [1, 2]. However, the share of government transportation investment in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) changed little, remaining at almost 1 percent each year [2]. This indicates that funds allocated by government for improving and expanding transportation capital have been growing at the same pace as GDP.

State and local governments are the main investors in transportation infrastructure, but their relative role has decreased slightly over time. Direct federal infrastructure investment rose from $2.4 billion to $3.9 billion—an average annual growth rate of 5 percent between 1990 and 2000. State and local investment in transportation infrastructure grew from $49.6 billion to $63.0 billion, an average annual growth rate of 2 percent (figure 109).

Infrastructure accounted for nearly 90 percent of the total government transportation investment during the 1990s, the bulk of which (almost three-quarters of the total) was allocated to highways (figure 110). Nevertheless, the share of highway investment in total infrastructure investment has gone down, whereas that for transit and air has gone up. Air investment grew at an average annual rate of 4 percent, faster than all other modes in the 1990s.

Sources

1. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, National Income and Product Account Tables, available at http://www.bea.gov, as of February 2003.

2. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, “Transportation Investment: Concepts, Data and Analysis,” compiled based on data from U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Fixed Assets and Consumer Durables, available at http://www.bea.gov, as of July 2002.

¹ Transportation investment is the purchase value of transportation equipment and the purchase or construction value of transportation facilities and structures, namely, roads, railways, airports, air control facilities, water ports, pipelines, and so forth, that have a service life of longer than one year. The total purchase or construction value of new transportation capital in a year is gross investment. While investment increases the stock of transportation capital, the existing transportation capital stock depreciates or wears out over time. Therefore, gross investment minus depreciation provides net investment.

Transportation Sector Energy Use

Transportation energy use grew 22 percent between 1991 and 2001, to 28 percent of the nation’s total energy consumption in 2001 (figure 111) [4]. Highway vehicles consumed an estimated 81 percent of transportation sector energy [5].

Still, transportation energy use has grown more slowly than has the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over the decade. As a result, the amount of transportation energy used per dollar of GDP declined at the average annual rate of over 1 percent between 1991 and 2001¹ [2, 3] (figure 112).

Over 96 percent of all transportation energy consumed comes from petroleum. Total U.S. petroleum usage increased 16 percent during the last decade, with transportation responsible for 83 percent of that rise [1]. In 2001, transportation consumed 67 percent of all petroleum, up from 65 percent in 1991 (figure 113). Because over half of U.S. petroleum is imported, the United States, and especially the transportation sector, may be vulnerable to supply disruptions with fuel price fluctuations having the potential to contribute to economic instability.

Sources

1. Davis, S., Transportation Energy Data Book: Edition 22 (Oak Ridge, TN: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, September 2002), table 2.4.

2. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, National Income and Product Account Tables, available at http://www.bea.doc.gov/bea/dn1.htm, as of February 2003.

3. U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Review 2001, available at http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/aer/contents.html, as of February 2003.

4. _____, Monthly Energy Review, February 2003, available at http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/mer/contents.html, as of February 2003.

5. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, National Transportation Statistics 2002 (Washington, DC: 2003), table 4-6.

¹ GDP is in chained 1996 dollars.

Transportation Energy Prices

Transportation fuel prices (in chained 1996 dollars¹) experienced short-term fluctuations between 1992 and 2002 (figure 114). The average price of motor fuel (all types of gasoline) decreased 15 percent in 1998, to $1.08 per gallon from $1.27 per gallon in 1997. Two years later, transportation fuel prices rebounded to the highest levels in more than a decade. Motor fuel prices jumped 25 percent, to $1.46 per gallon in 2000. Other fuels, such as aviation fuels and diesel used by railroads, underwent similar price fluctuations. Fuel prices decreased slightly during 2001 and 2002, so that most transportation fuels cost approximately the same amount in 2002 as in 1992. Aviation gasoline—used primarily in general aviation planes—was one exception, remaining 6 percent more expensive in 2002 than in 1992.

Transportation fuel prices are correlated with the world price of crude oil, because crude oil represents a large percentage of the final price of transportation fuel. This correlation can be seen in the price trends from 1992 to 2002 for crude oil and various transportation fuels. Crude oil prices increased 9 percent, while all other types of transportation fuel (except aviation gasoline) increased 2 percent or less [1].

While prices of transportation fuels fluctuate over time, per capita vehicle-miles traveled (vmt) for all modes of transportation have increased in almost every year. For instance, between 1991 and 2001, per capita highway vmt rose about 1 percent annually, while that of large air carriers grew 3 percent (figure 115 and figure 116).

Transportation fuel prices can affect overall consumer transportation prices. As measured by the Consumer Price Index, between 1991 and 2001, motor fuel prices and transportation prices increased at the same average annual rate (2 percent). This inflation rate for transportation was lower than average annual inflation for all goods and services (3 percent) [2]. In fact, transportation-related consumer prices increased less than all other major spending categories except apparel, which decreased less than 1 percent from 1991 to 2001.

Sources

1. U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, Monthly Energy Review Washington, DC: August 2002 and June 2003).

2. U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index, available at http://www.bls.gov, as of June 2003.

Transportation Energy Efficiency

Passenger travel was 5 percent more energy efficient in 2000 than in 1990 (figure 117), mainly due to gains by domestic commercial aviation. Improved aircraft fuel economy and increased passenger loads resulted in a 32 percent increase in commercial air passenger energy efficiency between 1990 and 2000 [2]. Aircraft fuel economy improved by 20 percent between 1990 and 2000. Domestic commercial air passenger-miles rose 49 percent between 1990 and 2000, while energy use grew 13 percent [1].

Highway passenger travel—by automobiles, motorcycles, and light trucks—represented 85 percent of all passenger-miles and 91 percent of passenger travel energy use in 2000. Highway travel was 2 percent more energy efficient in 2000 compared with 1990 [1]. This gain was due to a 6 percent increase in the energy efficiency of passenger cars and motorcycles, offset by a 5 percent loss in efficiency of light trucks¹[2]. Furthermore, light truck passenger-miles grew 47 percent between 1990 and 2000, compared with 12 percent for passenger cars and 22 percent for all highway passenger vehicles.

Freight energy efficiency (ton-miles per BTU) declined 7 percent from 1990 to 2000 (figure 118). The decline in freight energy efficiency occurred as a result of 2 percent average annual growth rate in ton-miles paired with a relatively rapid average annual growth rate of 3 percent in freight energy consumption. Contributing to this trend was the decline in the energy efficiency of the freight truck and waterborne modes [2].

See box for Terms Used and Calculations Made

Sources

1. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, National Transportation Statistics 2002 (Washington, DC: 2002), calculation based on tables 1-34, 1-44, 4-6, and 4-8, also available at http://www.bts.gov/, as of May 2003.

2. U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Transportation Energy Efficiency Trends in the 1990s, Issue Brief, available at http://www.bts.gov/, as of May 2003.

¹ Light trucks include minivans, pickup trucks, and sport utility vehicles.

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Chapter 2 - Transportation Indicators