Transportation Erika Grether Meghan Lockwood

How Have US Driving Habits Changed Since 1970?

How many people drive? In 1970, there were about 150 million people of driving age in the US Of those 150 million, 115 million actually had drivers licenses Today, there are around 230 million people of driving age in the US Of those 230 million, about 200 million have drivers licenses

Only 76% of the population over the driving age had a drivers license in 1970 (115 million / 150 million) Today, that number has increased to 86% (200 million / 230 million)

How many vehicles are there on the roads? At the end of 2009 there were 246 million cars on the roads. There were only an additional 129,000 classified as public transit vehicles.

How much gasoline does the US consume? In 1970, the US consumed 2,000,000,000 gallons of oil, just for the use of fuel in transportation Last year, we used 7,117,500,000 gallons of gasoline total. 3,295,950,000 gallons of it was for transportation (46%)

Fuel Consumption

Percentage of total energy (27%) used for each category of vehicle

Public Transportation

How far do people drive? The average commuting distance to work, one way, in 1970 was 9.5 miles (18 miles round trip) Today that average is 15 miles one way (30 miles round trip)

Miles traveled for work every year So if we were to calculate about how many miles people traveled to work in a year: Weekdays in a year ~ : 261 days x 19 miles = 4959 miles/year Today: 261 days x 30 miles = 7830 miles/year JUST FOR WORK!

Average Gas mileage The average gas mileage in 1970 was 17 mpg Today it is 25 mpg So an 8 mpg improvement...in 40 years

Miles Traveled per person and Fuel Consumed/year YearAverage miles traveled/person/ye ar Fuel consumed – Automobiles (thousands barrels per day) Fuel consumed – Public Transit (thousand barrels per day) , %5% , %4% , %4%

If everyone in the US drove 15,000 miles and we all got 25 mpg, we would use 600 gallons of gas per person every year. 15,000 miles / 25 mpg = 600 gallons

Limitations Averages used Not entirely accurate Not every year’s data available Selected years Surveys were accurate? Hard to know

References