Car Culture Demands Better Roads and Bridges

It seems that Americans are increasingly aware of the environmental impacts of extracting and burning fossil fuels.  Meanwhile, drivers everywhere gasp at the prices to pay for gasoline.  Yet despite these grim realities, Americans are unwilling to curb their driving.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced that Americans drove three trillion miles in 2010, the most vehicle miles traveled since 2007 and the third-highest ever recorded.

Recruiters may come to their own conclusions about what this increase in car traffic means to them.  How will this car culture impact the business sector that you serve?  The U.S. Department of Transportation concluded that this surge of traffic demands investment into infrastructure.

“More driving means more wear and tear on our nation’s roads and bridges,” said Secretary LaHood.  “This new data further demonstrates why we need to repair the roads and bridges that are the lifeblood of our economy.”

The Secretary noted that Americans drove 0.7 percent more, or 20.5 billion additional vehicle miles traveled (VMT), in 2010 than the previous year.  Travel increased by 0.6 percent, or 1.4 billion VMT, in December 2010 compared to the previous December.  It is the tenth consecutive month of increased driving.

The new data, from the Federal Highway Administration’s monthly “Traffic Volume Trends” report, show the South Gulf area, a bloc of eight states ranging from Texas to Kentucky, experienced the greatest regional increase in December 2010 at 46.6 billion VMT, an increase of 624 million miles traveled compared to the previous December.

With an increase of 11.1 percent, or 156 million additional miles traveled, Nebraska led the nation with the largest single-state increase that month, and rural driving outpaced urban driving across the country.