U.S. drivers traveled more than 1.58 trillion miles in the first six months of the year, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).
FHWA collected information from more than 5,000 continuous count stations nationwide and used the data to estimate the change in traffic for the current month compared to the previous year. Mileage included buses, passenger vehicles, and commercial trucks.
In June, more than 280.9 billion miles were driven, 3.4 billion miles more than in June 2016.
USDOT also seasonally adjusts data to allow one month to be compared with any other month in the year. When this was done, 266.6 billion miles were driven in June, 1 percent higher than last year.
Nationally, mileage increased across five regions. The largest increased was in the West, a 13-state region that had a 2.2 percent increase.
The smallest increase was in the North Central, a 12-state region, growing only .5 percent.
The state with the largest increase was Oklahoma at 3.5 percent followed by Nevada, 3.4 percent, Kansas, 3.3 percent.
Michigan has a decrease of 2.3 percent, which was reflected the largest unadjusted decrease for the month.
The FHWA publishes a “Traffic Volume Trends” report monthly and has shown that vehicle miles traveled have been increasing since 2011.