Recent Streetsblog USA posts about VMT

Goodbye, James Dean: Young Men Reject America’s Car Obsession

By Phineas Baxandall | Jun 29, 2012 | 4 Comments

Phineas Baxandall is a senior analyst at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. This piece was originally posted on Huffington Post. Just released official data show that Americans drove a billion fewer miles in April 2012 compared to April 2011, despite a slightly better economy. It’s now well known that Americans, led by youth, have been reducing their […]

Getting Over the Privacy Hurdle to Mileage-Based Road Fees

By Liisa Ecola | Jun 6, 2012 | 13 Comments

Liisa Ecola is a senior project associate at the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research institution. It’s time to explore mileage-based user fees. For nearly a century, Americans have largely paid for roads through gas taxes – taxes which governments can’t or won’t raise. Even if they could, more and more cars no longer run […]

Washington Post: Have We Lost Our Passion for the Automobile?

By Tanya Snyder | May 22, 2012 | 6 Comments

The data tell us that young people are driving less; that Americans are driving fewer miles — and it’s not just because of the economy. Now the Washington Post asks a more transcendental question: Is the spark gone? America’s fabled love affair with the car hasn’t ended, but like many a romance that gets off […]

Are Americans Driving Less Because They’re Working Less?

By Tanya Snyder | May 10, 2012 | 5 Comments

Everyone’s trying to figure out why, after decades of consistent growth, the amount Americans drive is leveling off and even declining. The decline started during the recession, to be sure, but was more dramatic than in previous recessions. As the economy began to get back on its feet, vehicle miles traveled (VMT) just barely ticked […]

Mileage-Based Fees or Bust: New Report Says “No More Excuses”

By Noel Popwell | May 3, 2012 | 26 Comments

The shortcomings of the current gas tax are well-known. The federal rate (18.4 cents/gallon) has not been raised in nearly twenty years and is not tied to inflation, yet it remains the primary source of funds for federal transportation spending. The problem is exacerbated by improving vehicle fuel economy. And as electric cars roll off the […]

FHWA: Small Investments in Bike/Ped Infrastructure Can Pay Off in a Big Way

By Tanya Snyder | May 1, 2012 | 3 Comments

If you ever doubted whether a small investment in biking and walking could have a large impact, here is your proof. The last transportation law, SAFETEA-LU, provided four communities with four years of funding to build an infrastructure network for nonmotorized transportation (a fancy way of saying “sidewalks and bike paths”). It wasn’t a lot […]

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