by Calculated Risk on 8/21/2009 12:56:00 PM

Although vehicle miles increased in June 2009 compared to June 2008, miles driven are still 3.3% below the peak for the month of June in 2007.

The Dept of Transportation reports on U.S. Traffic Volume Trends:

Travel on all roads and streets changed by +2.0% (4.9 billion vehicle miles) for June 2009 as compared with June 2008. Travel for the month is estimated to be 256.7 billion vehicle miles.

Cumulative Travel for 2009 changed by -0.4% (-6.1 billion vehicle miles).

Click on graph for larger image in new window.

The first graph shows the rolling 12 month of U.S. vehicles miles driven.

By this measure (used to remove seasonality) vehicle miles declined sharply and are now moving sideways.

The second graph shows the comparison of month to the same month in the previous year as reported by the DOT.

As the DOT noted, miles driven in June 2009 were 2.0% greater than in June 2008.

Year-over-year miles driven started to decline in December 2007, and really fell off a cliff in March 2008. This makes for an easier comparison for June 2009.