by Calculated Risk on 7/20/2009 03:09:00 PM

This is the second consecutive month were vehicles miles driven were flat, or slightly above, the comparable month in 2008 (May 2009 compared to the May 2008).

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

Travel on all roads and streets changed by +0.1% (0.2 billion vehicle miles) for May 2009 as compared with May 2008. Travel for the month is estimated to be 257.3 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. (label corrected: trillions)

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 May 2009 were 0.1% greater than in May 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 May 2009.