U.S. Department of Transportation

Domestic Freight Ton-Miles by Mode in U.S.

The Freight Analysis Framework (FAF) creates a comprehensive picture of freight movement among states and major metropolitan areas by all modes of transportation. The FAF integrates data from a variety of sources. Starting with data from the Commodity Flow Survey (CFS) and international trade data from the Census Bureau, FAF incorporates data from agriculture, extraction, utility, construction, service, and other sectors. The FAF is produced by BTS with support from FHWA.

Update - New Version FAF5.5 - The new version of the Freight Analysis Framework (FAF) provides estimates for tonnage, value, and ton-miles by origin-destination pair of FAF regions, commodity type, and mode for:Base year (2017)Annual estimates (2018–2021)Forecast year estimates (2023–2050)State-level historical trend estimates (1997–2012)

Data are seasonally adjusted and indexed.

Note-This dataset includes roadways owned by the State highway agency. Excludes roadways owned by State toll, State park and other State agencies. May include roadways not identified by ownership

Note- Federal-Aid Urbanized Area is an area with 50,000 or more persons 

Annual Vehicle Distance Traveled. The dataset provides information on annual highway travel in the United States. This is broken down by State, functional system, highway category, vehicle type, and other variables.

Highway Travel: Functional System Length and Federal-AID Highway length

Data on motor vehicle registrations from The Highway Statistics Series (table MV1)

Travel on all roads and streets changed by +0.1% (+0.2 billion vehicle miles) for April 2023 as compared with April 2022. Travel for the month is estimated to be 256.1 billion vehicle miles. The seasonally adjusted vehicle miles traveled for April 2023 is 267.0 billion miles, a +1.2% (+3.2 billion vehicle miles) change over April 2022. It also represents a +0.1% change (+0.2 billion vehicle miles) compared with March 2023.

The cost of transportation stems from the resources it requires—labor, equipment, fuel, and infrastructure. Many resources are purchased by firms that provide transportation services, such as labor purchased by a railroad or fuel bought by a trucking company. Other resources are purchased directly by the users of transportation, such as fuel purchased by households for automobile travel. In addition, federal, state, and local governments provide most of the transportation infrastructure, such as highways. The prices that transportation companies charge for transportation services become out-of-pocket costs to travelers and freight shippers, and influence their transportation choices. Because transportation is an input to the production of almost all goods and services, transportation price changes can influence the cost of other goods and services as well. Transportation prices themselves are affected by the prices of inputs, such as labor costs, fuel costs, and the costs of transportation parts.

Seasonally-Adjusted Data : Statisticians use the process of seasonal-adjustment to uncover trends in data. Monthly data, for instance, are influenced by the number of days and the number of weekends in a month as well as by the timing of holidays and seasonal activity. These influences make it difficult to see underlying changes in the data. Statisticians use seasonal adjustment to control for these influences. Controlling of seasonal influences allows measurement of real monthly changes; short and long term patterns of growth or decline; and turning points. Data for one month can be compared to data for any other month in the series and the data series can be ranked to find high and low points.

The Transportation Services Index (TSI), created by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), measures the movement of freight and passengers. The index, which is seasonally adjusted, combines available data on freight traffic, as well as passenger travel, that have been weighted to yield a monthly measure of transportation services output. Source: TSI numbers are BTS estimates. Note: Monthly data changes with each release due to the use of concurrent seasonal analysis, which results in seasonal analysis factors changing as each month's data are added.

Note: Values have been converted to millions from thousand to maintain uniformity. Methodology: Thousand values multiplied with "0.001" to convert into million.

National Transportation Statistics presents statistics on the U.S. transportation system, including its physical components, safety record, economic performance, the human and natural environment, and national security.