Day tripper: American Daily Driving Habits

Published on April 30, 2015 06:27 PM in Safe Driving

Americans continue to spend more time in their vehicle than they do exercising or reading a book.

That’s the upshot of a recent study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety and the Urban Institute, which investigated the driving habits of US drivers.

Americans spend an average of 46 minutes driving per day. In contrast, the most recent surveys from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show most Americans over the age of 25 spend less than 25 minutes per day of reading and less than 19 minutes exercising.

The AAA Foundation study showed Drivers take an average of two vehicle trips and some 29 miles per day. The study was conducted between May 2013 through May 2014..

“This is the first ongoing study that provides a look at when and how much Americans are driving,” said Peter Kissinger, President and CEO of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

The first-year results of the American Driving Survey revealed that:

Motorists age 16 years and older drive an average, 29.2 miles per day or 10,658 miles per year.
Women have more frequent trips, but men spend 25 percent more time behind the wheel and drive 35 percent more miles than women.
Teenagers and seniors over the age of 75 drive less than any other age group.
Motorists 30-49 years old drive an average 13,140 miles annually, more than any other age group.
Drivers who reported living “in the country” or “a small town” drive greater distances (12,264 miles annually) and spend a greater amount of time driving than people who described living in a “medium sized town” or city (9,709 miles annually).
Motorists in the South drive the most (11,826 miles annually), while those in the Northeast drive the least (8,468 miles annually).
On average, Americans drive fewer miles on the weekend than on weekdays.
Americans drive, on average, the least during winter months (January through March) at 25.7 miles daily; they drive the most during the summer months (July through September) at 30.6 miles daily.

Results from the American Driver Survey were based on telephone interviews with a nationwide sample of 3,319 drivers who reported detailed information about all their driving trips taken the day before the interview. Data collection is ongoing; the information reported in the first-year results was collected between May 21, 2013 and May 31, 2014.S

References:

http://newsroom.aaa.com/2015/04/new-study-reveals-much-motorists-drive/

Bureau of Labor Statisics (http://www.bls.gov/news.release/atus.t11.htm)