US motor vehicle trips were up 7.1% in October from Reuters in 2020

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. car drivers drove 7.1 miles more than in the same month last year in October when people returned to their offices and resumed leisure travel, but it was a short distance from the previous pandemic level and traffic deaths rose sharply.

The Federal Highway Administration said on Monday that drivers drove 277.5 billion kilometers in October, 18.5 billion more than in October 2020, but covered 5.6 billion less than in October 2019. In the first 10 months of 2021, road trips increased by 11.2%, or 262.5 billion kilometers, more than last year.

The numbers continue to fall, partly because millions of workers work from home.

Travel rose by 0.5% compared to September levels. Travel on rural roads now exceeds pre-pandemic levels, and urban road trips are still behind 2019 levels.

In the 12 months ending October, the United States covered 3.09 trillion miles, which is roughly the same speed as in 2015, and 168 trillion miles less than in the 12 months ending October 2019.

The increase in the percentage of traffic deaths has outpaced the increase in driving.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in October that road deaths rose by 18.4% in the first six months of 2021 compared to the same period a year earlier, in the first half of 2006 when it died on U.S. roads.

Traffic deaths rose as coronary artery blockade ended in 2020, as more drivers were exposed to dangerous driving at speed and under the influence of drugs or alcohol, for example, according to regulators. This was the highest six-month increase ever recorded in the history of the Death Analysis Report System, which has been in use since 1975.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in October that his department would release a strategy in January with a full set of actions to reduce serious traffic injuries and deaths.