VMT

E-Z Trip gas station in Bakersfield, California with orange awning over regular gas pumps and Tesla superchargers with white Teslas charging in foreground.

California Poised to Lose Up to $4 Billion in Gas Tax Revenue

States must find other ways to fund transportation projects as the transportation sector moves toward decarbonization.

January 3, 2024 - Cap Radio

Tesla's chief deisnger easily smashes the window of the cybertruck in a demonstration gone wrong.

Opinion: Stop Trusting Elon Musk—on Tunnels, on Teslas, on Everything

Musk has leveraged social media intrigue and a hot streak on the market to become the standard bearer for autonomous vehicle technology. Trust Tesla at public peril, argues James Brasuell in this opinion piece.

July 18, 2022 - James Brasuell

Multi-Family Development

Density and Driving: A Second Look

A common argument against more compact housing is that increased population density will only reduce vehicle miles traveled at moderate levels of density, as opposed to very low-density and very high-density areas. But this might not be so.

May 22, 2022 - Michael Lewyn

Driving

Road Usage Charges Face Staunch Opposition

The resistance to a proposed mileage-based tax in San Diego County highlights the challenges of passing road usage fees.

March 9, 2022 - Time Magazine

I-84 to I-5 Interstate Freeway in Portland Oregon with Long Exposure Vehicle Traffic Motion

What Is VMT?

A measure of the demand for vehicle travel on public roadways, VMT provides a metric for evaluating the potential impact of road projects and developments and could become an increasingly useful tool for assessing road usage taxes.

March 2, 2022 - Diana Ionescu

gaslamp Quarter

San Diego County Weighs VMT Proposal

San Diego County could tax developers based on projected vehicle miles traveled as part of a new CEQA requirement that replaces Level of Service with VMT.

February 4, 2022 - KUSI

Bend, Oregon

Oregon DOT Projects Little Decline in Driving Despite Climate Pledge

Financial projections from the state's Department of Transportation suggest the agency does not anticipate a marked reduction in driving in the next decade.

December 17, 2021 - Willamette Week

Traffic

Minnesota and California Take Steps to Reduce Vehicle Miles Traveled

The two states both approved measures that will set VMT reduction goals and create enforcement mechanisms to promote more climate-friendly policies.

April 6, 2021 - State Smart Transportation Initiative (SSTI)

Freeway houses

U.S. DOT Says Mileage Charge Is Not in Biden's Plan

Secretary Pete Buttigieg's statement that the per-mile-tax concept "shows a lot of promise" caused a stir, but a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Transportation later claimed it won't be part of Biden's forthcoming infrastructure package.

March 31, 2021 - Business Insider

Congestion

Report: Vehicle Miles Traveled Almost Fully Returned to Pre-Pandemic Levels

Reports last week that the U.S. economy is about 30 percent smaller than before the pandemic aren't reflected in driving trends.

August 3, 2020 - Smart Cities Dive

Goods Movement

5G Networks Will Change the Freight Trucking Industry

Industry experts believe that 5G networks will allow trucking fleets to send more data and video from individual trucks to fleet managers.

October 4, 2019 - Fleet Owner

Waze

Waze Wants To Be a Carpooling Matchmaker

The Google-owned company has the data to connect commuters to possible carpool buddies, Whether Waze can stem the long-term decline in carpooling remains to be seen.

July 5, 2019 - City Lab

San Francisco Traffic

U.S. Millennials, Like Previous Generations, Drive a Lot

Despite a dip in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in 2009, Americans continue to drive more and farther, despite some mistaken assumptions about Millennial travel behavior.

April 3, 2019 - CityLab

Houston Traffic

Trends Show Lower-Income Millennials Driving More

Data from the 2017 National Household Travel Survey reveals that circumstances may be forcing lower-income young people to drive greater distances.

April 20, 2018 - State Smart Transportation Initiative

Little Tokyo

The Final Days of 'Level of Service' in California's Environmental Review Process

A long-awaited draft update of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) has finally been released, and Level of Service will finally be a thing of the past in the next two to four years.

December 7, 2017 - Streetsblog California

Crash

Study: Warm Weather Is a Factor in Increased Road Deaths

A downward trend in deaths from car crashes reversed sharply in 2015. Many blamed cell phones and the distractions they can cause, but a recent study complicates that hypothesis.

September 13, 2017 - Minneapolis Post

Rural Bus

Difficult Data to Understand: City Drivers Logging More Miles, Rural Drivers Fewer

As America's VMT returns to record highs, more of the miles are coming from cities than ever before.

July 19, 2017 - Slate

Report Predicts the End of Individual Car Ownership

The first report from independent think tank RethinkXL predicts that by 2031, 95 percent of U.S. passenger miles traveled will be served by on-demand, autonomous electric vehicles owned by companies providing transport as a service.

July 14, 2017 - San Francisco Chronicle

Density

Debating the Relationship Between Compact Development and Driving

Leading researchers debate whether more compact urban development reduces automobile travel in the Journal of the American Planning Association. The issues are complex and important.

March 2, 2017 - Journal Of The American Planning Association

Talinn Estonia

Lessons From the Free Public Transport Capital of the World

How making public transportation cost-free has—and hasn't—benefited Estonia's capital city.

October 31, 2016 - The Guardian

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