Here are some commuting, carpooling, bicycling, and walking facts to consider:

• Sixty percent of Tennessee ’s population live in counties where ozone levels exceed Environmental Protection Agency standards.

• Transportation accounts for more than 28% of our country’s energy consumption and more than 25% of its air pollution. 1

• After housing, transportation-related expenditures are the second largest cost for the average American household – exceeding food, education, recreation, and health care – according to the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2

• Carpooling, using transit, walking, or bicycling to work – just one day a week for a year—can save the typical commuter about 1,200 miles on their vehicle and more than $600 in total driving costs. 3

• Every October, thousands of schools in all 50 states participate in "Walk to School Day" to enhance kids’ health, improve air quality, and create safer routes for walking and bicycling. For more information, including dates for the next Walk to School Day, please visit http://www.walktoschool.org.
  
  
• Between 1980 and 2003, the U.S. population grew by 28%; however, the number of miles people drove increased by 89%. 4

• Congestion cost U.S. travelers 3.7 billion hours of delay and 2.3 billion gallons of wasted fuel, at an estimated cost of $63.1 billion, according to the 2005 Urban Mobility Report. 5

• The Urban Mobility Report also showed that the time penalty for traveling during peak periods jumped from 16 hours per year in 1982 to 47 today, and the period of time when travelers might experience congestion increased from 4.5 to 7.1 hours per day. 5

• 92.5% of Americans commute to work using personal vehicles; only 3.7 % use transit. 6 For workers who have transit available close to home and work (within one-quarter mile), nearly 10% take transit to work. Of the workers who usually commute by vehicle, 90 % drive alone.

• The most recent National Household Travel Survey showed that commuting has declined as a share of all vehicle trips – from nearly 33% in 1969 to less than 17.5 % today—not because there are fewer work trips, but because of the increase in trips for other purposes, such as shopping and recreation. So, it is important to look beyond just your commuting trips. 6

• You can reduce more air pollution if you walk or bicycle for short trips, compared to a long commute, because emissions are highest when a vehicle is started “cold.” For instance, eliminating five separate one-mile vehicle trips reduces about the same amount of ozone-related pollution as eliminating one 15-mile trip. 7

• 88.4 % of all trips in an average day are made in personal vehicles. 43.4 % of the trips using vehicles are by people driving alone. Less than one out of seven trips are by transit, walking, or other alternate methods. 6

• Despite the presence of almost one adult-sized bicycle per household, just over 7 percent of adults reported taking a bike trip outdoors in the last week. 6

• The average American household uses almost three gallons of fuel per day—enough to fill 21 standard bathtubs a year. 8

• The average “peak period” traveler uses an extra 28 gallons of fuel per year due to inefficient vehicle operation in congested conditions. 5

• In communities that use a combination of traffic congestion remedies – public transportation, bus and carpool lanes, traffic signal coordination, quickly clearing crashes and disabled vehicles, and using signals that regulate traffic flow onto their freeways – annual congestion delay is reduced from 53 to 46 hours per person traveling in peak periods. That’s like getting almost one whole work day to do something fun, instead of sitting in traffic! 5

• Predictable travel times are increasingly valuable for businesses and urban travelers. The traffic congestion remedies mentioned above make roadway systems more reliable – a quality that leads to a more predictable travel experience. 5
  
  
• A vehicle with four passengers achieving 15 mpg is 2.4 times more efficient than four small sedans with one passenger getting 25 mpg. 9

(For more information, please visit the It All Adds Up Seasonal Theme Program Web site section on fall messages and materials at http://www.italladdsup.gov/community_partners/fall.asp.)

1 Energy Information Administration “U. S. Consumption of Total Energy by End-Use Sector, 1973–2005” http://www-cta.ornl.gov/data/tedb25/Spreadsheets/Table2_01.xls and U.SEnvironmental Protection Agency reports on national emissions trends from 1970 - 2002 http://www.epa.gov/ttn/chief/trends/trends02/trendsreportallpollutants07182005.zip

2 Bureau of Labor Statistics “Consumer Expenditures in 2004” http://www.bls.gov/cex/csxann04.pdf

3 Original research done in August 2003 for the Federal Highway Administration using data from the Federal Highway Administration, National Household Travel Survey 2001, http://nhts.ornl.gov/2001/index.shtml, and U.S. General Services Administration, http://www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/contentView.do?contentId=9646&contentType=GSA_BASIC.

4 U.S. Census Bureau, Selected Historical Decennial Census Population and Housing Counts: 1790 to 1990 and Time Series of National Population Estimates: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2003, http://www.census.gov/population/www/censusdata/hiscendata.html, and Federal Highway Administration, Highway Statistics 2001, http://wwwcf.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/hs01/aspublished/.

5 Schrank, David and Lomax, T., 2005 Urban Mobility Report, Texas Transportation Institute, http://mobility.tamu.edu/ums/.

6 Federal Highway Administration, National Household Travel Survey, 2001, http://nhts.ornl.gov/2001/index.shtml.

7 Based on calculations performed in August 2003 for the Federal Highway Administration using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s MOBILE6.2 emissions model.

8 Original research done in August 2003 for the Federal Highway Administration using data from the Federal Highway Administration, National Household Travel Survey, 2001, http://nhts.ornl.gov/2001/index.shtml, and Federal Highway Administration, Highway Statistics 2001, http://wwwcf.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/hs01/aspublished/.

9 Four people traveling for 150 miles in a vehicle that gets 15 mpg will use 10 gallons of gas to make the trip. If those same people drive in separate vehicles that get 25 mpg it will take each person 6 gallons of gas, totaling 24 gallons, to travel the same distance.