The automotive wheels of America keep spinning. According to the 1995 American Travel Survey recently released by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, American households took nearly 685 million long distance trips in 1995.

Personal vehicle use made up more than half (265 million or 59 percent) of the 449 million personal trips within the traveler's home state (intrastate). Personal use vehicle miles accounted for 280 billion miles in 1995. Of those miles, 34 percent or 94 billion were within the same state. Although intrastate travel rolled in the miles, 84 billion personal use vehicle miles (30 percent) were logged on trips taken in different states, different regions or different divisions of America.

Three out of four household trips within the United States were taken in a personal use vehicle in 1995. Personal vehicles were the mode of choice for shorter trips. About 37 percent of these trips were less than 300 miles round trip, and 68 percent were less than 500 miles round trip. The median round-trip distance for personal use vehicle trips was 368 miles.

American travelers are friendly folks. Of all personal trips in 1995, about one-third were to visit friends or relatives, 23 percent were for business, 30 percent were for leisure activities and another 15 percent were for personal business, such as attending weddings or funerals, obtaining medical treatment or participating in school-related activities.

More than half of all travel in 1995 (52 percent) was for vacations with personal use vehicle as the way to go. Eighty-two percent of vacationers used the automobile for their travels, compared to only 15 percent via commercial airplane.

Stat Corner is written by Denise Caspersen, ASA's research management specialist. She can be reached at (800) 272-7467, ext. 236.

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