I am looking for statistics relating to the number of long drives
taken in the U.S. each year. By long drive, I am thinking of road
trips, vacations, moving, etc. Perhaps any drive longer
than 2-3 hours? If anyone can find good info, I'll leave a good tip.
If this information is not freely available, but perhaps can be
purchased from a market research firm that has already studied this,
then that is also an option. It would be especially useful if the data
was broken down by trip length (such as X thousands per year 1-3 hours
long, Y thousands per year 3-5 hours, etc).

Thanks,
Seth

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Request for Question Clarification by googlenut-ga on 02 Nov 2003 13:54 PST

Hello Seth,

I have found data from 2001 which provides the following information:

 - The number of trips of 50 miles or more from home to the farthest
destination traveled, by mode of travel (personal vehicle, air, bus,
train, other).

 - Percent of Long-Distance Trips by Mode and Roundtrip Distance
broken down to trips of 100 – 299 miles, 300 – 499 miles, 500 – 999
miles, 1000 – 1999 miles, 2000+ miles.

 - Proportion of Long-Distance Trips by Purpose (pleasure, business,
personal business, commute, other).

 - The total and median distance for long-distance trips by mode.
 
 - Long-distance trips by mode by sex, age, and income.


This data is from a US Government source, and 2001 is the most recent
data available.

Please let me know if this data would meet your needs and I will post
it as the answer.

Googlenut

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Clarification of Question by sethro-ga on 02 Nov 2003 15:03 PST

Hi Googlenut,

I think this will do it! Please go ahead and post it as the answer. 

Thanks,
Seth

Hello Seth,

This information can be found in the U.S. Department of
Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics report,
“Highlights of the 2001 National Household Travel Survey.”
http://www.bts.gov/products/national_household_travel_survey/highlights_of_the_2001/


This report can be downloaded for free in PDF format or you can view
or download individual tables.


Highlights of the 2001 National Household Travel Survey (PDF Format)
http://www.bts.gov/products/national_household_travel_survey/highlights_of_the_2001/pdf/entire.pdf
“The 2001 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) is the first
comprehensive household survey of both daily and long-distance travel,
allowing for analysis of the full continuum of personal travel by
Americans. This report highlights the breadth of topics covered by the
survey, the different kinds of analyses possible using the data
gathered, and the unique features of these data.”


You can find the report by going to the Bureau of Transportation
Statistics home page ( http://www.bts.gov/ ).  Click on “Highlights of
the 2001 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS)” under “Spotlight” in
the center of the page.  It is also listed under “New Products” on the
right side of the page (#7).


This report defines long-distance trips as “trips of 50 miles or more
from home to the farthest destination traveled.” (Page 12)


Based on this report, Americans took 2.3 billion long-distance trips
in personal vehicles in 2001, covering 760 billion miles.  The median
distance for all long-distance trips taken in personal vehicles was
194 miles.

Personal vehicles were used for nearly 97 percent of long-distance
trips of less than 300 roundtrip miles.

For detailed tables, see Appendix A, Section IV (page 24).


I hope you have found this information helpful. If you have any
questions, please request clarification prior to rating the answer.

Googlenut


Google Search Terms:

long car trips statistics
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=long+car+trips+statistics

Perfect - exactly what I was looking for. Thanks Googlenut!

Seth,

Thank you for the tip!

I'm glad I was able to help.

Googlenut