Contents
- Road trip travel statistics: Road trip participation, distance, and trip duration
- Road trip travel statistics: Companions and traveler characteristics
- Road trip travel statistics: Thanksgiving travel forecasts and holiday driving
- Road trip travel: Vehicle access, vehicle types, and travel purposes
- Road trip travel: Fuel use, vehicle efficiency, and road-trip choices
- Sources
Road trip travel statistics: Road trip participation, distance, and trip duration
National travel measures provide useful context for road trips, but they do not isolate vacation driving. The 2022 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) recorded almost 161 billion trips by privately operated vehicles. That count includes trips with any number of people in the vehicle, and it covers routine travel as well as leisure. It should therefore be read as a measure of private-vehicle use, not as a count of road trips.
Motor vehicles accounted for 91% of U.S. passenger trips in 2022. Within the passenger-trip mode breakdown, cars represented 40% and SUVs 30%. These are shares of passenger trips by mode, not shares of miles, vehicles owned, or trips taken for recreation. The distinction matters: trip counts describe how often travel occurs, while vehicle-miles measure distance accumulated on roads.
| U.S. passenger travel measure | 2022 share |
|---|---|
| Motor vehicles, all listed vehicle modes | 91% |
| Car | 40% |
| SUV | 30% |
Source: FHWA, Travel | Our Nation’s Highways 2026, 2022 NHTS summary and Table 3-1.
The figures do not report a typical road-trip distance or duration. Nor do they say how many people were in a vehicle on a given trip. FHWA’s 2024 public-road statistics offer a separate perspective on distance: vehicles traveled 3,309 billion miles across public roads in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Person-miles of travel on those roads totaled 5.2 trillion. Vehicle-miles count the distance vehicles move; person-miles account for travel by the people in them. They are related but distinct measures.
FHWA also reported 9,714 vehicle-miles traveled per resident in 2024 and 15,289 miles of travel per person. These are national per-person measures for public-road travel, not estimates of miles driven on road vacations. They cannot establish how far a road trip usually goes or how long it lasts.
Source: FHWA, Travel | Our Nation’s Highways 2026, 2024 public-road usage narrative and Table 3-2.
Road trip travel statistics: Companions and traveler characteristics
The checked national measures describe trip timing and purpose, but they do not identify who traveled together. In 2022, 72% of privately operated vehicle trips took place on weekdays and 28% on weekends. These percentages apply to all such trips, including everyday errands and other routine travel; they are not a weekend road-trip participation rate.
Among weekday private-vehicle trips, commuting represented 31%. Family and personal reasons, including shopping and medical appointments, accounted for 39%. Social and recreational purposes accounted for 20%. These categories show that weekday driving has varied purposes, but the recreational category is not a road-trip count, and the figures do not indicate trip companions, traveler ages, or group size.
| Purpose of weekday private-vehicle trips | Share in 2022 |
|---|---|
| Commuting | 31% |
| Family and personal reasons | 39% |
| Social and recreational | 20% |
Source: FHWA, Travel | Our Nation’s Highways 2026, narrative on 2022 NHTS private-vehicle trips and purposes.
Household figures add context about the people and vehicles behind travel. The 2022 NHTS reported an average of 2.40 people per household and 1.83 vehicles per household for U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized households. Those averages do not show how many household members travel together or whether they use the household vehicle for a particular trip.
The household vehicle counts were reported in thousands. In 2022, 10,712 thousand households had no vehicle available; 42,271 thousand had 1 vehicle; 48,347 thousand had 2 vehicles; and 26,214 thousand had 3 or more. The survey counted 127,545 thousand households in total. These categories describe access at the household level, not the number of travelers who can drive or the availability of a vehicle on a particular departure date.
Source: FHWA, Summary of Travel Trends: 2022 National Household Travel Survey, Tables 2-6 and 6-1.
Road trip travel statistics: Thanksgiving travel forecasts and holiday driving
The checked material does not include a Thanksgiving travel forecast, a holiday road-trip count, or a daily estimate of holiday traffic. It does, however, document how much driving the Interstate System carried in 2024. Interstate travel totaled 854 billion vehicle-miles, equal to 26% of all vehicle-miles traveled. Urban areas accounted for 68% of Interstate System VMT.
The Interstate table reports its rural and urban components in million miles: 272 million rural Interstate miles and 583 million urban Interstate miles in 2024. These are annual system totals. They describe where Interstate driving occurred across the year, not traffic during Thanksgiving week or any other holiday period. They also do not separate recreational trips from commuting, freight, or other travel.
| Interstate System travel measure | 2024 value |
|---|---|
| Total Interstate travel | 854 billion vehicle-miles |
| Share of all VMT represented by Interstates | 26% |
| Urban share of Interstate System VMT | 68% |
| Rural Interstate VMT | 272 million miles |
| Urban Interstate VMT | 583 million miles |
Source: FHWA, Travel | Our Nation’s Highways 2026, narrative following Table 3-3 and Table 3-3. The table labels rural and urban values in million miles.
The annual totals are useful for understanding the scale of highway use, but they cannot be used to infer holiday congestion, the number of Thanksgiving travelers, or how far a typical holiday driver travels. Those questions require holiday-specific observations that are not present in these measures.
Road trip travel: Vehicle access, vehicle types, and travel purposes
Vehicle access varies across households, and the 2022 NHTS provides a count by the number of vehicles available. The largest listed group was households with 2 vehicles, at 48,347 thousand. The count for this group rose from 39,125 thousand in 2017 to 48,347 thousand in 2022. This is a change in the number of households in that category; it does not establish why the count changed or how often those vehicles were used for trips.
The household vehicle fleet distribution in 2022 included 44.6% automobiles, 30.2% SUVs, and 16.1% pickups. These shares describe household vehicles, rather than passenger trips. A separate mode measure found SUVs accounted for 30% of passenger trips in 2022. That figure has a different denominator, so it should not be treated as interchangeable with the 30.2% fleet share.
SUVs made up 23.7% of household vehicles in 2017 and 30.2% in 2022. The figures show the SUV share in each survey year, while offering no explanation for the shift or its effect on road-trip choices.
| Household vehicle measure | 2017 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|
| Households with 2 vehicles available (thousands) | 39,125 | 48,347 |
| SUV share of household vehicle fleet | 23.7% | 30.2% |
Source: FHWA, Summary of Travel Trends: 2022 National Household Travel Survey, Tables 6-1 and 6-4.
Vehicle categories also depend on the definition being used. FHWA’s 2024 VM-1 table divides light-duty vehicles by wheelbase. Short-wheelbase light-duty vehicles include passenger cars, light trucks, vans, and SUVs with wheelbases of 121 inches or less. Long-wheelbase light-duty vehicles include large passenger cars, vans, pickups, and SUVs with wheelbases greater than 121 inches.
Across rural and urban categories combined, short-wheelbase light-duty vehicles recorded 2,222,415 million vehicle-miles in 2024, while long-wheelbase light-duty vehicles recorded 701,693 million. Their associated person-miles were 3,412,169 million and 1,035,822 million, respectively. Vehicle-miles and person-miles measure different things; neither series is restricted to trips taken for recreation.
Source: FHWA, Table VM-1 — Highway Statistics 2024, 2024 “Total Rural and Urban” vehicle-travel and person-mile rows; see footnote 2 for wheelbase definitions.
Road classification adds another view of the routes carrying travel. Arterials carried 73% of U.S. VMT in 2024, although they comprised 11% of road miles. Collectors carried 14% of VMT and represented 20% of road miles. Local roads accounted for 13% of VMT while making up 69% of road miles. These figures describe the distribution of driving across public-road classifications, not route choices by vacation travelers.
Source: FHWA, Travel | Our Nation’s Highways 2026, narrative and Table 3-4, 2024 VMT by roadway classification.
Road trip travel: Fuel use, vehicle efficiency, and road-trip choices
Fuel and efficiency statistics describe the broader vehicle fleet and highway system. FHWA’s VM-1 table reports 19.2 miles traveled per gallon of fuel consumed by all motor vehicles in 2024. For all light-duty vehicles, the corresponding average was 23.4 miles per gallon. These are aggregate measures for their stated vehicle groups, not estimates of the fuel economy a particular road traveler should expect from a car on a chosen route.
The same table reports 11,071 miles traveled per registered vehicle for all motor vehicles in 2024. Short-wheelbase light-duty vehicles averaged 10,812 miles per vehicle and long-wheelbase light-duty vehicles averaged 10,707. These are annual average miles, not road-trip distances.
| 2024 vehicle measure | All motor vehicles | All light-duty vehicles | Short-wheelbase light-duty | Long-wheelbase light-duty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miles traveled per vehicle | 11,071 | — | 10,812 | 10,707 |
| Miles per gallon of fuel consumed | 19.2 | 23.4 | — | — |
Source: FHWA, Table VM-1 — Highway Statistics 2024, 2024 average miles per vehicle and average miles per gallon rows. Dashes indicate measures not included in the selected series.
The VM-1 fuel-consumption rows report 171,812,062 thousand gallons for all motor vehicles in 2024 and 124,798,269 thousand gallons for all light-duty vehicles. These totals use the table’s printed unit, thousand gallons, and cover the full vehicle groups rather than road-trip activity alone.
FHWA’s highway fuel series reports 127 billion gallons of gasoline and 171 billion gallons for all fuels in 2024. The accompanying narrative describes internal-combustion and hybrid vehicles as consuming 172 billion gallons, with 74% (127 billion gallons) of that total being gasoline. These figures are presented at different levels of rounding: the narrative gives 172 billion gallons for that vehicle group, while the highway table’s all-fuels series prints 171 billion gallons. The sources do not identify either as fuel used specifically on road trips.
Source: FHWA, Motor Fuel | Our Nation’s Highways 2026, opening narrative and Table 6-1; FHWA, Table VM-1 — Highway Statistics 2024, “Fuel consumed (thousand gallons)” row.
The 2026 edition’s fuel narrative says 96% of registered cars, trucks, and buses had engines using gasoline, gasohol, or diesel. Among the remaining vehicles, it identifies 3% as hybrids and 1% as plug-in electric vehicles. It also reports an average of 577 gallons of fuel consumed per vehicle in 2024. That fleet-level average is not a trip budget or an estimate for an individual traveler.
The highway fuel-use series places 2024 use 8 billion gallons below the 2019 peak of 180 billion gallons. The table lists 171 billion gallons for 2024. Those are annual highway fuel figures; they do not specify a cause for the difference or show what happened to fuel use on road trips.
Source: FHWA, Motor Fuel | Our Nation’s Highways 2026, opening narrative and Table 6-1, 2019 and 2024 rows.
The 2024 VM-1 table reports 3,294,031 million vehicle-miles for all motor vehicles. Table VM-1 - Highway Statistics 2024