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BTS Home > Publications > National Transportation Statistics > 2000

Highway Profile

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Financial	1960	1970	1980	1990	1994	1995	1996	1997	^R1998
Government receipts ($ millions)
Total federal	2,771	6,160	9,949	14,576	17,854	19,851	^R23,196	^R21,648	24,509
Highway trust fund^a	2,531ⁱ	5,464ⁱ	7,615ⁱ	13,380ⁱ	16,582ⁱ	18,835^j	^R22,036^j	20,500^j	23,396^j
Other	240	696	2,334	1,196	1,272	1,016	^R1,160	^R1,148	1,113
State and local total
State and D.C.	6,055	11,737	19,666	40,026	47,699	50,064	^R52,808	^R58,087	58,806
Local	2,367	3,866	10,219	20,842	25,759	26,432	^R26,767	^R27,686	28,266
Total	11,193	21,763	39,834	75,444	91,312	96,347	^R102,771	^R107,421	111,581
Government expenditures ($ millions)
Total federal	197	425	874	664	1,306	1,402	^R1,598	^R1,315	1,355
Highway trust fund^a	27	83	315	358	965	1,092	^R1,384	^R1,103	1,156
Other^b	170	342	559	306	341	310	^R214	212	199
State and local total
State and D.C.	7,125	14,100	25,936	45,609	55,569	56,981	59,709	61,534	65,507
Local	3,435	6,304	14,953	29,135	33,317	35,095	^R36775	^R39,104	41,093
Total	10,757	20,829	41,763	75,408	90,192	93,478	^R98,082	^R101,953	107,955
State highway user tax revenues^c ($ millions)
Motor fuel tax	3,374^k	6,433^k	9,485^k	19,658^k	25,860^k	26,881^k	27,555^l	28,477^l	29,803^l
Other motor fuel receipts^d	22	44	92	220	101	108	63	55	58
Motor vehicle registration fees	1,514^m	2,873^m	5,173^m	10,257^m	12,388^m	11,942^m	13,234ⁿ	13,631ⁿ	14,552ⁿ
Other motor vehicle fees^e	235	577	1,490	3,353	4,505	4,416	4,689	4,704	5,068
Motor carrier taxes^f	110	176	323	695	875	770	726	729	861
Miscellaneous fees	68	181	615	1,761	2,708	3,307	3,489	3,785	4,165
Total	5,323	10,284	17,177	35,944	46,437	47,424	49,756	51,381	54,507
Inventory
Rural/urban mileage by ownership
Rural mileage
Under state control	658,896^o	707,002^o	750,479^p	702,486^p	690,372^p	690,924^p	^R691,156^q	692,767^q	660,834^q
Under federal control^g	111,912	187,696	246,130	178,188	173,650	170,568	^R168,938	167,369	118,369
Under local control	2,345,317	2,274,714	2,234,327	2,241,608	2,228,788	2,231,029	^R2,232,793	2,248,357	2,285,447
County roads	1,742,404	1,732,981	1,542,984	1,616,634	1,624,982	1,626,927	^R1,627,639	1,642,468	1,647,025
Town and township roads	538,651	510,174	458,231	437,460	423,908	424,529	426,170	426,433	426,340
Other local roads	64,262	31,559	233,112	187,514	179,898	179,573	^R178,984	179,456	212,082
Total rural mileage	3,116,125	3,169,412	3,230,936	3,122,282	3,092,810	3,092,520	^R3,092,887	3,108,493	3,064,650
Urban mileage
Under state control	50,158	74,103	97,287	95,778	109,947	111,766	^R111,924	112,226	110,017
Under federal control^g	N	N	1,495	1,024	1,484	1,509	^R1,470	1,464	1,485
Under local control	N	N	530,119	647,842	702,354	706,431	^R713,371	722,418	730,152
County roads	N	N	71,357	95,929	115,388	117,518	^R117,181	117,487	117,016
Town and township roads	N	N	37,583	42,752	74,630	60,561	60,926	74,402	75,195
Other local roads	379,410	486,567	421,179	509,161	512,336	528,352	^R535,264	530,529	537,941
Total urban mileage	429,568	560,670	628,901	744,644	813,785	819,706	^R826,765	836,108	841,654
Total rural and urban mileage	3,545,693	3,730,082	3,859,837	3,866,926	3,906,595	3,912,226	^R3,919,652	3,944,601	3,906,304
Rural/urban mileage by functional system
Rural mileage
Interstate	N	N	31,905^r	^R33,547^r	32,457^r	32,580^r	32,820^s	32,817^s	32,813^s
Other principal arterial	N	N	82,569	83,802	97,175	97,948	98,131	98,257	98,852
Minor arterial	N	N	149,057	144,774	138,120	137,151	137,359	^R137,497	137,308
Major collector	N	N	439,000	436,352	431,115	431,712	432,117	432,714	432,408
Minor collector	N	N	299,613	293,922	282,011	274,081	273,198	272,362	272,140
Local	N	N	2,228,792	2,129,885	2,111,932	2,119,048	^R2,119,262	^R2,135,485	2,091,127
Total rural mileage	3,116,125^t	3,169,412^t	3,230,936	3,122,282	3,092,810	3,092,520	^R3,092,887	^R3,109,132	3,064,648
Urban mileage
Interstate	N	N	9,215	11,527	13,126	13,164	^R13,217	^R13,247	13,312
Other freeways and expressways	N	N	6,774	7,668	8,994	8,970	^R9,027	^R9,063	9,127
Other principal arterial	N	N	44,155	51,968	53,110	52,796	^R52,983	^R53,223	53,132
Minor arterial	N	N	66,377	74,659	87,857	88,510	^R89,020	^R89,195	89,496
Collector	N	N	68,387	78,254	86,089	87,331	^R87,790	^R88,049	88,071
Local	N	N	433,993	520,568	564,609	568,935	^R574,728	^R583,973	588,504
Total urban mileage	429,568	560,670	628,901	744,644	813,785	819,706	^R826,765	^R836,740	841,642
Total rural and urban mileage	3,545,693	3,730,082	3,859,837	3,866,926	3,906,595	3,912,226	^R3,919,652	^R3,945,872	3,906,290
U.S. roads and streets by surface
Paved mileage
Rural	919,082	1,188,080	1,490,050^t	1,550,283^t	1,561,649^t	1,591,334^t	^R1,582,166^u	1,605,804^u	1,612,251^u
Urban	311,387	470,341	582,642	704,539	780,530	786,934	^R798,484	804,131	808,093
Total	1,230,469	1,658,421	2,072,692	2,254,822	2,342,179	2,378,268	^R2,380,650	2,409,935	2,420,344
Percent paved	34.7%	44.5%	53.7%	58.3%	60.0%	60.8%	^R60.5%	^R60.9%	61.3%
Unpaved mileage
Rural	2,197,043^t	1,981,332^t	1,740,886^t	1,571,999^t	1,531,161	1,501,186^t	^R1,518,310^u	1,510,330^u	1,490,488^u
Urban	118,181	90,329	46,259	40,105	33,255	32,772	^R35,227	38,019	38,061
Total	2,315,224	2,071,661	1,787,145	1,612,104	1,564,416	1,533,958	^R1,553,537	1,548,349	1,528,549
Percent unpaved	65.3%	55.5%	46.3%	41.7%	40.0%	39.2%	^R39.5%	^R39.1%	38.7%
Number of employees
State and local govt. streets and highways	532,000^v	607,000^v	559,000^v	569,000^v	544,000	560,000^v	U	548,000^v	U
Highway and street construction	U	U	U	238,700^w	226,100	227,900^w	236,100^w	^R242,800^w	256,500^w
Performance
Vehicle-miles of travel by functional system (millions)^h
Rural
Interstate	10,514^x	79,516^x	135,084^x	200,173^x	215,568	223,382^y	232,565^y	^R240,255^y	251,520^y
Other principal arterial	N	N	132,958	175,133	207,569	215,567	221,403	^R228,716	237,704
Minor arterial	N	N	129,816	155,733	149,760	153,028	157,444	^R163,342	165,780
Major collector	N	N	150,186	190,512	182,000	186,212	190,923	^R201,790	203,580
Minor collector	N	N	39,282	49,948	48,529	49,936	50,107	^R52,574	54,278
Local	N	N	84,704	97,379	104,915	105,164	^R107,752	^R114,673	120,595
Total Rural	400,463	539,472	672,030	868,878	908,341	933,289	^R960,194	^R1,001,350	1,033,457
Urban
Interstate	13,365	81,532	161,242	278,901	330,577	341,515	351,579	^R361,401	374,622
Other freeways and expressways	N	N	79,690	127,465	147,534	151,509	157,502	^R159,622	166,626
Other principal arterial	N	N	229,469	335,543	364,200	370,365	377,776	^R385,125	388,073
Minor arterial	N	N	175,030	236,225	286,165	293,228	299,345	^R301,912	309,295
Collector	N	N	83,043	106,297	120,088	126,883	129,310	^R130,143	131,919
Local	N	N	126,791	191,053	200,683	205,907	208,374	^R222,142	228,530
Total urban	318,299	570,252	855,265	1,275,484	1,449,247	1,489,407	1,523,886	^R1,560,345	1,598,065
Total rural and urban	718,762	1,109,724	1,527,295	2,144,362	2,357,588	2,422,696	^R2,484,080	^R2,561,695	2,631,522
Highway demand for petroleum (thousand barrels)
Motor fuel	1,378,095^z	2,198,310^z	2,737,143^z	3,113,214^z	^R3,353,320	3,424,616^AA	^R3,492,285^AA	^R3,580,620^AA	3,687,704^AA
Asphalt and road oil	110,000^BB	163,000^BB	145,000^BB	176,340^CC	176,751	177,543^CC	^R177,206^CC	184,383^CC	190,258^CC
Total	1,488,095	2,361,310	2,882,143	3,289,554	^R3,530,071	3,602,159	^R3,669,491	^R3,765,003	3,877,962
Safety
Fatalities	36,399^DD	52,627^DD	51,091^DD	44,599^DD	40,716	41,817^DD	42,065^DD	^R42,013^DD	41,501^DD
Injured persons	N	N	N	3,231,000	3,266,000	3,465,000	^R3,483,000	3,348,000	3,192,000
Crashes	N	N	N	6,471,000	6,496,000	6,699,000	6,770,000	6,624,000	6,335,000

KEY: N = data do not exist; R = revised; U = data are not available

^aThe Federal Highway Trust Fund was created with the enactment of the Highway Revenue Act of 1956. The total receipts shown for 1995 are overstated by approximately $1.59 billion due to a fiscal year(FY) 1994 error by the Treasury Department in reconciling estimated deposits to the actual tax revenue.The correction was made after the close of FY1994 and is shown in FY1995 receipts.
^bFigures obtained by addition/subtraction and may not appear directly in data source.
^cRevenues not necessarily allocated to highway expenditures.
^dIncludes distributors and dealers licenses, inspection fees, fines and penalties, and miscellaneous receipts.
^eIncludes drivers licenses, title fees, special title taxes, fines and penalties, estimated service charges, and local collections.
^fIncludes carrier gross receipt taxes; mileage, ton-mile and passenger-mile taxes; special license fees and franchise taxes; and certificate or permit fees.
^gMileage in Federal parks, forests, and reservations that are not a part of the state and local highway system.
^hHighway category classifications changed several times before 1980. Actual 1960 data categories were: main Rural Roads, local Rural Roads and Urban Streets; 1970 data categories were: Rural Interstate, Rural Other Arterial, Other Rural, Urban Interstate and Other Urban.

NOTES: Motor vehicle injury and crash data in this profile come from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's General Estimates System (GES). The data from GES, which began operation in 1988, are obtained from a nationally representative probability sample selected from all police-reported crashes, and the GES sample includes only crashes where a police accident report was completed and the crash resulted in property damage, injury, or death. The resulting figures do not take into account crashes which were not reported to the police or which did not result in at least property damage.

Earlier editions of NTS, particularly the 1993 Historical Compendium, used crash and injury figures estimated by the National Safety Council, which employed a different set of methods to arrive at its figures. Thus, the injury and crash figures in this edition of NTS may not be comparable with those found in earlier editions.
In 1998, FHWA instituted a new method of creating mileage based tables derived from the Highway Peformance Monitoring System (HPMS). See Chapter 1 accuracy profiles for more information about the HPMS.

SOURCES: Unless otherwise noted, please refer to chapter tables for sources.

ⁱU.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Highway Statistics, Summary to 1995, FHWA-PL-97-009 (Washington, DC: July 1997), table HF-210.
^jIbid., Highway Statistics (Washington, DC: 1996, 1997, 1998), tables HF-10A and HF-10.
^kIbid., Highway Statistics, Summary to 1995, FHWA-PL-97-009 (Washington, DC: July 1997), table MF-201A.
^lIbid., Highway Statistics (Washington, DC: 1996, 1997, 1998), table MF-1.
^mIbid., Highway Statistics, Summary to 1995, FHWA-PL-97-009 (Washington, DC: July 1997), table MV-202.
ⁿIbid., Highway Statistics (Washington, DC:1996, 1997, 1998) table MV-2.
^oIbid., Highway Statistics, Summary to 1985, FHWA-PL-97-009 (Washington, DC: July 1997), table M-203.
^pIbid., Table HM-210.
^qIbid., Highway Statistics (Washington, DC: 1996, 1997, 1998), table HM-10.
^rIbid., Table HM-220.
^sIbid., Highway Statistics (Washington, DC: 1996, 1997, 1998), table HM-20.
^tIbid., Highway Statistics, Summary to 1995, FHWA-PL-97-009 (Washington, DC: July 1997), table HM-212.
^uIbid., Table HM-12.
^vU.S. Department of Commerce, Statistical Abstract of the United States,various years, State and Local Government Section.
^wIbid., Internet site http://stats.bls.gov/sahome.html, as of Aug. 16, 2000.
^xU.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Highway Statistics, Summary to 1985 (Washington, DC: April 1987), table VM-201.
^yIbid., Highway Statistics (Washington, DC: Various years), table VM-2, VM-2A.
^zIbid., Highway Statistics, Summary to 1995, FHWA-PL-97-009 (Washington, DC: July 1997), table VM-201A (total fuel consumed in thousands of gallons divided by 42).
^AAIbid., Highway Statistics (Washington, DC: Annual issues), table VM-1(total fuel consumed in thousands of gallons divided by 42).
^BBU.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, State Energy Data Report, 1960-1980 (Washington, DC), p. 13.
^CCIbid., Petroleum Supply Annual (Washington, DC: Annual issues), table 2.
^DDU.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, National Center for Statistics and Analysis, NRD-30, personal communication.