Responding to interest in the most recent coronavirus-related data, BTS has created web pages of transportation statistics allowing comparison of pre-COVID-19 and current numbers for passenger travel and freight shipments.
These pages present a wide range of data on all transportation modes from various sources, and BTS will add more measures as they become available.
Daily Travel during the COVID-19 Public health emergency
- What it shows: The percent and number of people staying home and not staying home each day, and the number of trips taken each day for 10 different distance groupings.
- How recent: One-week lag
- Update Frequency: Weekly on Monday
- Geography level: National, State, County
Mobility over time by statE AND BY TRIP DISTANCe
- What it shows: Changes over time in the number of people staying home and not staying home, and the number of trips taken each day for 10 different distance groupings
- How recent: One-week lag.
- Update Frequency: Weekly on Monday
- Geography level: State
The Week in Transportation: Selected Measures During COVID-19
- What it shows: The percent and number of people staying home and not staying home each day and the number of trips taken each day for four different distance groupings; commercial flights operated and people screened at airports; transit ridership; truck and rail freight activity; and passenger travel into the U.S. from Mexico and Canada.
- How recent: Some measures are as recent as one-day old; others have a one-week lag.
- Update Frequency: Weekly on Tuesday
- Geography level: National
Monthly Transportation Statistics
- What it shows: More than 60 different measures in the following categories: Economics, Freight Volume & Passenger Travel, On-Time Performance, and Safety
- How recent: Lags vary from less than one month to three months.
- Update Frequency: Throughout the month
- Geography level: National
County Transportation Profiles
- What it shows: County-level transportation data including recent person-trips, airports, bridges, demographics, maritime and rail
- How recent: Person-trips from previous week
- Update frequency: Person-trips weekly on Monday; others as numbers become available
- Geography level: County
Daily vehicle travel
- What it shows: an index for vehicle travel trends including average trip distance, trip count, trip duration, and vehicle miles traveled (VMT) for passenger vehicles, local fleets, and long-haul trucks.
- How recent: 72-hour lag
- Update frequency: Weekly on Tuesday
- Geography level: International, national, and state level
Effects of COVID-19 on Bikeshare and E-scooter Operations
- What it shows: effects of COVID-19 on bikeshare (docked and dockless) and e-scooter systems beginning in January 2020
- How recent: Through August 2020
- Update frequency: Monthly
- Geography level: By bikeshare or e-scooter system, primarily metropolitan area
Docked Bikeshare Ridership: COVID-19 Effects
- What it shows: Daily use in 2020 compared to 2019 for bikeshare systems with docking stations.
- How recent: One-month lag
- Update frequency: Updated monthly
- Geography level: By bikeshare system, primarily metropolitan area.
Ferry operators status
- What it shows: The percentage of ferry operators by state affected by the pandemic. Viewers can select April 3 or June 12, 2020, to observe the change in effects over time.
- How recent: Data is collected from 2 different points, April 3 and June 12, 2020.
- Update frequency: TBD
- Geography level: State
Ferry Routes for top ten operators
- What it shows: A breakdown of the routes each of the top 10 ferry operators maintains and whether routes are closed, operating on a reduced schedule, now-reopened, or operating on a normal schedule.
- How recent: Last week
- Update frequency: Weekly
- Geography level: Local (by ferry operator)
In addition to the regularly updated pages, BTS has also released these data spotlight pages:
Thanksgiving week travel: total number of trips down, long distance trips up over last year
The Thanksgiving 2020 travel data are in, and they indicate that the total number of trips taken this Thanksgiving was down significantly from 2019, but the number of trips between 50 and 500 miles increased by 46.7 million.
Airlines Hit On-Time High in September while Scheduled, Operated Flights Decrease
The COVID-constrained 2020 summer air travel season wound down in September, ending three consecutive months of increases in the number of domestic flights scheduled and operated by U.S. airlines; there was good news for passengers, though, as airlines notched a record-high on-time arrival rate of 92.9%.
August Flight Operations Edge up for Some Airlines, Down for Others
U.S. airlines extended their recent streak of increasing the number of domestic flights operated overall, but results for individual airlines varied widely.
World Statistics Day and the BTS Response to COVID-19
As U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres noted, “the unprecedented Coronavirus pandemic has elevated the importance of data and statistics, and demonstrated how linking data to geospatial information can help us to track the dynamics of a rapidly changing global situation.” That is exactly what BTS has been doing from the beginning of this emergency.
U.S. Airlines operate 56% more flights in July than June
Along with low cancellations, a low number of scheduled flights, but not as low as previous months.
Airlines operate more flights in June; on-time performance hits a high
Airlines operated 236,234 flights in June, 65% fewer flights than they operated in June 2019 but a considerable 31% jump over May 2020.
Overall Travel Down, Long-Distance Travel Up for Labor Day Weekend 2020
Overall, Americans took 2.8 billion fewer total trips (4.6 billion) during the Labor Day weekend this year than they did in 2019 (7.4 billion). The number of long-distance trips (50 or more miles), however, increased by 10% (16.6 million) over last year.
Flight Cancellations Stabilize in May, but Total Flights Hit Another Record Low
In May, U.S. passenger airline flight schedules caught up with the diminished demand inflicted by COVID-19. Although the reduction in scheduled flights enabled airlines to avoid the cancellations that disrupted travel in March and April, it also resulted in a record low number of flights operated.
4th of July Travel: 2020 vs. 2019
Americans took 2.8 billion fewer total trips during the 4th of July week this year than they did in 2019. In 2019, on average, 19.7% of Americans stayed home each day during holiday week; in 2020, that number rose to an average of 24.8% staying home each day.
April's One-Two Punch: as Scheduled Flights Hit Record Lows, Cancellations Reach New Highs
U.S. airlines operated an all-time monthly low of 194,390 domestic flights in April 2020, compared to the previous low of 370,027 in February 1994.
March Day-by-Day: How Flight Cancellations Rose to 17%
The March 2020 flight cancellation rate —17% of flights were canceled— at the time was the highest since September 2001, when 20% of flights were canceled. The cancellation rate was exceeded in April when 41% of flights were canceled.