London - Traffic on US highways has hit a new record as the economy recovers and the lower cost of gasoline and diesel encourages more travel.
Cars and trucks drove a record 3.050 trillion miles on US highways in the 12 months ending in January, passing the previous peak of 3.039 trillion set in the 12 months to November 2007, according to the Federal Highway Administration.
In January, traffic was 4.9 percent higher than in the corresponding month in 2014, the agency said on Tuesday.
Information on traffic volumes is collected from 4 000 roadside monitoring stations across the country and published with a two-month delay.
Traffic fell more than 3 percent between November 2007 and November 2011, as the increased cost of fuel coupled with the recession and increased unemployment to produce the most sustained drop in motoring since World War 2.
Traffic volumes have been gradually recovering since the end of 2011 as the economy has grown and joblessness has fallen.
Since March 2014, however, there has been a marked acceleration. Traffic volumes have grown more in the last 12 months than in the previous two and a half years.
The pick-up in traffic predates the crash in oil prices by some months, which suggests it reflects a combination of economic recovery and fuel prices. Oil prices did not start sliding until late June 2014.
But there is no doubt that cheaper fuel and a recovering economy are mutually reinforcing and stimulating a big increase in traffic.
Roadside traffic counts are consistent with data from tax authorities in Texas, California and other states, which show a much faster increase in fuel sales starting in the middle of 2014.
Strong fuel demand is expected to underpin global crude prices at around $55-60 per barrel over the next few months, a senior Gulf Opec delegate told Reuters on Tuesday .
“Global demand is definitely growing much stronger than expected. In December, January and especially February... it was beyond what forecasts anticipated,” the delegate said. Traffic data tends to confirm that demand is indeed rising much faster than before.
US cars and trucks consume about 11 million barrels of gasoline and diesel every day, according to the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics, equivalent to around one in every eight barrels of oil used worldwide.
US road traffic is the biggest single influence on oil demand worldwide - and all the data now points to a sustained increase in consumption.
Reuters