Motorists drove more than 3.2 trillion miles last year in the United States, marking the second straight year that total driving miles have hit a record high.
Vehicle miles were up 2.8 percent in 2016, an increase of 87.5 billion miles over 2015, according to estimates from the Federal Highway Administration.
Last year was the fifth straight year of increased mileage on public roads, according to the agency.
The administration’s latest “Traffic Volume Trends” report – a monthly estimate of U.S. road travel – shows that more than 263.6 billion miles were driven in December 2016 alone, which is a .5 percent increase over the previous December.
At 2.9 percent, traffic in the West – a 13-state region stretching from California to Montana, and including Hawaii and Alaska – led the nation with the largest percentage increase in unadjusted vehicle miles travelled for December 2016, and continued an uninterrupted series of monthly increases that began in October 2013.
Mileage fell slightly in the Northeast and North Central states in December.