TRANSPORTATION STATISTICS Annual Report 1 9 9 4 Bureau of Transportation Statistics U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION January 1994 CD-ROM: August 1994 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS U.S. DEPARTMENT OF Rolf R. Schmitt Editor-in-Chief TRANSPORTATION Terry D. Feinberg Managing Editor Federico Peña, Secretary BUREAU OF Major Contributors: TRANSPORTATION Kathleen M. Bradley Volpe National Transportation Systems Center STATISTICS Shih Miao Chin Oak Ridge National Laboratory 400 Seventh Street, S.W., Room 2104 Washington, D.C. 20590 Stacy C. Davis Oak Ridge National Laboratory Main Number: 202-366-DATA Douglas C. Frechtling George Washington University Fax: 202-366-3640 Statistical Information: 800-853-1351 John W. Fuller University of Iowa Philip N. Fulton Bureau of Transportation Statistics T.R. Lakshmanan, Director David L. Greene Oak Ridge National Laboratory Robert A. Knisely, Deputy Director Patricia S. Hu Oak Ridge National Laboratory Rolf R. Schmitt, Associate Director for Analysis and Data Development Alan Pisarski Consultant Philip N. Fulton, Associate Director Michael A. Rossetti Volpe National Transportation Systems Center for Data User Services Lorelei S. Evans, Administrative Other Contributors: Officer Philip Barbato Office of the Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth V. Ellis, Secretary Patricia Beardsley Federal Aviation Administration Lonn Henrichsen, Senior Technology Advisor (Acting) Louann M. Hall National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Terry Feinberg, Managing Editor Bruce D. Spear Volpe National Transportation Systems Center EXECUTIVE SUMMARY he Transportation Statistics Annual Report is a summary of the state of the transportation system and its consequences, the quality of statistics used to characterize the transportationT system, and planned efforts by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) to improve the quality of the statistics. BTS was established by Congress to compile, analyze, and make accessible information on the nation’s transportation sys- tem; to collect information on intermodal transportation and other related areas as needed; and to enhance the quality and effectiveness of the Department of Trans- portation’s statistical programs through research, the devel- opment of guidelines, and the promotion of improvements in data acquisition and use. The State of the Gross Domestic Product have both grown Transportation System steadily over the past three decades. Ton- miles per person have also increased, although the ratio of ton-miles to Gross Transportation is a pervasive compo- Domestic Product has declined. nent of daily life and a significant share of The transportation system includes the national economy. Travel consumes 190.4 million automobiles, vans, and roughly an hour of an average person’s trucks operating on 3.9 million miles of day, and roughly one-sixth of household streets and highways; 103,000 transit vehi- expenditures. American households, busi- cles operating on those streets, as well as nesses, and governments spend over $1 more than 7,000 miles of subways, street- trillion to travel 3.8 trillion miles and to car lines, and commuter railroads; ship goods 3.5 trillion ton miles each year. 275,000 airplanes operating in and out of When adjusted to formal definitions of the 17,500 airports and landing fields; 18,000 National Income Product Accounts, trans- locomotives and 1.2 million cars operating portation accounts for 12 percent of Gross over 113,000 miles of railroads; 20 million Domestic Product. recreational boats, 31,000 barges, and over Passenger travel and freight movements 8,000 U.S. ships, tugs, and other commer- continue to increase. Passenger-miles per cial vessels operating on 26,000 miles of person and the ratio of passenger-miles to waterways, the Great Lakes, and the i Transportation Statistics Annual Report 1994 oceans; and 1.5 million miles of intercity sumption and environmental quality. pipelines. The numbers and use of vehi- Improvements in fuel economy over the cles, vessels, and aircraft generally contin- past decade are leveling off or declining ue to grow, while the infrastructure over for most forms of transportation, and which they operate has not expanded sig- show little potential for significant nificantly in extent or capacity. Both the improvement in the near future. As a infrastructure and the fleets operating result, we can expect petroleum use by over the infrastructure are aging, and plac- transportation to increase in step with ing greater demands on maintenance and passenger travel and goods movement. reconstruction. Impacts on air quality, global warming, The performance of the transporta- and other environmental issues are much tion system from the user’s perspective is harder to monitor, but show past improve- not improving on the passenger side as it ment and potential for further gains. did in past decades. Large gains in speeds have ended as the Interstate System has reached completion and become increas- The State of Transportation ingly congested, and as airlines shift from Statistics nonstop flights to hub-and-spoke opera- tions. In contrast the freight system shows major gains through innovations While many conditions and trends in intermodal service, through the growth have been characterized, a better under- in parcel express delivery, and in the shift standing of the performance of the trans- of businesses to just-in-time delivery sys- portation system and the potential for its tems. Both passenger travel and freight improvement requires both better cover- movements were disrupted temporarily age and increased quality of existing data, by the 1993 Midwest floods, which closed and the design and implementation of bet- over 1,600 miles of navigable waterways, ter measures to transform existing and 3,764 miles of mainline railroads, over new data into useful information. 380 miles of major highways, and 34 air- New or significantly expanded data ports. collection is needed on: location, condi- Spending on the transportation system tion, and physical performance of trans- by households, businesses, and govern- portation services and facilities provided ments has increased eight-fold in current by the private sector, and intermodal con- dollars over the past three decades. Some nections provided by both public and pri- of the increase is due to the replacement vate sectors; quantity, geographic of inventories by just-in-time transporta- distribution, and cost of commodity and tion. Some of the increase in transporta- passenger movements; expenditures and tion spending is due to a shift to higher revenues of passenger transportation com- quality service, as illustrated by the enor- panies and selected providers of freight mous growth in both household and busi- transportation services; inventory and use ness use of overnight delivery services. of transportation resources controlled by Government spending has not increased at establishments that are not primarily in the same rate as household and business the business of for-hire transportation; spending; in constant dollars, state and and fuel consumption and fuel economy local government spending on transporta- based on real-world experience rather tion facilities and services has increased than laboratory conditions. modestly in the past decade while federal More reliable, comparable, or de- spending has been flat. tailed information is needed on: location, The price we pay for transportation is condition, and physical performance of not limited to direct monetary costs. transportation services and facilities pro- Transportation accounts for half of all vided by the public sector; balance of accidental deaths in the U.S. Although the trade related to transportation services number of fatalities and the fatal accident and international travel; characteristics rate have shown significant improvement and travel behavior of foreign visitors in in the past decade, transportation acci- the U.S. and of U.S. travelers abroad; dents took more than 42,000 lives in 1992 business travel; motor vehicle miles of alone. Other costs include energy con- travel by vehicle type; safety (particularly ii Executive Summary with respect to definitions of terms); and serve as a foundation for future editions of environmental conditions affected by the Transportation Statistics Annual transportation. Report. The first area is to complete the Better measures or analytical methods Commodity Flow Survey now underway to transform data into useful information and to initiate a similar survey of passen- are needed on subjects such as: conges- ger travel to determine how many people tion; productivity of the transportation and how much cargo move between sector; the contribution of transportation regions of the country, and by what activity and infrastructure investments to means. The second area is to obtain geo- economic growth, employment, and com- graphic and other information on trans- petitiveness; relationships be-tween envi- portation facilities and intermodal ronmental quality and the use of vehicles, connections. The third area of BTS activi- vessels, and aircraft; and the transporta- ty is reconsideration of basic measures of tion needs of disadvantaged groups. transportation, such as congestion and BTS is directing its near-term energies productivity, to make sure that transporta- toward three areas to improve the effec- tion statistics relate to concepts that are tiveness of transportation statistics and to useful to decisionmakers and the public. iii Table