It’s official now: the Oregon Department of Transportation says that vehicle travel dipped last year on Oregon’s state-owned roads:
And if you look at the numbers (spreadsheet link), total vehicle travel on state roads and highways dipped to its lowest level since 1997. This is total travel, mind you, not per capita travel.
This is largely a confirmation of trends that have been extensively documented. Last week, our report on gasoline consumption found essentially the same thing: we’re using less gas, mostly because we’re driving less. Oregon is ahead of the national curve, but very similar trends are afoot in Washington: at least on state-owned roads, traffic has been flat or declining for about a decade.
