5 As would be expected, these persons had lower trip rates (2.8 per day) than those who did not report any such medical condition (4.4 per day) ( table A-9). About 8.6 percent of persons report having a medical condition that limits their travel The NHTS also collected information on the travel behavior of persons 15 or older who have a medical condition that limits their travel.
Not surprisingly, drivers and employed adults had a higher number of trips (4.5 trips for both groups) compared to nondrivers and unemployed adults (2.6 and 3.7 trips respectively) ( table A-9). Children under the age of 5 had the fewest trips on average (3.2 trips), followed by children between the ages of 5 and 14 and adults over the age of 65 ( figure 5, table A-9). The total number of trips peaked among the working population aged 25 to 54 (4.6 trips on an average day). Although there were no differences in the total number of trips taken based on gender, there were differences based on age. On a daily basis, individuals averaged about four trips ( figure 5, table A-9). 4 In terms of number of trips, people took 411 billion daily trips in 2001, or about 1,500 trips per person in that year ( table 2). Annually, the total number of vehicle miles traveled in 2001 was nearlyĢ.3 trillion. Because more than one person can travel in a personal vehicle, these 35 person miles amounted to about 23 vehicle miles traveled. On a daily basis, the average person traveled 40 miles, most of it (35 miles) in a personal vehicle.
Results from the 2001 NHTS show that daily travel in the United States totaled about 4 trillion miles ( table 2, table A-8), an average of 14,500 miles per person per year. This section focuses on daily passenger travel. In the 2001 NHTS, a daily trip is one that occurred on the randomly selected travel day regardless of mode or distance traveled, as long as the person went from one address to another. Data collected on daily trips include topics such as the purpose of the trip, the means or mode of transportation used, the duration and length of the trip, the time of day and day of the week when the trip took place, and the number of people in the vehicle during the trip. The 2001 NHTS captures various aspects and characteristics of daily and long-distance travel in America.