The Federal Highway Administration reported last week that traffic on U.S. roads in June 2020 was 13.0 percent below the 2019 levels. This is a significant recovery from the COVID-lockdown peak of -40.2 percent in April, which rebounded to -25.7 percent in May.
We have totals for U.S. gasoline production much more recently than VMT (the Energy Department reports on a weekly basis, and we have through last week). If the VMT pace roughly tracks the pace of gasoline production, then VMT should stabilize at around 7-10 percent below the 2019 levels for a few months.
As usual, the pace of urban driving diverges from that of rural driving, with rural residents driving more and rebounding from the COVID lockdowns more quickly.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | ||
| All Urban Roads | |||||||
| Billion VMT vs 2019 | +3.7 | +3.2 | -37.7 | -81.6 | -54 | -27.2 | |
| Increase/Decrease | +2.1% | +2.0% | -19.7% | -41.4% | -27.2% | -14.0% | |
| All Rural Roads | |||||||
| Billion VMT vs 2019 | +1.8 | +1.7 | -13.7 | -31.7 | -19.6 | -9.5 | |
| Increase/Decrease | +2.5% | +2.6% | -17.1% | -37.6% | -22.4% | -10.9% | |
That data can be graphed visually like so:
And there is regional variance as well, which FHWA is kind enough to map.
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