Drivers burned less rubber in August

WASHINGTON - US motorists drove 15 billion miles less in August than they did a year earlier, down 5.6 percent for the biggest monthly decline ever, as high gasoline prices and a weak economy cut into highway travel, the Transportation Department said yesterday.

Over the 10-month period since last November, highway travel was down 78.1 billion miles from a year ago, the department said.

August was the largest single-month drop in vehicle miles traveled since the government began tracking such data in 1942.

"The decline is most evident in rural interstate travel, which has fallen by more than 4 percent - compared to the 2 percent decline in urban miles traveled - since the trend began last November," the department said.

The part of the country that saw the largest drop in highway travel in August, down 7.4 percent, was the eight states in the South Atlantic region that stretches from Delaware to Florida.

Florida's 9.7-percent decline in highway travel was the largest for any state during the month.

The Transportation Department tracks motorists through more than 4,000 automatic traffic recorders operated by state highway agencies.

REUTERS