The Transportation Statistics Annual Report describes the Nation’s transportation system, the system’s performance, its contributions to the economy, and its effects on people and the environment. This 18th edition of the report is based on information collected or compiled by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), a Federal statistical agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT). Over 4 million miles of roads, more than 19,000 public and private use airports, about 140,000 miles of freight and passenger railroads, 25,000 miles of navigable waterways, and 2 million miles of pipelines connect the Nation’s people and businesses across the continent and with the rest of the world. The estimated value of U.S. transportation assets in 2012 was $7.7 trillion. The public owns 51.2 percent of the total transportation asset value, mostly highways and streets, but also publicly held airports, waterways, and transit facilities. Private companies own 31.2 percent of transportation assets, including railroads, pipelines, trucks, planes, and ships. Personal motor vehicles account for the remaining 17.7 percent. The average person travels more than 13,600 miles per year, and domestic businesses ship and receive 63 tons of freight per year on average for every man, woman, and child in the United States. The transportation sector accounts for: * over $1 trillion in purchases and investments in transportation goods and services, * $134 billion of public expenditures on operations and maintenance of the U.S. transportation system–just more than one-third of which was spent on highways, * nearly 12 million jobs in transportation-related industries, * nearly $9,000 average expenditures for each household per year, * nearly 34,400 lives lost and over 2 million nonfatal injuries each year, * 70.1 percent of total petroleum consumption in the United States, and * about 1.8 billion annual metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. BTS compiles these and other statistics under Section 52011: Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (Public Law No. 112- 141), which requires information on: i. transportation safety across all modes and intermodally–Chapter 7; ii. the state of good repair of United States transportation infrastructure–Chapters 2 and 5; iii. the extent, connectivity, and condition of the transportation system, building on the BTS national transportation atlas database–Chapters 1 and 2; iv. economic efficiency across the entire transportation sector–Chapters 4, 5, and 6; v. the effects of the transportation system on global and domestic economic competitiveness–Chapters 4, 5, and 6; vi. demographic, economic, and other variables influencing travel behaviour, including choice of transportation mode and goods movement–Chapters 3 and 4; vii. transportation-related variables that influence the domestic economy and global competitiveness–Chapters 4, 5, and 6; viii. economic costs and impacts for passenger travel and freight movement–Chapters 3, 4, and 5; ix. intermodal and multimodal passenger movement–Chapters 1 and 3; x. intermodal and multimodal freight movement–Chapters 1 and 4; and xi. consequences of transportation for the human and natural environment–Chapter 8. See Appendix A in this report for a list of specific tables and figures that provide information on each of these topics. See Appendix B for a glossary of terms used throughout this report. This report of the BTS Director to the President and the Congress summarizes the Bureau’s findings through 2013. (Author/publisher) For this and other Transportation Statistics Annual Reports see http://www.bts.gov/publications/transportation_statistics_annual_report/
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