U.S. road travel rises, nears pre-pandemic levels

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Transportation Department said vehicle travel rose by 0.1% in October to 285.9 billion miles as road travel is nearing pre-pandemic levels for the year.

In recent months, vehicle travel has been rising as gasoline prices have fallen. October travel slightly surpassed 2019 pre-pandemic levels. Overall U.S. road travel in the first 10 months of 2022 is 2.73 trillion miles — 1.5% higher than 2021 — but slightly below the 2.74 trillion miles for the same 10 months in 2019.

(Reporting by David Shepardson)