**This data set was last updated 3:30 PM ET Monday, January 4, 2021. The last date of data in this dataset is December 31, 2020. **

Overview

Data shows that mobility declined nationally since states and localities began shelter-in-place strategies to stem the spread of COVID-19. The numbers began climbing as more people ventured out and traveled further from their homes, but in parallel with the rise of COVID-19 cases in July, travel declined again.

This distribution contains county level data for vehicle miles traveled (VMT) from StreetLight Data, Inc, updated three times a week. This data offers a detailed look at estimates of how much people are moving around in each county.

Data available has a two day lag - the most recent data is from two days prior to the update date. Going forward, this dataset will be updated by AP at 3:30pm ET on Monday, Wednesday and Friday each week.

This data has been made available to members of AP’s Data Distribution Program. To inquire about access for your organization - publishers, researchers, corporations, etc. - please click Request Access in the upper right corner of the page or email kromano@ap.org. Be sure to include your contact information and use case.

Findings

• Nationally, data shows that vehicle travel in the US has doubled compared to the seven-day period ending April 13, which was the lowest VMT since the COVID-19 crisis began. In early December, travel reached a low not seen since May, with a small rise leading up to the Christmas holiday.
• Average vehicle miles traveled continues to be below what would be expected without a pandemic - down 38% compared to January 2020. September 4 reported the largest single day estimate of vehicle miles traveled since March 14.
• New Jersey, Michigan and New York are among the states with the largest relative uptick in travel at this point of the pandemic - they report almost two times the miles traveled compared to their lowest seven-day period. However, travel in New Jersey and New York is still much lower than expected without a pandemic. Other states such as New Mexico, Vermont and West Virginia have rebounded the least. ## About This Data The county level data is provided by StreetLight Data, Inc, a transportation analysis firm that measures travel patterns across the U.S.. The data is from their Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) Monitor which uses anonymized and aggregated data from smartphones and other GPS-enabled devices to provide county-by-county VMT metrics for more than 3,100 counties. The VMT Monitor provides an estimate of total vehicle miles travelled by residents of each county, each day since the COVID-19 crisis began (March 1, 2020), as well as a change from the baseline average daily VMT calculated for January 2020. Additional columns are calculations by AP.

Included Data

01_vmt_nation.csv - Data summarized to provide a nationwide look at vehicle miles traveled. Includes single day VMT across counties, daily percent change compared to January and seven day rolling averages to smooth out the trend lines over time.

02_vmt_state.csv - Data summarized to provide a statewide look at vehicle miles traveled. Includes single day VMT across counties, daily percent change compared to January and seven day rolling averages to smooth out the trend lines over time.

03_vmt_county.csv - Data providing a county level look at vehicle miles traveled. Includes VMT estimate, percent change compared to January and seven day rolling averages to smooth out the trend lines over time.

Additional Data Queries

* Filter for specific state - filters 02_vmt_state.csv daily data for specific state.

* Filter counties by state - filters 03_vmt_county.csv daily data for counties in specific state.

* Filter for specific county - filters 03_vmt_county.csv daily data for specific county.

Interactive

The AP has designed an interactive map to show percent change in vehicle miles traveled by county since each counties lowest point during the pandemic:

@(https://interactives.ap.org/vmt-map/)

Interactive Embed Code

Using the Data

This data can help put your county's mobility in context with your state and over time. The data set contains different measures of change - daily comparisons and seven day rolling averages. The rolling average allows for a smoother trend line for comparison across counties and states. To get the full picture, there are also two available baselines - vehicle miles traveled in January 2020 (pre-pandemic) and vehicle miles traveled at each geography's low point during the pandemic.

Caveats

• The data from StreetLight Data, Inc does not include data for some low-population counties with low VMT (<5,000 miles/day in their baseline month of January 2020). In our analyses, we only include the 2,779 counties that have daily data for the entire period (March 1, 2020 to current).
• In some cases, a lack of decline in mobility from March to April can indicate that movement in the county is essential to keeping the larger economy going or that residents need to drive further to reach essentials businesses like grocery stores compared to other counties.
• The VMT includes both passenger and commercial miles, so truck traffic is included. However, the proxy is based on the "total number of trip starts and ends for all devices whose most frequent location is in this county". It does not count the VMT of trucks cutting through a county.
• For those instances where travel begins in one county and ends in another, the county where the miles are recorded is always the vehicle’s home county. ###### Contact reporter Angeliki Kastanis at akastanis@ap.org.