Driving per capita is in a long-term stall

"Normalizing for population, VMT per capita has seen zero net growth since 2002," notes a recent post from the State Smart Transportation Initiative. This reality is at odds with transportation modeling, which consistently overestimates traffic growth in projections, SSTI writes. This leads to overbuilding of roads and intersections, which are often too wide and damaging to the public realm.

There was a post-recession uptick in overall and per capita vehicle miles traveled, but that trend has waned, SSTI notes.