American drivers spent just over an hour behind the wheel every day in 2022, according to statistics from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
The figures have been revealed in a new research brief based on data from the Foundation’s 2022 American Driving Survey.
The survey looks at the daily driving of the US population in 2022 and compares results to 2021 and 2020.
On average drivers made 2.44 trips, spending 60.2 minutes behind the wheel, and driving 30.1 miles each day in 2022, all of which represented small but not statistically significant decreases relative to 2021, according to the AAA.
Projecting the results nationwide, the organization said drivers made a total of 227 billion driving trips, spent 93 billion hours driving, and drove 2.8 trillion miles in 2022.
The AAA said some of the travel patterns reported by population groups that were disrupted by the pandemic appeared to return to pre-pandemic trends.
It found, similar to pre-pandemic trends, but unlike results from 2020-2021, respondents from non-metropolitan areas drove more than their metropolitan counterparts in 2022.
Drivers aged 20–24 and 25–34 drove slightly less than drivers aged 35–49 in 2022, contrary to trends from 2020 and 2021 when drivers aged 20–34 drove more than those aged 35–49.
Other travel patterns, first observed after the onset of the pandemic, have continued, including drivers with high school education, some college, or a two-year degree reported more time spent driving than those with a bachelor’s degree or higher in both 2021 and 2022.
