As the fourth largest country in land area, the United States has over 4 million miles of highways, railroads, and waterways that connect all parts of the country. It also has 19,000 public and private airports and over 400,000 miles of oil and gas transmission pipelines.

There were 220 million vehicles in the nation’s highway fleet in 1999,
22 million more than a decade earlier.

The average distance traveled by each car and light truck annually (about 12,000 miles) equals a journey nearly halfway around the world.

Revenue vehicle-miles of transit grew by nearly 30 percent between
1991 and 1999, to over 3 billion miles.

The number of aircraft operated by air carriers increased by more than
30 percent between 1990 and 1999.

Between 1992 and 1999, estimated alternative fuel use grew by 5.8 percent annually. Nevertheless, alternative fuels comprise a tiny fraction
of total motor vehicle fuel use - 0.17 percent in 1992 and 0.21 percent in 1999.

There were over 3.8 trillion ton-miles of domestic freight shipments in 1999, representing an annual growth of 2 percent since 1990.

Annual vehicle-miles of travel in the United States rose by nearly 30 percent between 1989 and 1999 to almost 2.7 trillion miles.

Light truck travel increased from 14 percent of all passenger-miles of travel in 1975 to 31 percent in 1999.

The average fuel efficiency of each year's new car fleet has not changed from 28.8 miles per gallon since 1988.

The transportation sector greenhouse gas emissions of carbon dioxide have risen 14.9 percent since 1990.

OPEC supplied about 46 percent of U.S. net imports, 25 percent of total U.S. oil consumption in 1999.

In 1999, over 230 million motor vehicles, transit vehicles, railroad cars, and boats were available for use on the over 4 million miles of highways, railroads, and waterways

The transportation sector emitted 1,819 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 1999, an increase of 14.9 percent since 1990. Three-quarters of GHG emissions come from the use of highway vehicles. In addition to GHG emissions, transportation remains a primary source of emissions of three of the six air pollutants regulated under the Clean Air Act: carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic compounds.

In the United States, petroleum consumption has risen faster in the transportation sector than in any other since 1973.

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