Americans continue to love their automobiles.
Only 7.4 percent of households in the United States recently reported that they had no vehicle, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety in Washington, D.C.
In order to offer valuable, personalized customer service, it's important for auto insurance agents to understand drivers, their insurance needs and driving habits.
|A snapshot of U.S. drivers
The foundation's latest American Driving Survey revealed that Americans drove a total of 2.45 trillion miles last year, which is a 2.4 percent increase from 2014.
“The amount of time the average driver spends behind the wheel each year is equivalent to seven 40-hour weeks at the office,” says Jurek Grabowski, the foundation's research director. “It’s clear that traveling by car remains a central part of American’s lives.”
|About the survey
The survey data is from a sample of 5,774 drivers who provided information about their daily driving trips in calendar years 2014 and 2015. Respondents were selected from a random sample of landline and cellphone numbers nationwide.
Here are 15 key findings from the survey, released on Sept. 8:
(Photo: iStock)
|1. American drivers travelled nearly 10,900 miles on average and spent more than 290 hours on the road.
Related: Drowsy-driving dangers
(Photo: iStock)
|2. More than 87.5 percent of Americans aged 16 years and older reported driving in the past year.
(Photo: iStock)
|3. On average, men report driving 2,314 more miles than women per year and spend 18 percent more time behind the wheel.
Related: 15 new vehicles you should avoid
(Photo: iStock)
|4. More than 86 percent of U.S. households have at least one car for every driver in the home, and 28 percent report having more cars than drivers.
(Photo: iStock)
|5. Seniors over the age of 75 drive fewer miles (5,840 annually) than teenagers (7,551 annually).
Drivers ages 30-49 drive an average of 13,506 miles annually, more than any other age group.
Vehicles in front of the saloon and dance hall in Winthrop, Washington. (Photo: iStock)
|6. Drivers who report living in rural areas drive more miles (13,029 annually) compared to drivers who live in cities or towns (10,571 annually).
Traffic on city streets in Fort Smith, Arkansas. (Photo: iStock)
|7. Motorists in the Midwest and Southern regions drive more (11,295 miles annually) compared to those in the Northeast (9,328 miles annually).
Related: Vehicle crashes involving road debris have increased 40% since 2001
(Photo: iStock)
|8. More than 50 percent of miles driven by Americans are done in cars, followed by SUVs (20 percent), pickup trucks (17 percent) and vans (7.9 percent).
Men report doing a much greater share of their driving in pickup trucks compared to women who report doing most of their driving in cars and SUVs.
(Photo: iStock)
|9. More than 66 percent of total driving trips and nearly 62 percent of total miles driven are done by drivers without a passenger in the vehicle.
Women are 24 percent more likely than men to have a passenger in the vehicle on any given trip.
Car driving on a remote Appalachina highway in fall. (Photo: iStock)
|10. On average, Americans drive the most during the fall (October through December) at 31.5 miles daily and drive the least during the winter (January through March) at 26.2 miles daily.
Related: Look out: There are 160 million angry drivers on the road
(Photo: iStock)
|11. Fewer drivers drove on weekends than on weekdays.
However, drivers who did drive on the weekend drove more miles, on average, than drivers who drove on weekdays.
(Photo: iStock)
|12. Among adults aged 18 and older, those who are married were significantly more likely to be drivers than were those who were never married or widowed.
Related: 10 states with the highest cost of adding a teen to an auto policy
(Photo: iStock)
|13. The average number of drivers per household was 1.8, and the average number of vehicles per household was 2.1.
(Photo: iStock)
|14. Overall, drivers reported making approximately 2.1 driving trips on any given day, driving an average of 29.8 miles and spending an average of 48.4 minutes driving.
Related: 10 people die every day during the summer from a crash involving a teen driver
Los Angeles, California traffic in May, 2016. (Photo: iStock)
|15. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that the driving-aged population increased by approximately 1 percent from 2014 to 2015.
As a result, the number of drivers in the United State sincreased by approximately 3.3 million, or 1.5 percent, from 2014 to 2015.
Here's an infographic from the foundation summarizing the results of its survey:
(Click to enlarge.)
(Source: AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety)
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Jayleen R. Heft
Jayleen Heft is the digital content editor for PropertyCasualty360.com. Contact her at [email protected].
