Washington Region’s Population Up, Daily Driving Down

This story was reported by Patch contributor Ben Gross.

In the past six years, the population of the Washington, DC metropolitan area grew by more than 7 percent, but the average daily driving distances of resident declined by an average of 1.4 miles, according to a new analysis by the National Capitol Region Transportation Planning Board.

The analysis considered data from the Maryland, Virginia and DC transportation departments in an effort to update the Transportation Planning Board’s system to model future traffic patterns.

In 2005, people in the DC area drove an average of 22.9 miles per day. In 2011, that figure decreased to 21.5 miles per day, a 6.1 percent decrease.

Drivers in suburbs including Montgomery and Prince George’s counties drive slightly more that the average DC area resident, but have driven less over the past six years—down from 24.5 miles per day in 2005 to 23.4 in 2011.

While a reduction of only about a mile per day may not seem like a lot, it is part of the reason the Transportation Planning Board has revised its long-term total driving forecast for 2040 downward by an additional 4 percent over previous projections.

The board used the data to execute a federally-mandated air quality analysis, ultimately predicting that emissions will be lower than previously predicted in past analysis.

The Washington City Paper theorizes that the reduction in daily driving may be partially due to the “growing popularity of Capital Bikeshare” and to District workers living closer to where they work.