How does fuel economy of vehicles affect urban motor vehicle travel in the USA?

Abstract

This paper applies the ordinary quantile regression approach to examine the impact of fuel economy of vehicles and gasoline prices on motor vehicle travel. The dataset used includes observations with a survey date before September 2008 from the 2009 National Household Travel Survey to avoid potential problems from the wild volatility of gasoline prices in late 2008 and early 2009. The regression results indicate that for every 10 % increase in fuel economy of vehicles, annual vehicle miles traveled increase by 0.9 to 1.7 % along its distribution. For every 10 % increase in average gasoline prices, annual vehicle miles decline by 0.86 to 2.65 % along the vehicle miles traveled (VMT) distribution.