American Driving Survey, 2020–2021
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Summary
This research brief analyzes data from the AAA Foundation’s American Driving Survey for 2020 and 2021 to quantify changes in U.S. driving patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was motivated by the profound impact of pandemic-related restrictions, remote work, and health concerns on travel behavior, which caused a significant decrease in driving in 2020. The authors sought to determine whether driving levels rebounded in 2021 as restrictions relaxed and to identify demographic shifts in driving exposure that might influence traffic safety outcomes. The methodology involved online and telephone interviews with approximately 5,100 participants annually from a pre-recruited research panel. Respondents reported all travel undertaken on the day prior to the interview. Data were weighted to align with U.S. demographic characteristics, and trip distances or durations were imputed for 3.5% of trips where data were missing or erroneous. Estimates for total national driving were derived by multiplying daily driver-level means by 365 and the estimated total number of U.S. drivers. Statistical significance of changes between 2020 and 2021 was evaluated using t-tests at the 95% confidence level. The results indicate a substantial rebound in driving activity in 2021. While the percentage of U.S. residents aged 16 and older who drove remained statistically unchanged at 93.8%, the total driving population increased to 245.3 million. Drivers made an average of 2.56 trips per day, spent 61.3 minutes driving, and drove 32.7 miles daily, representing significant increases in trips and time compared to 2020. Nationally, drivers completed 229 billion trips, spent 91 billion hours behind the wheel, and drove 2.92 trillion miles, marking increases of 18 billion trips, 9 billion hours, and 380 billion miles over 2020 levels. Notably, the distribution of driving exposure shifted: drivers aged 20–34 drove more time and miles than those aged 35–49, and high school graduates drove significantly more than college graduates, reversing pre-pandemic trends. The authors conclude that these demographic shifts in driving exposure likely contributed to increased traffic fatalities observed during the pandemic. Since younger adults and individuals with lower educational attainment have higher crash risks and are less likely to work remotely, their increased driving exposure aligns with rising fatality rates in these groups. The brief highlights that despite the pandemic persisting through 2021, a significant return to roads occurred, with implications for traffic safety policy. The authors recommend continued research into factors driving increased fatalities, noting that while the survey does not measure crash outcomes directly, the data provide critical context for understanding exposure-based risks.
Key finding
U.S. drivers made approximately 18 billion more driving trips, spent 9 billion more hours driving, and drove 380 billion more miles in 2021 than in 2020, indicating a significant rebound in travel volume despite the ongoing pandemic.
Methodology
survey
Sample size: 10223
Provenance
The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_aaa_foundation on 2026-05-23 (6 acquisition events logged).
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | aaa_foundation | — | — | 2 | 2026-05-23 |
| archive | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
| clean | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| chunk | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| embed | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-02 |
| enrich | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 3 | 2026-06-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 19 | 2026-06-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.
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Information type
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- Empirical Findings: observational prevalence, crash risk outcomes
- Methodological Resource: dataset resource