Fewer cars on the road in June, especially in Maine

The US Department of Transportation yesterday reported that the number of miles logged on American roads fell in June, for the eighth consecutive month, and that "since last November, Americans have driven 53.2 billion miles less than they did over the same period a year earlier – topping the 1970s' total decline of 49.3 billion miles."

Estimated road travel fell by 4.7 percent in June (compared with the previous June), with the sharpest declines in Idaho (down 7.7 percent), Maine (down 7.0 percent), and Utah (down 6.9 percent). Perhaps gas prices are causing some Bay Staters to cut out summer camping trips and antique crawls along Maine's Route 1?

In Massachusetts, road travel fell by 4.2 percent, not quite as much as the national average -- though the Bay State's drop of 3.9 percent in May almost exactly matched the US total.