Pa.’s Highways, by the numbers | The Numbers Racket

Pennsylvania is home to more than 120,000 linear miles of highway and more than 233.6 million miles of daily vehicle miles of travel, according to state transportation data. 

According to the 2020 Highway Statistics report, released this year by Pennsylvania Department of Transportation officials, the Keystone state has many miles of highway for road warriors and joyriders to traverse. 

Terminology

Here’s a brief rundown of the PennDOT definitions you need to know:

Linear Miles – Length measured along roadway centerline.

Daily Vehicle Miles of Travel (DVMT) –  a measure of total travel, by all vehicles.

Rural – The area outside the boundaries of small urban and urbanized areas.

Urban – Urban places of 5,000 or more population and urbanized areas as designated by the Bureau of the Census.

Total Miles

Statewide, urban linear miles make up a little more than 40 percent of Pennsylvania’s total 120,852 linear highway miles. Rural linear miles, by contrast, make up 59.85 percent of the total linear miles. 

County Specifics

So which of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties boasts the most and the least linear highway miles? 

Top 5 counties with the most linear highway miles: 

• Allegheny County, 521.4 linear miles
• Montgomery County, 363.5 linear miles
• Bucks County, 306.4 linear miles
• Philadelphia County, 276.8 linear miles
• Chester County, 223.8 linear miles

Five counties with the least linear highway miles: 

• Cameron County, 0 (tie)
• Sullivan County, 0 (tie)
• Wayne County, 6.6 linear miles
• Forest County, 14.1 linear miles
• Montour County, 21.5 linear miles
• Juniata County, 22.1 linear miles

Traffic Trends

Statewide traffic trends have shown a cumulative decrease each year since 2011. 

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and related shutdowns threw traffic totals into the negative with a -3 percent drop in cumulative traffic, compared to a steady 0.2 percent drop in 2017, 2018 and 2019.