Personal travel, measured in light-duty vehicle miles traveled (VMT) per licensed driver, reached 12,900 miles per year in 2007 and decreased to about 12,500 in 2012. This shift in travel behavior is important because it directly influences light-duty vehicle (LDV) energy demand for transportation fuels such as gasoline and diesel. Recent analysis suggests that multiple factors influence travel behavior. These include economic, demographic, technological, social, and environmental determinants that have the potential to significantly shift light-duty vehicle energy consumption. Economic factors. Although economic indicators such as employment, income, and economic growth remain a dominant influence on levels of personal travel, U.S. travel indicators started to decouple from income and employment after 2007. Declines in the labor participation rate (the percentage of the total population ages 16 years and older either employed or looking for work) since the early 2000s, as well as income, fuel prices, the costs of purchasing […]