The latest data from the Federal Highway Administration on the amount of driving in the United States indicate that vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in March of this year decreased by 18.6% compared with March 2019. However, the decrease in VMT varied widely by states, ranging from 26.0% in Vermont to 8.7% in Wyoming. In this post I will present the results of a new analysis that examined the relationship between the decrease in VMT in individual states (and the District of Columbia) and whether those states were “blue” or “red.” The data on political preference in March came from the Cook Political Report (which in turn were based on its 2020 Electoral College Ratings published on March 9). The Report lists each state as Solid Democratic, Likely Democratic, Lean Democratic, Toss Up, Lean Republican, Likely Republican, or Solid Republican. In the present analysis, the states were combined into three […]