4 ms·

In case anyone is curious what "largely flat since 2000" looks like: https://www.economist.com/img/b/1280/670/90/sites/default/files/20200321_WOC740.png https:

• dredmorbius 4y ago
  Your first plot is of global, not US airline traffic. Global incomes have risen, most notably in China. I may have misread a chart or mis-remembered statistics. The Statista chart does show that the post-2000 trend in air travel is well below the 1990s trendline. Actual miles travelled would have been above 1 trillion had the former continued. The more notable chart of Gordon's does indeed show price per passenger mile, not total miles (p. 401, Rise and Fall). It's also often useful to think of travel not as miles but as time. Given an average train speed of about 30 mph, and aircraft of about 450 mph, the time per person per travel mode is nearly identical: 1.3 vs. 1.6 billion hours. People take trains. They don't take them as far as they do aircraft. Auto travel works out to about 12 billion hours, again assuming 30 mph average speed. That's about 10 minutes per person per day.
  • dredmorbius 4y ago
    US Department of Labour seems to maintain statistics on modes of travel. Departments of Transportation and Energy may as well. I've yet to find a good presentation of long-term trends.