Transportation Economic Trends
Cost of Transportation:
Costs Faced by Households
Households pay for travel in two ways, either by paying to own and operate passenger vehicles for their own use, or they pay fares to use for-hire passenger transportation services (e.g., air, transit bus, and rail services) for their intercity and intracity travel. For total household expenditures on transportation, see Household Spending on Transportation.
2022 and 2023 Year-in-Review
- From 2022 to 2023, households faced a marginal increase in price (0.3%) for transportation-related goods and services after experiencing the largest increase on record of 15.5% from 2021 to 2022 (based on data from 2004). Despite the small increase from 2022 to 2023, the price for transportation-related goods and services reached its highest level in 2023.
- Private transportation costs increased by 0.4% from 2022 to 2023 after increasing by the second largest amount in 2022 (15.5%) (based on data from 2004). The increase in private transportation costs in 2023 brought private transportation prices to a new all-time high.
- Contrastingly, public transportation costs decreased by 3.5% from 2022 to 2023 after increasing by the largest amount in 2022 (19.9%) (based on data from 2004). In 2023, public transportation costs reached their seventh-highest level.
- Within private transportation, motor vehicle insurance and maintenance and repair costs increased the most at 17.4% and 11.5%, respectively, while motor fuel and used cars and trucks prices declined the most at 10.6% and 7.1%, respectively from 2022 to 2023.
- Adjusted for inflation, domestic airfare (for scheduled service) increased by 7.0% from 2022 to 2023 after increasing the most on record (50.9%) from 2021 to 2022. Adjusted for inflation, airfare in 2023 was 25.3% above the pre-pandemic 2019 airfare and the highest amount on record (with records beginning in 1995).
- Adjusted for inflation, the average Amtrak rail fare also increased from 2022 to 2023 by 3.5% and was 14.1% above the pre-pandemic 2019 fare. The increase brought the average Amtrak rail fare to a new all-time high in 2023.
- Adjusted for inflation, the average transit and commuter rail fare decreased in 2020 when the demand for public transportation declined due to uncertainty about COVID-19 and stay-at-home orders but remained above the lowest fare. From 2021 to 2022, the average transit fare increased by 10.1%, and the average commuter rail fare decreased by 0.1% - after adjusting for inflation. Data for 2023 are not available yet.
Costs Faced by Households
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures transportation costs from the households’ (also known as consumers’) perspective. The CPI is a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of goods and services. The CPI also includes user fees (e.g., water and sewer service) and sales and excise taxes paid by the consumer. Economists often use the CPI as an indicator of general price trends. CPIs for goods and services, such as ones related to transportation, show changes in prices for those goods and services.
The CPI provides a picture of the relative change in the price households pay for transportation. Passenger transportation fares, shown below, and annual and monthly fuel prices reflect the actual price paid.
The annual values are an average of the monthly series.
The relative change in the price households pay for public (e.g., airfare and transit) versus private transportation (e.g., motor fuel) at times diverge, with significant differences across items. The annual values are an average of the monthly series.
Transportation Fares
Aviation fares
Airfare reflects both the cost of fuel and competition among carriers. Airfare, shown below, does not include baggage or reservation fees, which airlines began to charge in 2008.
Intercity railroad fares
Amtrak intercity railroad
fares represent a complex interaction of demand, operating costs, government
subsidies, and regulation.
Commuter railroad fares
Commuter rail includes railway
passenger service that operates between a central city and adjacent suburbs. It excludes intercity rail service, such as Amtrak, except for the part of
service operated by or under contract with a public transit agency for
predominantly commuter services. “Predominantly commuter service” means that,
for any given trip segment between two stations, more than 50 percent of the
average daily ridership makes a return trip on the same day. Commuter rail does
not include heavy rail transit or light rail/streetcar transit service.
Transit fares
For the years 1995 to 2001,
BTS calculates average transit fare per trip as total passenger fares by total
passenger trips collected by the American Public Transportation Association.
For the years since 2001, data come from the National Transit Database, which
presents average transit fares per unlinked trip. This means that if a
passenger takes a bus with a fare of $1 and transfers to a subway with a fare
of $2, the journey would count as two unlinked trips with an average fare of
$1.50.
Recommended citation
U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Transportation Economic Trends (Washington, DC: 2022).
