CLEVELAND — With vaccines widely available and more than half of Ohioans fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, more people have returned to offices, schools and events.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration, American drivers traveled 8.3% more miles in August compared with the same month a year ago.
As driving continues to recover from pandemic lows, more Americans returned to in-work settings and took leisure trips.
Drivers racked up 273.8 billion miles in August, up 21 billion miles over August 2020 but lower than the 286.8 billion miles in August 2019.
Meanwhile, demand for cars has grown, with sales hindered by a shortage of the semiconductor chips that manufacturers need to produce new vehicles.
News 5 Cleveland reached out to the Ohio State Highway Patrol to see if there were more crashes on the road, and the patrol said there were an additional 800 crashes reported in August 2021 over the same period a year earlier.
All of this comes as fuel prices continue to soar. According to AAA, the average price for gas in Northeast Ohio is nearly a dollar more compared to what it was last year. Prices jumped 14 cents just this week to come in at $3.255 per gallon.
The average price of gas was $2.049 per gallon this time last year.
This week, the national average rose five cents since last week, now up to $3.32 per gallon, according to AAA East Central’s gas price report.
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