Central Puget Sound High Occupancy Vehicle - Person miles traveled
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Measure of person miles traveled on the HOV network in the central Puget Sound region.
Commute times
Person miles traveled is the cumulative number of miles traveled by all people on a specified commute corridor. HOV person miles traveled are the number of miles people traveled on the central Puget Sound region HOV network, and includes both carpools and transit. The person miles traveled number is calculated using the vehicle miles traveled, vehicle classification, and the average vehicle occupancy. For details on the methodology used to calculate HOV person miles traveled, see WSDOT's Handbook for Corridor Capacity Evaluation (PDF 5.9MB).
Sources: WSDOT Transportation Safety and Systems Analysis Division and WSDOT TRACFLOW (https://tracflow.wsdot.wa.gov/)
Multi-year trends
In 2022, average daily person miles traveled continued to increase compared to 2021 due to the ongoing recovery of traffic volume in the wake of COVID-19. However, average daily person miles in 2022 were still lower than the pre-pandemic levels.
In 2020, the statewide response to COVID-19 significantly reduced the person miles traveled compared to previous years.
HOV PMT slightly decreased from 2018 to 2019 for I-5, I-405 and SR 520. I-90 and SR 167 saw an increase from 2018 to 2019. HOV performance measures trends heavily dependent on congestion in the adjacent GP lanes.
Annual highlights
In 2022, average daily person miles traveled increased compared to 2021 due to the ongoing recovery of traffic volume in the wake of COVID-19. However, average daily person miles traveled in 2022 were still lower than the pre-pandemic levels. Roughly 6.0 million person miles were traveled on the central Puget Sound region freeway HOV network on an average weekday, 8.6% more than 2021. More than half (3.3 million person miles) of these HOV person miles were traveled on I-5.
In 2021, average daily person miles traveled increased compared to 2021 due to the recovery of traffic volume in the wake of COVID-19. However, average daily person miles traveled in 2021 were still lower than the pre-pandemic levels. Roughly 5.5 million person miles were traveled on the central Puget Sound region freeway HOV network on an average weekday, 28.7% more than 2020. More than half (3.0 million person miles) of these HOV person miles were traveled on I-5.
In 2020, due to the statewide response to COVID-19 there was significant reduction in the person miles traveled compared to the previous year. Roughly 4.3 million person miles were traveled on the central Puget Sound region freeway HOV network on an average weekday, 43.9% less than in 2019. More than half (2.4 million person miles) of these HOV person miles were traveled on I-5.