New WA Travel Trends Show Big Increases In 2021

OLYMPIA, WA — State transportation officials on Thursday updated Washington's multimodal mobility dashboard, charting a rebound in travel habits last year after pandemic-related slowdowns in 2020.

The annual report includes data on regional highway use, along with ferry rides, Amtrak trips and other options. While most forms of travel were far from their pre-pandemic volumes in 2021, many saw notable increases. Amtrak and ferry use both surged by double digits, and flights soared, too.

Trips on public transportation dipped another 7 percent last year, with about 102 million trips in 2021, down from 240 million in 2019.

Here are a few of the highlights from WSDOT:

• Drivers traveled 30.8 billion vehicle miles on state highways in 2021, a 2.8-percent increase from the 30.0 billion traveled in 2020.
• Riders on public transportation took 102.2 million trips in 2021, which was 7.1 percent less than the 110 million trips taken in 2020.
• Washington State Ferries carried 17.3 million passengers in 2021, a 23.5-percent increase over the 14.0 million passengers in 2020.
• Passengers on Amtrak Cascades numbered about 193,000 in 2021, 23.7 percent more than the 156,000 passengers in 2020.
• Total air cargo tonnage in 2021 was 2.1 million tons, which represents a 2.4-percent increase over the 2.05 million tons in 2020.
• WSDOT’s Incident Response program provided $89.7 million in economic benefit in 2021, about 12.5 percent more than $79.7 million in 2020.
• While transportation measures show some level of recovery compared to 2020, most have not returned to their pre-pandemic levels in 2019.

>> Check out WSDOT's interactive dashboard here.