The Residential Transportation Energy Consumption Survey (RTECS) was discontinued.
For roughly a decade, EIA fielded the RTECS--data were first collected in 1983. This survey, fielded for the last time in 1994, was a triennial survey of energy use and expenditures, vehicle miles-traveled (VMT), and vehicle characteristics for household vehicles. For the 1994 survey, a national sample of more than 3,000 households that own or use some 5,500 vehicles provided data.

With the discontinuation of the RTECS after 1994, EIA no longer had a survey of energy consumption for any part of the transportation sector. To fill the gap in household vehicle energy data, EIA partnered with the U.S. Department of Transportation to fill this gap in energy-related transportation statistics, using the latest National Household Travel Survey (NHTS), conducted in 2001/2002. The National Household Travel Survey [formerly known as the Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey (NPTS) and the American Travel Survey (ATS)] are household-based travel surveys conducted every five years by the U.S. Department of Transportation (US DOT). Survey data are collected from a sample of U.S. households and expanded to provide national estimates of trips and miles by travel mode, purpose, and a host of other characteristics. The survey collects information on daily, local trips and on long-distance travel in the United States. Because the survey included direct collection of odometer-based vehicle miles traveled, EIA was able to derive energy consumption and expenditures information for the vehicles in the sample households. In that way, EIA was able to create a data set essentially comparable to the data available from RTECS.

EIA has also been involved with other consumer-based data initiatives for transportation. During the first half of the 1990's, in response to requirements in the Energy Policy Act of 1992 to investigate the potential markets for alternative-fuel vehicles, EIA conducted surveys of electric utility, natural gas supplier, and propane provider vehicle fleets; surveys of commercial fleets in the cities of Atlanta and Denver; a survey of private consumer preferences for alternative-fuel vehicles, and an internal assessment of the composition of the nonresidential highway vehicle fleet. In addition, EIA has developed a calculator of regional driving costs based on up-to-date fuel prices and user-supplied vehicle miles per gallon and miles traveled.

EIA is currently investigating the possibility of producing commercial highway vehicle energy consumption and expenditures estimates based on the 2002 Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey, sponsored by the Department of Transportation and conducted by the Census Bureau.

Contact:

[email protected]

Mark Schipper

Program Manager

Phone: (202) 586-1136

Fax: (202) 586-0018

[email protected]

Derrick Pinckney

Survey Statistician

Phone: (202) 586-5744

Fax: (202) 586-0018

Get e-mail updates on Residential Transportation Energy Use