<P> The United States Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration as well as the National Automobile Dealers Association have published data in regard to the total number of vehicles, growth trends, and ratios between licensed drivers, the general population, and the increasing number of vehicles on American roads . Overall passenger vehicles have been outnumbering licensed drivers since 1972 at an ever - increasing rate, while light trucks and vehicles manufactured by foreign marques have gained a larger share of the automotive market in the United States . In 2001, 70% of Americans drove to work in cars . New York City is the only locality in the country where more than half of all households do not own a car (the figure is even higher in Manhattan, over 75%; nationally, the rate is 8%). </P> <P> There are two types of sources for vehicle registration data, known as Vehicles in Operation (VIO): governmental sources such as the Bureau of Transportation Statistics and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and commercial, for - profit companies such as IHS and Hedges & Company . </P> <P> According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics for 2012, there were 254,639,386 registered vehicles . Of these, 183,171,882 were classified as "Light duty vehicle, short wheel base", while another 50,588,676 were listed as "Light duty vehicle, long wheel base". Another 8,190,286 were classified as vehicles with two axles and six or more tires and 2,469,094 were classified as "Truck, combination". There were 8,454,939 motorcycles also listed along with 764,509 buses . </P> <P> According to cumulative data by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) the number of motor vehicles increased steadily from 1960 to 2006, only stagnating once in 1997 and declining from 1990 to 1991 . Otherwise the number of motor vehicles during that period rose by an estimated 3.69 million each year since 1960 with the largest annual growth between 1998 and 1999 as well as between 2000 and 2001 when the number of motor vehicles in the United States increased by eight million . Since the study by the FHWA, the number of vehicles has increased by approximately eleven million, one of the largest recorded increases . The largest percentage increase was between the years of 1972 and 1973 when the number of cars increased by 5.88% . </P>

Number of cars on the road in us
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