A GUIDE TO REPORTING HIGHWAY STATISTICS

A Guide to Reporting Highway Statisticsis a principal part of the Federal Highway Administration’ s (FHWA) comprehensive highway information collection effort. The Congress recognized the need for information to support highway policy development and created the Office of Road Inquiry in the Department of Agriculture in 1893. As early as 1904, the Federal Government began inquiring about highway taxation, sources of revenue for highways, and highway expenditures. The role of the Federal Government in highway transportation has changed greatly since 1893, but its role
in assembling highway data has continued.
The Department of Transportation (DOT) Act of 1966 (Pub. L. 89-670), which brought together the Federal programs for many modes of transportation into a single, Cabinet level organization, charges the Secretary of Transportation to promote and undertake development, collection, and dissemination of technological, statistical, economic, and other information
relevant to domestic and international transportation. The DOT is also authorized to engage in studies to collect data concerning highway planning, development, financing, construction, operation, modernization, maintenance, safety, and traffic conditions and to publish the results of such research (Title 23 U.S. Code, section 307(a)).
Certain data are needed by the FHWA to meet its responsibilities to Congress and the public. “ These data include but are not limited to information required for proposed legislation and reports to Congress; evaluating the extent, performance, condition and use of the Nation’ s transportation systems; analyzing existing and proposed Federal-aid funding methods and
levels, and the assignment of user-cost responsibility; maintaining a critical information base on fuel availability, use, and revenues generated; and calculating apportionment factors.” (Title 23 U.S. Code, section 420.105 (b)). The forms and instructions in A Guide to Reporting Highway Statisticsare designed to address this need.
A Guide to Reporting Highway Statisticswas first issued in 1979 to organize into one volume the instructions for various reporting forms and other related data needs that had been issued over a period of several years. The Guide was revised and reissued in 1982 following an extensive review and a concerted effort by the FHWA to reduce the burden of reporting highway statistics. The Guide was also reissued in 1985, 1987, 1990, 1994 and 1997. This edition continues previously
established reporting requirements with the addition of minor modifications and clarifications to some forms and the instructions.