Watch CBS News

Report: Florida Drivers Annually Rack Up 34.7 Billion Miles On Interstates

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – While interstates were created with the purpose of easing travel and to help in case of a nuclear attack, many in Florida are clogged to the point of overload much of the time based on new data from a Federal Highway Administration report.

The report looked at the nation's busiest interstates and found that California had the busiest interstate system in the country with drivers racking up 84.7 billion miles on state's interstate roadways in 2011.

Put another way, that's more than 900 times the distance from the earth to the sun.

But the Sunshine State wasn't far behind in third place with drivers in Florida pushing though 34.7 billion miles in 2011, which was the last year monitored. Texas placed second in the list with 55.7 billion miles driven on interstates.

Not surprisingly, in Florida the busiest interstates were I-95 and I-75, both of which run most of the length of the state. Drivers went through 12.4 billion miles on I-95 and 9.2 billion miles on I-75 in 2011.

South Florida's I-395 and I-595 also saw drivers rack up a combined 789 million miles in 2011.

According to the FHA report, roughly 151,968 people drive on I-595 each day with another 131,762 driving on I-395. I-95 also sees more than 150,000 drivers each day, according to the FHA report.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.