Transportation expenditures in 2005

After remaining essentially unchanged in 2003 and 2004, transportation expenditures rose significantly in 2005, up 7.0 percent over the previous year.

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A significant increase in spending on gasoline and motor oil (26.0 percent) largely fueled this change. Over the same period, average prices for gasoline and motor oil increased a similar 22.0 percent as measured by the Consumer Price Index.

Spending on vehicle purchases increased 4.3 percent following a 9.0-percent decrease in 2004. Vehicle purchases are typically large and infrequent so it is common to see wide fluctuations from year to year because even small changes in the percentage of consumer units buying vehicles can affect the overall mean expenditure.

Spending on public transportation, which includes both intracity and intercity mass transit and taxi fares, airline fares, and ship fares, rose 1.6 percent.

These data are from the Consumer Expenditure Survey. Find out more in "Consumer Expenditures in 2005," (PDF 143K), BLS Report 998. The components of transportation expenditures are vehicle purchases (net outlay), gasoline and motor oil, other vehicle expenses, and public transportation.