SEMCOG Traffic Counts and Traffic Volume Map updated through 2025
SEMCOG has updated its Traffic Volume Map and Regional Traffic Counts Database with the latest available data through 2025, providing current traffic and travel information for Southeast Michigan’s road network.
Trends Offer View into Our Economy (2005–2025)
When observing traffic counts data through a broader historic lens, we can see how major forces in our lives and economy impact the conditions on our roads.
The traffic volume data reveal four distinct phases:
- 2005–2007: Sustained growth in travel demand across Southeast Michigan
- 2008–2010: Significant contraction associated with the Great Recession
- 2011–2019: Gradual recovery and stabilization, generally below pre-recession peaks
- 2020–2025: Sharp pandemic-related decline followed by a partial—but incomplete—recovery
As seen above, traffic volume data indicates that travel in Southeast Michigan experienced sustained growth from 2005 through 2007, followed by significant reductions during the Great Recession, a decade of gradual recovery, an unprecedented pandemic-related decline in 2020, and a partial recovery through 2025.
Although travel volumes have rebounded substantially since the pandemic, neither Southeast Michigan nor the State of Michigan have fully returned to the record Annual Vehicle Miles Traveled (AVMT) levels observed before the Great Recession or immediately prior to COVID-19.
Overall, Southeast Michigan follows the same broad trend as the state, but with larger swings during economic downturns, indicating that the region’s travel is more closely tied to economic cycles.
The chart below shows employment followed a generally similar pattern, declining during the 2008–2009 recession, recovering through 2019, and experiencing a sharp decline in 2020 before recovering in subsequent years. Similar patterns in VMT and employment indicate that regional travel demand is influenced, in part, by economic conditions and employment levels.
SEMCOG updates a couple of key resources to ensure transportation agencies and practitioners have access to current traffic volume data to support planning and investment decisions throughout Southeast Michigan.
Interactive Traffic Volume Map
SEMCOG’s interactive Traffic Volume Map displays the latest available Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) on federal-aid eligible roads and allows users to filter by count year, jurisdiction, functional classification, lane configuration, and traffic volume. Users can also calculate daily Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) for selected road segments, supporting regional travel demand analysis and performance monitoring.
Traffic Counts
The Regional Traffic Counts Database now contains more than 564,000 traffic counts representing over 42,000 count locations across the region. The database includes Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) estimates, raw short-duration count data, seasonal adjustment factors, and historical traffic counts collected by SEMCOG, MDOT, county road agencies, local communities, and transportation consultants. Users can search by road segment to access counts for transportation planning, corridor studies, traffic impact analyses, safety evaluations, and grant applications.
Leave a Reply