Travel in the United States in April increased by 6.83 billion miles over the previous year, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

In its latest "Travel Trends" report, the FHWA said overall U.S. travel had a year-over-year gain of 2.6 percent. Drivers covered an estimated 272.77 billion miles during the month.

The seasonally adjusted travel total for April was 267.3 billion miles. This total was up 2.8 percent from April 2015, but down 0.3 percent from March.

Cumulative travel for the year exceeded one trillion miles in April, with the FHWA estimating that the total travel since the beginning of the year reached 1.02 trillion miles. The estimated total for the moving 12-month total was 3.17 trillion miles.

The 13 states in the Western region had the largest year-over-year increase in travel, rising 3.1 percent from 60.55 billion miles to 62.43 billion miles. In the South Atlantic region, which includes eight states stretching from Maryland to Florida as well as the District of Columbia, travel increased 2.9 percent from 56.41 billion miles to 58.02 billion miles.

The North Central region, which includes 12 states ranging from North Dakota to Ohio, saw its travel total increase 2.6 percent from 59.69 billion miles to 61.25 billion miles. Travel in the eight states of the South Gulf region, which covers a region between Kentucky and Texas, increased from 52.64 billion miles in April 2015 to 53.93 billion miles, a 2.4 percent increase.

In the Northeast region—which includes the New England states as well as New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania—travel was up 1.3 percent in April. The estimated total increased from 36.65 billion miles in April 2015 to 37.13 billion miles.

Connecticut's estimated travel total increased 0.9 percent, from 2.52 billion miles to 2.54 billion miles. This included a 0.9 percent increase in urban arterial travel to a total of 1.83 billion miles as well as a 0.5 percent increase in rural arterial travel to a total of 133 million miles.

In Rhode Island, the estimated travel total rose 0.6 percent, from 607 million miles to 611 million miles. Urban arterial travel increased 0.4 percent to 459 million miles, while rural arterial travel increased 1.9 percent to 53 million miles.

The greatest increase in travel in April occurred in Hawaii, where the vehicle miles covered by drivers went up 6.9 percent to 1.04 billion. The next largest increases occurred in Michigan, where travel rose 6.7 percent to 8.96 billion miles, and Idaho, where travel went up 5.3 percent to 1.46 billion miles.

Year-over-year travel was down in five states. North Dakota and Wyoming each had a 2.9 percent decrease in vehicle miles traveled, falling to 992 million in the former state and 747 million in the latter. West Virginia's travel declined 1.9 percent to 1.61 billion miles, South Dakota's fell 1.1 percent to 799 million miles, and New Jersey's dropped 0.1 percent to 6.59 billion miles.

Seven states experienced a decrease in urban arterial traffic. The drop was most pronounced in Wyoming, where this type of travel fell by 3.5 percent to 152 million miles. This type of travel was also down 3.2 percent to a total of 489 million miles in West Virginia and 1 percent to a total of 100 million miles in South Dakota.

Rural arterial traffic was down from April 2015 in six states. The largest decrease occurred in North Dakota, where this type of travel fell 3.4 percent to a total of 492 million miles. It was down 3.2 percent to 332 million miles in Wyoming and 1.5 percent to 672 million miles in West Virginia.

The FHWA Travel Trends reports are based on data from thousands of continuous traffic counting locations across the nation. These stations measure traffic volume and compare it to the previous year to estimate the number of miles traveled in each state. April's report included data from 4,913 stations, including 32 in Connecticut and 41 in Rhode Island.