An early December snowstorm that struck much of the South and Northeast may have helped dampen travel in the month, although the overall number of vehicle miles traveled in the United States at the end of the year was still up.

In its latest Traffic Volume Trends report, the Federal Highway Administration determined that American drivers traveled 261.79 billion miles in December – a 0.7 percent increase from December 2016. The seasonally adjusted total of 269 billion miles was up 1.3 percent from the previous year.

However, there were slight year-over-year travel decreases in the Northeast and South Atlantic regions. In the former region—which includes the New England states as well as New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania—travel dropped 0.2 percent to 37.09 billion miles.

Travel was down in every New England state except Rhode Island. Here, the estimated total of 613 million vehicle miles traveled was a 1.2 percent increase over December 2016. The total included a 1.4 percent increase in urban arterial traffic to 474 million miles, although rural arterial traffic fell 0.3 percent to 56 million miles.

In Connecticut, the estimated monthly travel total of 2.51 billion miles was down 1.2 percent from the previous year. Urban arterial traffic fell 1.4 percent to 1.84 billion miles, while rural arterial traffic rose 0.6 percent to 122 million miles.

The South Atlantic region, which includes eight states from Maryland to Florida as well as the District of Columbia, saw a 0.6 percent decline in travel to 55.22 billion miles. Delaware had the largest drop in traffic, with the state's estimated vehicle miles traveled falling 2.8 percent to 746 million.

The largest travel increase occurred in the 13-state Western region, where the travel total rose 2.2 percent to 62.11 billion miles. In the North Central region, which includes 12 states ranging from North Dakota to Ohio, travel was up 1.4 percent to 56.49 billion miles. The eight states of the South Gulf region saw a travel increase of only 0.3 percent to 50.88 billion miles.

Oregon had the largest single-state travel increase, with its estimated total of 2.97 billion vehicle miles traveled marking a 7.4 percent year-over-year jump. Estimated travel in Idaho climbed 6.2 percent to 1.31 billion miles, while Wisconsin travel was up 3.7 percent from the previous year to 4.76 billion miles.

Eighteen states had year-over-year travel decreases. After Delaware, the most significant drops were in Louisiana and Maryland. Both states had a 1.8 percent decrease in vehicle miles traveled, to 4.07 billion miles in the former state and 4.55 billion miles in the latter.

The FHWA estimated that drivers in the United States traveled approximately 3.21 trillion miles during the 2017 calendar year. This was up 1.2 percent from 2016, when drivers traveled an estimated 3.17 trillion miles.

The Traffic Volume Trends reports, which are issued on a two-month delay, are based on data from thousands of continuous traffic counting locations around the nation. December's report included information from 5,125 stations, including 24 in Connecticut and 61 in Rhode Island.