ROAD TRIP!

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines

IT’S THAT TIME of year…not to mention that moment in our two-year pent-up existence when we’re all terminally weary of staying home and climbing the walls. All that, plus the governor’s goal of making Arkansas a global leader in next-generation mobility (see This Month’s Q & A), gave us the idea of calling this edition of the newsletter our “Road Trip Issue.” These aren’t “normal” days, of course, what with inflated gas prices, raging drivers, and the constant threat of COVID ambush. But Americans were born to go, and here, just to remind you of your heritage, is a collection of data that, taken together, tells that old, familiar story of packing up and hitting the road—with a few modern twists, of course.

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• Percentage of Americans saying they plan at least one summer road trip in 2022: 60. Source: U.S. Travel.org Monthly Travel Data Report, April 28, 2022
• Percentage of those surveyed by Sunset Magazine who reported making plans to hit the road with a significant other: 80+ Source: Sunset Magazine
• Percentage of those survey respondents who’re planning to bring the kids along for the ride: 50 Source: Sunset Magazine
• Percentage of pet-owning Americans who will take their furry friends on the trip: 18. Source: Cenex
• Percentage of Americans traveling by personal car: 78 Source: Cenex
• Top priorities of travelers in 2022: “Cleanliness, safety, and convenience—preferences that will continue to create first-time RVers…..” Source: Annual Report of Outdoorsy, a Texas-based company billed as “the AirBnB of camping vehicles.”
• Percentage of Outdoorsy’s 2021 web traffic coming from novices looking to try an RV/camper experience for the first time: 66 Source: Outdoorsy
• Percentage of those 2021 Outdoorsy respondents saying their road trip experience was the deciding factor in purchasing their own camper: nearly 50. Source: Outdoorsy
• Top-rated American road trip route, ranked 92.0 out of a perfect score of 100: Monument Valley Trails Source: Geotab, which identified 50 popular road trips and used TripAdvisor data to rate each itinerary in terms of attractions, accommodation, and places to eat.
• Most overrated road trip, according to Geotab: Legendary Route 66, which ranked 44th out of 50.
• Most popular road-trip destinations: Beach/ocean (45 percent); City (41 percent); National parks (21 percent) Source: Citizens Bank
• Average round-trip miles driven on a summer road trip: 568 Source: Citizens bank
• Average road trip cost per day: $144 Source: ValuePenguin
• Percentage of American travelers who say rising gas prices will impact their decision to travel in the next six months: 63 Source: U.S. Travel.org Monthly Travel Data Report, April 28, 2022
• Percentage increase in sales of battery-electric vehicles in Q1 2022 over the year before: 60 (amounting to 158,689 electric vehicles registered in Q1 ‘22) Source: Experian car registration data, via Automotive News
• Number of electric-vehicle charging stations now in the U.S.: 20,000, with more than 57,000 charging outlets Source: BusinessWire
• Most popular road-trip travel games: “I Spy,” followed by “20 Questions” Source: Cenex
• Item most likely to be left at home: Phone charger Source: Cenex
• State where you’re most likely to get a speeding ticket: Wyoming (based on number of tickets given out per 10,000 of population) Source: Motor1.com
• State where you’re least likely to get a speeding ticket: West Virginia Source: Motor1.com
• Speed of the world’s very first Road Tripper to get pulled over and ticketed: 8 mph Source: interestingfacts.com: On January 28, 1896, a Brit named Walter Arnold was driving his horseless carriage at this blazing pace when he was pulled over and ticketed by a constable on a bicycle.