People drive less in Recessions

Texas A&M Texas Transportation Institute publishes an interesting account of the miles driven in the US each year. I pulled out the miles driven in DFW and charted the data against recessions. People in DFW clearly drove less during the 07-09 recession. It is interesting that the highway miles were not impacted as much as the "byways miles" (arterials).

(Click image for a larger view)

Dallas data from the study can be found here.

Did you notice a drop and a subsequent rise in road congestion?