(Radio Iowa) – State highway travel numbers continue to reflect some economic issues. The D-O-T’s Stuart Anderson reported to the state Transportation Commission Monday. “August we’re continuing to see that trend that we saw going back to the April time frame of traffic below 2019 levels –which we really felt was directly correlated to the higher fuel prices,” Anderson says. He says gas prices dropped some, but recently have inched back up. “September data is actually showing an increase for the first time since very early this year compared to 2019 levels so maybe we are seeing some changes in travel patterns,” he says. Anderson says the September increase was small.

“Our September total traffic counts in Iowa are about half a percent above the same month in 2019,” Sanderson says. “Of course, it does continue to show that rural versus municipal trend — where rural is up about two percent, and municipal is down about two percent.” He says they will have to wait for October numbers to determine if the increase in travel has continued.