The volume of traffic in the US has grown drastically between July 2013 and June this year, according to the latest ‘Traffic Volume Trends’ report by the US Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).

During this period, Americans drove more than 2.97 trillion miles, which is the highest recorded volume since data is available.

The report also found that American travel-drivers covered 261.7 billion vehicle-miles travelled (VMT) in June, the highest recorded since 2010.

"This data is critical to helping the nation’s leaders make informed decisions about critical infrastructure investments."

In the first half of this year, drivers travelled 1.466 trillion miles, the largest since 2010 and the fourth highest in the report’s 78-year history.

US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said: "More people driving means our economy is picking up speed.

"It also means we need to increase our investment in transportation to meet this demand, which is why Congress needs to pass the president’s four-year, $302bn GROW AMERICA Act."

The report also stated that vehicle traffic in the north-east area of the US comprising nine states, including New York and New Jersey, has increased to approximately 37 billion VMT, up by 0.7%, compared with June 2013.

Similarly, the vehicle traffic volume in the South Atlantic region increased by 2% compared with June of last year.

Among all the US states, Washington DC had the highest VMT with 4.5%, followed Theseby Tennessee with 3.7%.

FHWA acting administrator Gregory Nadeau said: "This data is critical to helping the nation’s leaders make informed decisions about critical infrastructure investments.

"To ensure our roads, bridges and tunnels can keep pace with the demands of the American public, greater investment is needed and the GROW AMERICA Act is a step in the right direction."