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MassDOT debuts Massachusetts Vehicle Census dashboard, enabling town-level EV and VMT analysis
Summary
MassDOT presented a new Massachusetts Vehicle Census dashboard that links odometer data to vehicle registrations, enabling municipalities and MPOs to analyze counts, vehicle age, weight class, zero-emission shares, and daily vehicle miles traveled; block-group data and additional vehicle characteristics are planned.
MassDOT on Sept. 18 presented the Massachusetts Vehicle Census — a new public dashboard that combines odometer readings collected at inspections with vehicle registration data to provide counts and usage metrics at state, MPO and municipal levels.
"As far as we believe, [this is] a first in the nation dataset," said Liz Williams, MassDOT's director of data and policy, describing a tool that shows total vehicles, the percentage of zero‑emission and hybrid vehicles, daily vehicle miles traveled (VMT), and comparisons of how EVs and conventionally fueled vehicles are used. She said the dashboard currently supports MPO and municipal queries and that MassDOT plans an October release of block‑group level data for infrastructure siting.
The dashboard includes six key indicators, vehicle age and weight classifications, and a downloadable data dictionary and CSVs. Williams said the agency will follow up on server‑side analytics to identify external users, but noted they have received interest from MPOs, municipalities, other state agencies, FHWA and some utilities.
MassDOT project staff said the resource is intended to inform needs assessments such as electric vehicle charging infrastructure siting, municipal fleet composition reviews, and school-transportation electrification planning. The dashboard also includes a VMT detail page that reports annual VMT across vehicle types and an "advanced vehicle type" classification for powertrain (electric, hybrid, fossil fuel).
During Q&A, a member asked whether the agency tracks who views the site ("Do you have any ability to track how often the website is viewed?"). Williams said she would follow up with the web team and that, anecdotally, they have heard from utilities and fuel companies interested in the methodology and history of the data.
What’s next: MassDOT staff said weight-class and vehicle-age CSV exports would be available in the coming week, and that they are taking feedback on additional fields users would like.
Provenance: topicintro SEG 157; topfinish SEG 463
