The purpose of this paper is to identify the relations between transportation energy consumption and its impacted factors. We first analyze the current status of transportation energy consumption in China. Then, the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) technique is used to find the nature of the factors those influence the changes in transportation energy consumption. We find that: (1) In 2006, the transportation energy consumption increased by 7.63 times against that in 1980. (2) Up to 2006, the oil consumed by transportation accounted for 49.6% of that in the whole country, which almost equaled to the net oil import. (3) In the light of the increasing energy consumption intensity, the energy-utilization effectiveness of transportation sector has been declining gradually. (4) The transportation activity effect is the most important contributor to increase energy consumption in the transportation sector and the energy intensity effect plays the dominant role in decreasing energy consumption. (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.