Millions expected to be traveling for holiday
Published 7:00 pm Tuesday, November 20, 2018
- Vehicles travel westbound on Interstate 20 Tuesday. Traffic is expected to increase with the number of motorist traveling for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday (Courtland Wells/The Vicksburg Post)
More than 54 million American are expected to travel 50 miles or more away from home during the Thanksgiving holiday, according to AAA Travel, which is nearly a 5 percent increase over last year.
“Consumers have a lot to be thankful for this holiday season: higher wages, more disposable income and rising levels of household wealth,” Bill Sutherland, AAA Travel senior vice president, said. “This is translating into more travelers kicking off the holiday season with a Thanksgiving getaway, building on a positive year for the travel industry.”
The 2018 holiday weekend will see the highest Thanksgiving travel volume in more than a dozen years (since 2005), with 2.5 million more people taking to the nation’s roads, skies, rails and waterways compared with last year.
For the 48.5 million Americans planning a Thanksgiving road trip, INRIX, a global mobility analytics company, predicts travel times in the most congested cities in the U.S. could be as much as four times longer than a normal trip.
“Thanksgiving is one of the busiest holidays for road trips, and this year will be no different,” Trevor Reed, transportation analyst at INRIX, said. “Knowing when and where congestion will build can help drivers avoid the stress of sitting in traffic. Our advice to drivers is to avoid commuting times in major cities altogether or plan alternative routes.”
According to AAA, the busiest travel days are expected to be Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, and Sunday as travelers return home.