Planning to travel for the holidays? You’ll join nearly 113 million others who are doing the same.
The 2022 holiday travel season ‒ which AAA considers as Dec. 23 to Jan. 2 ‒ is expected to be the third busiest since the motor club began tracking it in 2000.
An estimated 112.7 million people will travel 50 miles or more away from home, an increase of 3.6 million people over last year. Travel this season is nearing pre-pandemic numbers.
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Most travelers will be journeying by car, AAA predicts. The estimated 102 million drivers are about 2 million more compared to last year, though still several million fewer than the 108 million people who traveled by car in 2019.
That year was the busiest on record for road travel, AAA said.
The second most popular way to travel will be by plane, with an estimated 7.2 million people expected to fly. That’s a 14% increase over last year, though about 2% less than in 2019 when 7.3 million flew.
Travel by bus, train and cruise ship will also increase to 3.6 million this year, a 23% increase over last year.
Worst (and better) times to travel
Though the roads will likely be busy for much of next week, some days will be worse than others.
Roads will be quite congested on Friday, given that some people will still be commuting to and from work as others head out of town. December 27 is expected to be the worst travel day, though Dec. 28 and Jan. 2 are also expected to be busy.
“With pre-pandemic levels of travelers hitting the road this holiday, drivers must be prepared for delays in and around major metro areas,” said Bob Pishue, transportation analyst at INRIX, a transportation analytics provider.
“Our advice is to avoid traveling during peak commuting hours. If schedules allow, leave bright and early or after the afternoon commute.”
While travel will likely be a nightmare on certain days, traffic is expected to be minimal on Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
What are the busiest roads?
Though Philadelphia is once again not on AAA’s list of busiest metro areas (it wasn’t on the motor club’s Thanksgiving travel list either), several other East Coast cities are.
The Washington, D.C. area will be quite busy, with the most traffic predicted on Dec. 27 from 9:30 to 11 a.m. Interstate 95 south and Maryland Route 212 to Central Ave. will see a 68% increase over normal volume, AAA predicts.
New York and Boston will also be clogged, with New York traffic expected to be 112% higher than usual and Boston traffic 47% higher.
Elsewhere in the country, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle are expected to see heavier-than-usual volume.
Weather may have an impact
A “major” storm system is expected to impact much of the U.S. leading up to Christmas Eve, with “widespread gusty winds, areas of heavy rain and heavy snow, as well as bitter cold in its wake,” the National Weather Service predicts.
While the Delmarva area will likely see mostly rain, there is a (very) brief chance of snow early on Thursday that will turn to rain. The high on Thursday is expected to be in the low 50s, while temperatures will increase on Friday to the upper 50s.
Friday may see some thunderstorms before temperatures plummet to the 20s on Christmas Eve and into Christmas.
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