MILWAUKEE – With AAA projecting that 115 million Americans – and 2.3 million Wisconsinites – will travel 50 miles or more this holiday season, here’s how to beat the holiday traffic and avoid delays – whether you’re traveling by plane, train or automobile.
Airports are expected to be the busiest they’ve ever been over the Christmas and New Year’s travel period. AAA projects 7.5 million air travelers this holiday season, surpassing 2019’s record of 7.3 million passengers.
If you’re driving, you’re going to have to contend with more people on the road, with a projected increase of nearly 2.7% over last year. And the busiest days might not be the holidays themselves – AAA projects that Saturday, December 23, and Thursday, December 28, will be the most congested days on the road.Â
“People are gonna take advantage of the fact that there’s a weekend preceding the holiday that they can do their traveling on. There may be some folks heading out early on Friday that would then be mixing in with the normal Friday commuters on the twenty-second, but for the most part, we’re expecting the biggest crunch to be on Saturday,” Nick Jarmusz, Director of Public Affairs for AAA Wisconsin, told our news partners at TMJ4 News.
You shouldn’t break the bank at the pump either, which will be helpful after holiday shopping. According to AAA, on Wednesday, the average price of gas sat at $3.09 nationally for regular unleaded. The state of Wisconsin is at $2.76, and here in Milwaukee, that average is even lower at $2.58 a gallon.
However, Amtrak Senior Public Relations Manager Marc Magliari wants to put in a good word for rail travel as the way to go this holiday season.
“Everything you shouldn’t do while driving you can do safely on an Amtrak train, like napping or texting or watching a downloaded video,” Magliari told WTMJ.
Magliari highlights Amtrak’s allowances for baggage – two 50-pound items and one 25-pound item – as other reasons to leave the car keys at home. He also said that it’s important to be flexible and make sure you’re following along with updates on train status.
“There’s a lot of volume this time of year and the schedules are not always able to be kept because the schedules are based on a certain number of people, and if we have more than that certain typical number of people, we can see some delays,” he said.
That’s advice that can be applied to all three methods of transportation this holiday season to get you where you’re going safely and on time.
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