COLUMBUS – Highways and airports are expected to be crowded Wednesday as 48.9 million Americans head out of town for the four-day Fourth of July holiday period, a 4 percent increase over last year despite the holiday weekend being one day shorter, according to auto club AAA’s projections.
Gas prices at popular Ohio destinations:
Red, White & Boom!………………..$2.69
Cedar Point……………..………..$2.83
King’s Island……………………..$2.72
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame…………$2.70
Hocking Hills………………..…..$2.82
USAF Museum, Dayton……..…..$2.80
Source: AAA
Thanks to low unemployment, rising disposable incomes and robust consumer spending the auto club AAA says 2.1 million Ohioans will be among those traveling at least 50 miles from home between Wednesday and Sunday, a 4.7 percent increase.
“Consumers are more confident in the economy, they’re spending more money, and they’re spending more money on thingds like travel this summer,” Kimberly Schwind, senior public relations manager for the AAA Ohio Auto Club.
Nearly 2 million Ohioans will travel by car and the Ohio Department of Transportation, with over 1,000 projects underway statewide, is asking contractors to open as many lanes as possible through active work zones, spokesman Matt Bruning said.
“That’s not always possible, though, everywhere, so we ask that drivers use caution as they drive through,” he said. “We want drivers to always be alert but in work zones you need to be extra alert
The biggest projects include the Columbus Crossroads reconstruction of the I-70/I-71 interchange downtown, the South Side Mega Fix at the I-71/I-270 interchange near Grove City, I-75 in Cincinnati, Findlay, and Toledo; I-271 near Cleveland, and I-76 in the Akron area.
Operators in ODOT’s traffic management center will be monitoring more than 700 traffic cameras will post alerts to its website and over 130 digital highway message boards.
The number of Ohioans driving to their destinations is nearly 88,000 more than 2018, meaning motorists can expect added congestion. The traffic monitoring service INRIX and AAA say the heaviest traffic will be on the highways on Wednesday afternoon as commuters leave work early and mix with holiday travelers.
Even with the state’s 10.5-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax increase that took effect Monday, drivers can expect to spend about 10 cents less per gallon than last year, according to the AAA.
As part of the national Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over enforcement campaign, Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers will be highly visible and focusing on removing impaired drivers from the roadways.
Last year in Ohio, four fatal crashes killed eight people during the July Fourth holiday weekend. Of those fatalities, one crash and three fatalities were OVI related.
The Transportation Security Administration expects to screen about 12.1 million people at airports nationwide between Wednesday and Sunday but administrator David Pekoske says travelers should see only a slight increase in checkpoint wait times despite the diversion of about 350 employees including screeners to the U.S.-Mexico border.
Pekoske told reporters that Sunday will be the busiest day at checkpoints as holiday travelers fly home.