COLUMBUS – Crowded highways, high gas prices and orange barrels await Memorial Day weekend travelers.
The auto club AAA expects near-record travel volume with 41.5 million Americans, including 1.6 million Ohioans traveling at least 50 miles from home between now and Monday, the highest Memorial Day travel volume since 2005 and a 4.8 percent increase over last year.
Automobile travel is expected to increase for the fourth straight year, despite gas prices at their highest levels since 2014, thanks to rising crude oil prices and strong gasoline demand.
“AAA forecasts nearly 37 million travelers will hit the road for the holiday weekend. Compared to an average of the last three Memorial Day weekends, pump prices are nearly 50 cents more expensive and climbing,” said Jeanette Casselano, AAA spokesperson.
Friday morning gas prices in nearby cities and states
Ohio $2.91
Columbus $2.97
Cincinnati/Dayton $2.97
Toledo $2.96Cleveland/Akron $2.85
Michigan $3.13
Penna. $3.12
Indiana $3.04
W. Virginia $2.90
Kentucky $2.90
Source: AAA
With the addition of nearly 2 million travelers this year, INRIX, a global transportation analytics company, expects travel delays on major roads could be more than three times longer than normal.
“Ranked the most congested country in the world, U.S. drivers are all too familiar with sitting in traffic,” said Graham Cookson, chief economist and head of research for INRIX. “Drivers should expect congestion across a greater number of days than in previous years.”
“The biggest thing is to pack your patience, especially if you’re going to be traveling during those peak travel times,” AAA Ohio spokeswoman Kim Schwind told The Columbus Dispatch. “Travel at other times during the day if you want to avoid traffic.”
Cookson says, to avoid heavy traffic, drivers should try to avoid peak commute times in major cities by traveling in the late morning or early afternoon or by planning alternative routes.
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Ongoing and active construction projects will also impact traffic throughout Ohio but the Department of Transportation promises to try to reduce the impact as much as possible, spokesman Matt Bruning said.
State officials are reminding motorists to be cautious driving through work zones. There were 4,891 construction zone crashes during all of 2017, resulting in 606 minor injuries, 119 serious injuries, and 19 deaths, Bruning said.
Airfares are 7 percent lower than last Memorial Day and hotel rooms are 7 to 14 percent less expensive, the auto club reports.