COLUMBUS – After a year of pandemic-related restrictions and caution, Americans are expected to hit the roads and crowd the nation’s airports for the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
The travel surge is fueled by an increase in COVID-19 vaccinations, the easing of pandemic health restrictions in several states and an improving economy.
Gasoline prices are at a seven-year high. But experts don’t expect steep prices to keep eager motorists off the road.
“There’s what we call ‘revenge travel,’ so people are – you know, they’re like ‘I don’t care what it costs, I want to get out. I want to travel’,” Kimberly Schwind, AAA Ohio senior public affairs manager, told Sunny 95’s “Sunny in the Morning with Bobby & Stacy” Wednesday morning.
The statewide average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in Ohio Friday morning was $2.96. Prices in neighboring states ranged from $2.90 in Kentucky to $3.16 in Pennsylvania.
The AAA is predicting a 57% increase in the number of Ohioans traveling this Memorial Day weekend and a 52% increase in the number of Ohioans driving to their destinations. The auto club predicts 1.36 million Ohioans will take to the highways between Thursday night and Monday night and that 37 million Americans will travel by car and plane on Memorial Day weekend.
That’s up 60% from last year when travel hit a record low for the year due to strict precautions, limitations on public gatherings and the closing of popular destinations.
More than 1.8 million people went through U.S. airports Thursday and the daily number could top 2 million at least once over the weekend, which would be the highest mark since early March 2020.
The latest available data indicates an estimated 7,800 passengers John Glenn Columbus International Airport and the Rickenbacker Passenger Terminal on average each day between May 3 and May 16, which means air travel at those terminals has returned to more than 60% of pre-pandemic levels and is expected to continue rising through the summer, according to the Columbus Regional Airport Authority.
The Ohio Department of Transportation says it will try to reduce the size of work zones and remove as many lane closures as possible for the upcoming holiday weekend. An additional lane of travel is being opened in a construction zone on U.S. 23 southbound approaching I-270 and Worthington.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol is participating in the Click it or Ticket campaign and the 6-State Trooper Project, focusing on safety belt usage and impaired driving.
During the Memorial Day weekend last year in Ohio, 20 people were killed in fatal crashes. Half of the people who died did not wear their seat belts and 10 of the 20 fatal crashes in the state involved impairment, according to the Patrol.