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If you thought Memorial Day traffic was going to be “a little busy,” AAA would like to gently inform you that roughly 39.1 million Americans are about to simultaneously attempt a road trip.
AAA’s newly released Memorial Day travel forecast predicts a record-breaking 45 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home between Thursday, May 21, and Monday, May 25, making this the busiest Memorial Day weekend on record. Most of them (about 87%) will be driving.
According to transportation analytics company INRIX, the absolute worst time to leave will be Thursday afternoon and evening, when traffic is expected to surge between noon and 9 pm as everyone attempts to escape work early at exactly the same time. Friday won’t be much better: roads are expected to clog between 11am and 8pm, with the worst congestion between roughly 3 pm and 6 pm in major metro areas.
The smarter move, according to the data, is either leaving offensively early or waiting until late at night. Drivers heading out Thursday are advised to wait until after 9 pm if possible, while Friday travelers will have the best luck hitting the road before 11am. Saturday offers a slightly narrower escape window, with traffic expected to intensify from noon through 5pm, meaning earlier departures are again your friend.
Oddly enough, Sunday may end up being the calmest day of the entire holiday weekend. INRIX says minimal traffic impacts are expected then, barring crashes or weather disasters. Monday, meanwhile, is shaping up to be the big return-to-reality crunch, with congestion expected to spike again between noon and 5pm as everyone funnels back into cities and suburbs simultaneously. If you can leave before 10am, you may spare yourself at least part of the existential spiral.
New Yorkers, specifically, should prepare for a particularly brutal Jersey Shore crawl. The route from New York City to the Shore via the Garden State Parkway is projected to see travel times more than double during peak Friday afternoon traffic around 2:15pm. Similar misery is expected on routes from Los Angeles to Palm Springs, Boston to Cape Cod and Washington, D.C., to Baltimore.
If there’s any silver lining here, it’s that rental car prices are slightly lower than last year and some travelers who booked flights early managed to snag lower airfare before jet fuel prices climbed.
But, unfortunately, none of that will help you when you’re trapped behind somebody towing a boat at 14 miles per hour on the Garden State Parkway.