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This is when one should travel before, after Thanksgiving, says AAA

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This is when one should travel before, after Thanksgiving, says AAA

For those traveling to see family for the Thanksgiving holiday, AAA has some advice on the best times to start the journey to avoid the majority of traffic.

The organization is estimating at least 80 million people nationwide will travel for the holiday, based on using methodology from S&P Global Market Intelligence for forecasting domestic travel volumes, along with relying on historic data from DK Shifflet’s Travel Performance/Monitor.

There also are regional and statewide estimates from AAA. Missouri is part of AAA’s west north central region. The Thanksgiving travel period is from Nov. 26 to Dec. 2. This is the first year the Thanksgiving forecast includes the Tuesday before and the Monday after the holiday.

Around 1.5 million Missourians are expected to travel by automobile for the holiday, a 2% increase from last year and a 1% difference from 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic. Roughly 206,000 residents will travel by air. This is a 3% increase from last year and an 11% increase when compared to 2019. About 76,000 people will take other forms of travel (bus, train, cruise), or a 10% increase from last year and 18% increase from 2019.

Within the region, about 5.8 million people will travel by automobile, a 1% increase from last year and a 1% decrease from 2019. About 296,000 people in the region will travel by air and 317,000 by other modes of travel.

For those traveling by vehicle, AAA recommends traveling on Thanksgiving day itself, if possible, to have the least amount of traffic. If traveling before Thursday, early afternoons into the evenings are estimated as the worst times to travel.

So, if traveling Nov. 25 head out before 11 a.m. or before 10 a.m. on Nov. 26 or Nov. 27. Otherwise you’ll hit the worst of the traffic between roughly 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. depending on travel day.

There also are considerations for those heading back home after visiting family, travel recommendations are somewhat flipped by AAA, using data from transportation data and insight firm INRIX.

The worst times to travel home will be the morning of Nov. 29, later afternoon and early evening of Nov. 30 and most to all day Dec 1-2. So, AAA recommends setting out after 1 p.m. Nov. 29, but before 1 p.m. on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1. Those traveling on Dec. 2 could have to contend with both holiday travelers and those heading to work, so AAA recommends setting out either before 8 a.m. or after 7 p.m. that day.

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