AAA Missouri: Thanksgiving travel rush is on – Missourinet

The Thanksgiving holiday weekend is here for Missourians.

AAA Missouri spokesman Nick Chabarria said that nearly 80 million Americans are expected to travel 50 miles or more from home. He told Missourinet that since 2021, travel numbers have increased nationwide.

“This is only a continuation of that,” he said. “We know we’re beyond travel numbers where we were in 2019 prior to the pandemic. It’s part of the recovery. It’s part of people wanting to get out and see more and do more.”

The auto club is projecting that a record 71.7 million people will travel by car over the holiday, a sizeable increase from last year. Additionally, Missouri’s statewide average for regular gasoline is $2.71 a gallon, while the national average for gasoline is $3.06 a gallon.

“The current Missouri statewide average also well within the top ten cheapest statewide averages in the country,” Chabarria said. “So, as you get ready to head out, depending on where you’re going, if you’re heading out of state, maybe get some gas where you leave Missouri and you may save a few bucks.”

The worst times to travel by car include Wednesday afternoon from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Minimal traffic is expected on Thanksgiving. If you plan on traveling back this weekend, both Saturday and Sunday afternoons are also projected to be the worst times to travel by car.

New for this year, the auto club has expanded its Thanksgiving travel period. Chabarria said that more people having work flexibility means that the travel period began on Monday and ends next Monday.

“Again, that’s new for this year to kind of capture those new travel trends,” he said. “But we were able to kind of go back, when we’re comparing to previous years, go back and look at the same time frame so that it was a fair comparison. So, even with that, you know, again, expected record number of travel.”

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