Holiday travel season wraps up

GRAND CHUTE, Wis. (WBAY) – A record-breaking holiday travel season is winding down but many people are still making the trip home.

Travel experts recommend returning home Wednesday if you haven’t already.

“But certainly on Thursday the 2nd there will be more traffic because you’ll have folks who maybe are doing their regular routines mixing in with folks who are still returning back from their holiday travel,” AAA Wisconsin Director of Public Affairs Nick Jarmusz said.

The worst times to travel are Thursday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Still, Jarmusz said we are well beyond peak travel times.

“The road congestion really peaked on the 21st before Christmas. Even air travel peaked around the same time,” Jarmusz explained. “There will be more people than normal at the airports but certainly nowhere near that pre-holiday crunch of everyone trying to get out at the same time.”

As we first told you, AAA projected more than 119 million people traveling 50 miles for more from home over the holidays. That passed the previous record set in 2019 by 64,000 travelers.

Of those travelers, more than 107 million chose to drive to their destination. With that many people on the roads, you may see more first responders and tow truck drivers during your commute.

“We unfortunately saw a fatality in the tow truck community in Milwaukee over the holiday and we just want to make an extra special reminder for folks to watch out for lights on the side of the road, slow down and move over,” Jarmusz said.

His team wants to make holiday travel as safe as possible for everyone. AAA’s ‘Tow to Go’ program runs until 6 a.m. Thursday. The program is a last resort and a backup plan for anyone who cannot safely drive home. ‘Tow to Go’ runs until 6 a.m. Thursday, giving impaired drivers and their vehicles a ride.

Jarmusz said the program has brought about 30,000 impaired drivers home safely since starting about three decades ago:

“Both in Wisconsin and across the country impaired driving makes up for about a third of all fatalities that happen on the road so if we can just reduce that–reduce the number of people driving impaired–we know it can have a huge impact on the number of fatalities that happen.”

According to AAA, nearly eight million people decided to fly.

Jarmusz told Action 2 News, “Maybe this is the only time of the year they do go to the airport. It’s important to brush up, refamiliarize yourself with those security procedures, check the TSA website to see what you can and can’t bring with you.”

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