Californians traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday will face frustrating crowds and congestion, whether they drive, fly or take a train to get away.
The worst place to be in California on Wednesday night will be driving northbound on Interstate 5 between Los Angeles and Bakersfield, where travel time is expected to double to almost four hours, the transportation analytics firm INRIX said.
The Automobile Club of Southern California predicted that 6.6 million Californians will travel more than 50 miles for the holiday, a 2.8% increase from the 2023 travel season, and 3.3% more than 2019, before the pandemic. INRIX expects traffic in Southern California to spike Tuesday from 1 to 7 p.m., with an average of 38% increase in travel time, the auto club said in a release .
Roads are expected to clear up on Thanksgiving day until travelers hit the road again after the holiday.
Nationally, AAA projects almost 80 million Americans will travel between Tuesday and next Monday, setting a new record, it said in a release . AAA extended its usual holiday travel period to include the Tuesday before the holiday and the Monday after, breaking from past holiday estimates that only looked at Wednesday through Sunday.