Baltimore Police Aim For Safe Memorial Day Weekend
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Time to load the kiddies in the car and head out for the long Memorial Day holiday weekend.
Pat Warren has the latest information on travel and destinations.
Good weather and moderate gas prices are incentive enough for people to get in those cars this weekend.
Time to gas and go.
"Yeah. We're planning to go out on our boat tomorrow, and then my sister-in-law is having a cookout Sunday," said Shawn Dian.
AAA Mid-Atlantic says Marylanders are making a break for the open road. It signals an improving economy.
"While it still isn't stellar, we are seeing that it's improving," said Ragina Averella, AAA spokesperson. "And it appears that many people have a bit more confidence in their own personal economies and again are getting out and traveling."
That may explain why Marylanders are looking at an increase in gas prices now, but sucking it up anyway.
"Don't like them. Don't like them. They seem to be inching back up. What are you going to do?" said Kristen Seibert.
"While that $3.67 average for national is a penny less than last year, it's about 13 cents more than what we were paying here in Maryland," Averella said.
Some don't plan to go far.
"In our city, our focus on our downtown area. All the places where we have open spaces, where we want families to come out, where we want everyone to enjoy," said Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts.
And where thousands like Branden Jones plan to be.
"Between the [Inner Harbor] and Harbor East. I'll probably hang out down there," he said. "Maybe Fells Point, maybe Canton. Depends on how it feels just to drive the area."
All those areas Branden mentioned make the city a destination location this weekend.
"We're erasing the borderlines between Anne Arundel, Baltimore County, the city as a whole and working together and making sure that we eradicate any violence that takes place on our streets," Batts said. "And that we can respond in a safe and fast manner and that all of our communities enjoy this Memorial Day that's coming up."
Maryland State Police and the MDTA Police are all on extra duty this weekend.
AAA expects more than 670,000 Marylanders to travel by car--the second highest number since 2000.
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