Marylanders Return Home After Memorial Day Weekend
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- It was a weekend of beach-goers and brake lights. The number of people who hit the beach over the weekend was potentially record-breaking--and that means a lot of traffic.
Meghan McCorkell has more on the Memorial Day travel.
The beautiful weather--combined with lower gas prices--had a lot more people hitting the road.
Blue ocean and sunny skies gave way to brake lights and less than sunny attitudes.
"We've been sitting in traffic for two and a half hours," said one driver.
"Four hours...just a lot of hours," said another driver.
"This stuff is just ridiculous," said a driver.
A wreck on Rt. 50 near 97 snarled traffic Monday evening and had drivers getting out of their cars on the highway.
"You just can't really stop to do anything 'cause it's just so much traffic," said India Fletcher.
Gas prices are a big reason so many hit the road. They're about 25 cents lower than last year.
"They have been falling every week since Easter, seven weeks in a row," said Lon Anderson, AAA Mid-Atlantic.
In Ocean City alone, more than 250,000 visitors were expected this weekend. It's welcome news to Boardwalk business owners.
"Numbers were definitely up this year. We were really excited about everyone coming here. The turnout seems to be phenomenal in comparison to last year," said Meredith Moore, business owner.
Alex Robinson was also seeing big numbers. He operates the Bay Bridge Drive-Over, spending his days in gridlock.
"You're going to be sitting in traffic forever if that's what you're looking for," Robinson said.
The end of the busy holiday weekend has some wishing they'd planned ahead.
"We were going to leave Saturday but we decided, `Nah, we'll stay the extra night' and that was a bad decision," said Tom Alexander.
AAA estimates 350,000 people crossed the Bay Bridge this weekend alone.
The official numbers of tourists in Ocean City will not be released until Tuesday but city officials say the numbers were very strong.
