Survey: Area Holiday Traffic Will Be Huge, But Spread Out, This Year
By Mark Abrams
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Lots of Delaware Valley folks plan to take to the roads for holiday travel this year, according to the experts.
Jenny Robinson of AAA Mid-Atlantic says that despite gasoline prices that are 15 cents higher per gallon than a year ago, quite a few people plan to leave town for the holidays.
"AAA estimates over a million travelers from the Philadelphia area -- that's about one in four -- are going to travel 50 miles or more away from home during the yearend holidays, and that's an increase of nearly two percent over last year," she says.
Robinson says her organization's survey finds that a number of people also will be flying to destinations for the holidays -- a five percent increase over last year.
She says because the holiday travel period is spread out this year, running from December 22nd to January 1st, motorists and flyers aren't likely to run into traffic as heavy or airports as crowded as they do during the more compressed Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
