Illinoisans Are Hitting the Road Memorial Day Weekend

If you're planning on doing some traveling over Memorial Day Weekend, be prepared. You'll be running into some traffic wherever you're going.

According to a report by the folks who know about this sort of thing, AAA Illinois, more than 2 million of us in the Land of Lincoln are headed someplace over the weekend marking the official start of summer.

In Illinois, 2.04 million people will be traveling for the holiday weekend, which is a four percent increase from 2017. Of those travelers, 1.8 million will be driving (up four percent from 2017) and 112,000 will be flying to their destination (a 6.8 percent increase from 2017). Gas prices across Illinois are on average $2.95, up from $2.70 last month and up from $2.39 a year ago.

Nationally, Americans will kick off the season by traveling in near-record numbers. According to AAA, more than 41.5 million Americans will travel this Memorial Day weekend, nearly 5 percent more than last year and the most in more than a dozen years (2005).

AAA's Travel by-the-numbers:

Total Travelers: More than 41.5 million Americans will travel on Memorial Day Weekend, 5 percent more than last year.
2018 will mark the fourth consecutive year of overall travel volume growth.
Travel volume has increased by 6 million since 2014 and 11 million since the 2009 recession-driven low.
Automobiles: The vast majority of travelers – 36.6 million – will hit the road this Memorial Day, 4.7 percent more than last year.
Planes: 3.1 million people will travel by air, a 6.8 percent increase and the fifth year of consecutive air travel volume increases.
Trains, Buses, Rails and Cruise Ships: Travel across these sectors will increase by 2.4 percent to 1.8 million passengers.
Gas prices for this holiday weekend will be the most expensive in four years.

As far as traffic congestion goes, AAA advises that the worst day and time for travel here in Illinois will be on Friday, May 25th, from 4pm-6pm, when highway clog-ups will roughly double.

If you don't have the time (or inclination) for a road trip, enjoy this coast-to-coast time-lapse jaunt: