Thanksgiving is in just a couple days and that means travel for many Kentuckians. Officials report more than 55.4 million Americans are expected to travel through the holiday, marking the third busiest Thanksgiving weekend since 2001.
According to AAA Bluegrass, Wednesday is expected to bring the most traffic, and drivers are encouraged to avoid travelling between the afternoon hours of 2 to 6 p.m. throughout the week.
Many renovation projects around the Morehead area, such as paving on I-64 near Carter County, are expected to wrap up before Thanksgiving. Lori Weaver-Hawkins with AAA Bluegrass said regardless of where people are travelling, it is important to slow down and pay attention to necessary lane changes in work zones.
“I aways remind folks, not everybody has the holiday off or that holiday period off. So, you will come upon road construction areas throughout your travels, depending on what direction you’re headed and what city you’re headed for. You might come across several of them. You might come across areas where you have lanes closed and workers roadside,” said Weaver-Hawkins.
Weaver-Hawkins added that there is good news for motorists this season: despite the expected traffic, gas is trending much lower this year than it was last Thanksgiving.
“A year ago, at this time, we were over $3.40, so that’s probably playing into an increase of people that are opting to travel by car, and just in general, the greater number of people that are travelling overall because they’re paying less at the pump,” said Weaver-Hawkins
According to AAA, the current average cost of gas is $3.33 per gallon, and Weaver-Hawkins said prices are not likely to dramatically increase through the holiday weekend.