The high price of gasoline won’t keep people from traveling for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend, officials with the AAA Auto Club said.
Beginning Thursday, drivers are expected to hit the road for Memorial Day weekend trips at pretty much the same rate as they have in previous years despite paying more for gas at the pump, officials with AAA said.
A press release from the AAA group stated that “nationally, driving remains the most popular way to travel this Memorial Day weekend. AAA projects 39.1 million people will travel by car, a slight jump over last year.”
The release noted that “a holiday road trip will cost more at the gas pump this year.”
“This is the first big travel weekend,” said AAA spokesperson Molly Hart. “We call it the kickoff to summer. People made plans before the gas crisis happened and travel is very much still on this summer.
“Families are fully aware that they are going to spend more at the pump,” Hart said, “but the good news is that higher prices doesn’t mean people are canceling their plans. They’re just adjusting.”
Adjustments, Hart said, include shortening trips, eating out less, staying in more modestly-priced locations and other modifications to offset the cost of travel.
“We did do a consumer post-survey after the gas prices began to spike and found that 60% are still planning that summer vacation and 33% are saying there’ll be more than one,” Hart said. “But they are staying closer to home with less shopping, dining and entertainment.”
Hart said that “nationally, we will still be reaching a new record” as far as travelers this coming weekend, which shows “that people still want to get that summer vacation in at Memorial Day.”
Here in Illinois, the AAA group projects “2.1 million Illinoisans will travel at least 50 miles from home for Memorial Day weekend.”
“Illinois is expected to see a slight decline in total travelers, as well as in auto and air travel. Nearly 1.9 million will drive, 111,500 will fly and more than 106,000 will travel by other modes such as bus, train or cruise,” the group said in a press release.
Figures from last year were essentially the same, with 2.11 million traveling.
“This is what we call a smidgen,” she said of the very small decrease in projected Illinois travelers. “We aren’t surprised the numbers aren’t lower and what we’ve seen since COVID is that people just love to travel and love adventure and spending time with friends and family. They are just doing it from a different viewpoint and budgeting differently.”
In terms of Memorial Day weekend travel, people are expected to leave well before Thursday night, officials with AAA said. The busiest times to travel are projected to be from 11 a.m. until 8 or 9 p.m. on both Thursday and Friday as well as between noon and 5 p.m. on Sunday and Monday.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
