Here's what 37.6 million people on the road can expect – TechCrunch

How and if people travel on Memorial Day weekend can give a fleeting glimpse of the state of the US economy, or at least give a glimpse of consumer confidence. The result of this year: a trip almost record, despite the rise in the price of natural gas.

Nearly 43 million Americans are expected to travel in cars, trains and planes over the long weekend, 1.5 million more than the year before, according to AAA and Inrix, a company global transportation system that aggregates and badyzes traffic data collected from vehicles and road infrastructure.

This is the second-highest travel volume since AAA began tracking holiday travel volumes since 2000, behind the 2005 bar. Orlando, Florida, is expected to be the number one travel destination in the world. this Memorial Day weekend, followed by New York, Las Vegas, Honolulu and Disneyland House Anaheim, California.

"Americans are eagerly awaiting the start of the summer, and high gas prices will not keep them at home this Memorial Day weekend," said Paula Twidale, vice president of AAA Travel. communicated. "Consumer spending remains strong, helped by strong employment and income growth. Families continue to prioritize their travel-related income, and an almost record number are eager to do so for Memorial Day. "

The majority of these, about 37.6 million, will travel by car, causing delays on main roads that could be more than three times longer than normal for daily commutes, according to Inrix.

Inrix and AAA predicted that drivers would be the most affected by traffic congestion on Thursday and Friday. But even if these staggering traffic jams are now in the rearview mirror, not everything is cleared on the roads. People have to go home, after all.

Major American cities such as Boston and Washington DC are expected to experience tripled travel times Monday compared to a normal trip.

This type of road congestion has a cost. The US Travel Association released a poll Wednesday that Americans would have avoided about 47.5 million auto trips due to highway congestion in 2018. This cost the economy $ 30 billion in travel and 248,000 US jobs, according to the organization's economists.

The survey also revealed that for every additional hour added by traffic to a weekend car trip, travel demand dropped by about 18% on average.