In Maine and nationwide, holiday travel looks heavy
Courtesy / Maine Turnpike Authority
An MTA traffic cam on Wednesday morning showed travelers at Mile 43 of the Maine Turnpike, in Scarborough, looking north.
Mainers, like many Americans, this week are returning to the roads and skies in force.
Across the U.S., 53.4 million people are expected to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday, up 13% from 2020, according to AAA. That’s the largest one-year surge since 2005, and brings travel volumes within 5% of pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
Air travel is expected to almost completely recover from its dramatic fall during the pandemic, up 80% over last year, according to AAA.
In New England, the travel organization predicts 2.4 million people will leave home for the holiday, including 285,000 who will go by air. Those increases are about the same proportions as the nationwide jumps.
Traffic looks to be especially heavy on the Maine Turnpike. Vehicle volume there is expected to slightly surpass 2019’s record high of 1.06 million during the Thanksgiving period, from Wednesday through Sunday, spokeswoman Erin T. Courtney told Mainebiz.
The holiday rush comes despite a Mainebiz poll this week that found 73% of participating readers don’t plan to travel any more than they did last year.
If there’s reluctance to hit the road, it could be due to the continuing spread of COVID-19, which has soared in Maine and most of New England over the past several weeks.
And then there’s the cost of gas. Prices at the pump on Tuesday averaged $3.42 a gallon nationally, the highest since 2014.
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