Traveling Over The Holiday? Here’s the Best Time to Hit the Road
I am convinced that part of the DNA hard wiring differential that separates women from men has to do with what I would call the travel gene. It's not a real thing but it sure seems like it's real anytime my wife and I climb into the car to travel. She is all about the journey. I am all about the destination or at least getting to the destination so I won't have to be in the car anymore.
If you're an " I want to get out of this car as soon as I possibly can" kind of driver and you're traveling over Thanksgiving I have some advice for you. It comes courtesy of Google. They know a thing or two about traffic since a lot of us use their data to circumvent the slowdowns every day.
Google suggests that the Thanksgiving traveler would be best served to leave for their destination at about 4 in the morning on Wednesday. This is assuming that you're traveling a considerable distance. Although, four in the morning may be the best time to sneak through Baton Rouge traffic if you're asking me.
Google says for your return trip you should once again get up early and be ready to be on the road for four in the morning on Friday. I know there's Black Friday shopping but that traffic is not going to be on the roads you and I would use for interstate travel.
Those Google choices assume you're just visiting your destination for Thursday only. Things change slightly when you stay the entire weekend. First things first, the worst time to be on the road before Thanksgiving Day is Wednesday afternoon between 3 pm and 7 pm. More specifically Google targets between 3 pm and 4 pm as the most congested time to travel.
For the return trip on Sunday, Google suggests that you get on the road early because their data seems to point to anytime afternoon on Sunday all the way until eight or nine in the evening is the worst time for traffic over the holiday weekend. If you throw in the fact that we might have inclement weather then there's all the reason to hit the road early. Or if you're me, just stay at home.