The best times to travel this Memorial Day weekend
SEATTLE – Many of us are welcoming the “unofficial start to summer” with a vacation out of town during the Memorial Day weekend.
Many of us could also avoid the headaches of knowing when to avoid the airport and the freeways.
According to AAA, 34.8 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home this weekend. It’s a .9 percent decrease from last year.
Data traffic provider, INRIX, predicts Friday’s getaway traffic to be as busy as usual.
However, it is predicting the southbound lanes of Interstate 5 between downtown Seattle to Tacoma to be the busiest, especially around 4 p.m. The normally 30-mile route is expected to take one hour and 15 minutes to travel. During Monday’s return traffic, INRIX is predicting busy roads between noon and 8 p.m. However, most trips should only take about ten minutes longer.
More than 2.3 million people are expected to fly this weekend. It’s a small decrease from last year’s 2.5 million fliers. Sea-Tac airport is expecting the most passengers on Thursday (93,200) and Friday (95,000). The average number of passengers a day is around 85,000. Summer is traditionally the busiest travel time for the airport, averaging 100,000 passengers a day. May is the fourth busiest month, behind August, July and June.