3.5M Southern Californians Hitting The Road For Thanksgiving Holiday
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — More Southern Californians are hitting the road this Thanksgiving holiday, thanks to lower gas prices and improved personal finances.
According to the Automobile Club of Southern California, more than 3.5 million Southland residents will travel this Thanksgiving holiday, a 3.8 percent increase over last year. Across the state, 5.65 million are projected to take Thanksgiving holiday trips.
The number of people traveling at least 50 miles from home between Wednesday and Sunday is expected to be the highest on a Thanksgiving holiday since 2007, when 4 million Southern Californians took trips, the Auto Club said in a statement. For both Southern California and the state, 85 percent of travelers are expected to drive, while 11 percent will fly.
About 3.01 million Southern Californians will travel by car – a 3.9 million percent increase over 2013 – while more than 379,000 are projected to fly, a 2.7 percent increase over last year, according to the Auto Club. Statewide, 4.85 million will drive to holiday destinations and 610,000 will go by plane.
"As Californians see improvements in jobs and household worth this year, they are more willing to spend on travel," Auto Club spokesman Jeffrey Spring said.
"An added bonus for travel budgets has been dramatically lower gas prices in the past two months. Consumers have more money in their pocket to plan trips, and this Thanksgiving's travel will cost them less by car and just 1 percent higher than last year on average by air," he said.
Gas prices in Los Angeles and much of the Southland are heading toward an average price of $3 a gallon and are about 40 cents lower on average than at this time last year.
The Auto Club says Southern California's top destinations are Las Vegas, San Francisco, San Diego, Grand Canyon, Santa Barbara and the California Central Coast.
Nationally, 46.3 million people are expected to travel over this holiday weekend, an increase of 4.2 percent from last year. Eighty-nine percent, or 41.2 million, will drive to their destinations, and 3.5 million are expected to fly, the Auto Club said.
Wednesday is expected to be the most popular day for outbound travel, while Sunday is expected to be the day when most travelers return home, according to the Auto Club.
(©2014 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
