Millions Hit The Road, Take To The Skies For Memorial Day Weekend

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — The unofficial start to the summer travel season is here, and millions of Southern California are expected to hit the roads and take to the skies Friday.

A record 3.21 million Southern California residents are expected to travel over the holiday weekend, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California, with freeways expected to be at their busiest during the Friday afternoon commute.

A joint study by the Auto Club and transportation research group INRIX found that the worst time for Los Angeles residents to hit the road for their vacations will be 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. today, when travel times are forecast to be 1.9 times longer than usual.

Los Angeles International Airport will be just as crowded as the freeway Friday, when nearly 252,000 passengers are expected to pass through the airport. A total of 948,000 people are expected to pass through the airport this Memorial Day travel period, up 6 percent from last year.

Statewide, 5.19 million are expected to travel, breaking the record of 5.18 million set in 2005.

The most popular destinations for Southern Californians will be Las Vegas, San Diego, the Central Coast, San Francisco and Yosemite National Park.

But with so many people out on the roads, the California Highway Patrol will also be out in force for stepped-up enforcement. The CHP's "maximum enforcement period" starts at 6 p.m. and ends at 11:59 p.m. Monday, during which time all available officers will be looking for DUI offenders and other traffic violators.

(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)