Millions Hitting the Roads for the Holidays

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Hitting the roads for the holidays? You’re not alone. Millions of drivers expected to travel over the next several days.

“It’s been pretty busy,” holiday traveler Edgar Melendez said.

The Melendez family from Tampa, Florida is making the 24 hour drive to Michigan to celebrate the holidays. But when they left early Saturday morning, they didn’t expect the traffic.

“We’ve seen quite a bit of vacationers like ourselves out there, little bit more traffic than we thought,”he said.

Jim Powell is making the 350 mile drive from Stark, Florida to Kennesaw, Georgia. It is usually a five and a half hour long trip, but not at this time of the year.

“I expect today it’s going to take us closer to 7 because we stopped a time or two with the dog and traffic is just heavy,” Powell said.

That’s because the roadways are packed with millions of drivers. According to AAA, 93.3 million Americans will travel during the holidays from December 22 to January 1 and 90% of them will travel by car.

Macon police traffic fatality investigator Austin Riley says the boys in blue are ready to handle the holiday traffic.

“We do have the guys kinda step it up a bit, get out on the major thoroughfares and try to enforce traffic laws,” Riley said.

But busy roads won’t stop these travelers from getting to their destination.

“It’s not going to slow me down much. I’m going to enjoy Christmas, always do,” Powell said.

Airports are also expecting a large increase in holiday travelers. AAA says 5.6 million Americans are expected to fly to get to their destination.