How to stay safe amid busy travel conditions this holiday season

AccuWeather

Aixa Diaz, with AAA, joins AccuWeather to discuss how how you can best keep your family safe on the road amid busy holiday travel conditions.

Transcript

00:00AAA is projecting that more than 119 million Americans will travel more than 50 miles this

00:07holiday season.

00:08Yeah.

00:09If anyone knows about driving in fog, right, AAA?

00:10With record-breaking numbers of drivers on the road, AAA spokesperson Aishka Deyes is

00:15here with us with some tips of making your trip safe.

00:19Can you start with some of the best times to drive and do the same rush hour hours apply

00:24during the holidays?

00:26Hi there, Ariella and Bernie.

00:28So the thing with the year-end holiday period is that it begins this weekend.

00:33So the 21st and 22nd of December, and it continues through the end of the year.

00:37So many people have a different mix of days off.

00:41Some people are still waiting for their kids to get out of school.

00:45So in terms of during the week, yes, you're still going to have rush hour for people who

00:50are not off the days surrounding the holiday.

00:53So for example, this week, even next week, when you have the 23rd, Christmas Eve, those

00:58are still work days for many people.

00:59So you want to avoid those rush hour time periods if you're hitting the road and traveling

01:04over the holiday.

01:05Christmas Day itself should be a little bit quieter on the roads, but the 26th picks back

01:09up again.

01:10We do expect the two weekends, the weekend before Christmas and the weekend after to

01:13also be very busy on the roads.

01:15So you want to leave as early as possible.

01:17The more you delay your departure during the day, the more congestion builds on the interstates.

01:22Now during these busy times on the roads, what are some of the reminders to keep in

01:28mind to stay safe?

01:30Yeah, well, you know, one thing that we always watch here at AAA is drowsy driving because

01:35that is a problem and it's very dangerous on the roads.

01:38You may not think that you're tired.

01:39You may not think that you're sleepy, but especially if you have a long road trip ahead

01:43of you and you are one of those people, you want to pull an all nighter just to get to

01:46your destination or you want to drive 8, 10, 12 hours.

01:50Keep in mind that if you're driving during hours that you're not normally awake, let's

01:54say you're driving at night and maybe you go to bed at like 10 o'clock and now it's

01:5711 p.m., midnight, you're going to naturally get tired.

02:01So leave in the morning, be alert, be refreshed behind the wheel and take breaks.

02:06If you have other drivers in the vehicle with you, switch every couple of hours, every 100

02:10miles.

02:11If you can, if you're driving solo or you've got kids in the car, pull over to a rest area,

02:16somewhere safe, a location where you can park, drink a little water, use the restroom

02:21and just take a little rest.

02:22Even a 20 minute nap, if you are in a safe location and you can do that, will make you

02:27a little bit more refreshed behind the wheel because ultimately you want to get to your

02:31destination safely.

02:32Excellent.

02:33So perfectly said.

02:34It's like you've done this before.

02:35All right.

02:36How are gas prices this holiday season?

02:39Are there usually kind of price changes between Saturday and then as we make our way into

02:42the new year?

02:44So typically gas prices do come down this time of year regardless of what year it is

02:49because it's winter, fewer people drive over the winter compared to the summer driving

02:53season.

02:54So you see gas demand go down this time of year.

02:57Also you've got more people working remotely now post pandemic, so fewer people are driving

03:00to the office and a lot of people are doing their holiday shopping online, so not driving

03:03as much.

03:04That brings the price of gas down.

03:06The national average is still not quite at $3 a gallon.

03:09We're at $3.03 this morning.

03:11It's been fluctuating, getting really close to $3, not quite there yet, but most drivers

03:15across the country are already paying under $3.

03:17We just haven't seen the national average go there yet, but we haven't seen gas prices

03:21this low in about three years.

03:23So we're definitely paying less than we were last holiday season, and we can't project

03:27what they'll do over the next couple of weeks because gas prices are affected by so many

03:31different factors, but we do at least, we don't anticipate them going up much more.

03:37All right, Aixa Diaz, AAA spokesperson, thanks for the great information, and I hope you

03:44and your family, we both hope that you and your family have a great holiday season.

03:49Happy holidays.

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