One of the main Thanksgiving traditions — right up there with eating turkey, gathering with family and watching football — begins Tuesday when the first of millions of drivers will participate in the rush-to-leave-while-crawling-along that will occur on California freeways and roads.
Tolerance and restraint will be needed.
“Really, to be safe, what it really comes down to is that you have to give yourself a lot of time to get where you’re going, and you need to be patient,” California Highway Patrol spokesperson Sgt. Andrew Barclay said of the annual Thanksgiving rush that puts car bumpers within inches of each other. “You’re not getting anywhere fast.”
This year, AAA expects 9.6 million drivers to be on the road in California beginning Tuesday and running until the end of Sunday. That would be an increase of 200,000 motorists from 2024.
Simply, it will be as big a slog as drivers face all year. Thanksgiving is annually “the busiest travel holiday there is,” AAA spokesperson Doug Johnson said. The good news: It will be done in calm weather, with clear sky in some areas of the state and cloud-covered sky in others, according to the National Weather Service. No rain or snow is forecast anywhere.
“We lucked out,” NWS meteorologist Dylan Flynn said Monday. “There’s a pretty persistent ridge of high pressure along the coast. There could be clouds in the morning, but there’s no real chance of rain.”
Including air travel, AAA puts the national figure of people traveling at least 50 miles at 81.8 million people nationally, an increase of 1.6 million from last year. Johnson said that will establish a new record. Nationally, 73 million people will travel that distance by car.
Those figures don’t include the heavy trickle that Barclay said already began to occur on Bay Area freeways late last week.
So, the best strategy to stay safe is to be patient and not be in a hurry to get anywhere, because it simply isn’t going to happen, Barclay said.
“My best advice to people is that as we get closer to Thanksgiving, we’ll see more people traveling,” he said. “So be prepared and plan ahead.”
AAA projects that nationwide travelers leaving between noon and 9 p.m. on Tuesday and between 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. on Wednesday will face the slowest crawl. Barclay said it really doesn’t make a difference.
“It doesn’t matter what time you leave,” he said. “There’s no leaving at a different time that’s going to make it easier or harder.”
As usual, the CHP will be out in increased numbers to patrol the highways. The increased enforcement period will begin at 6:01 p.m. Wednesday and run until midnight on Monday morning. Barclay said officers as usual will be monitoring for drivers under the influence, speeding or distracted by their cell phones.
He added that this Thanksgiving week, the CHP also will be keeping a close eye on whether people are wearing seat belts. That decision comes after six of 14 fatalities during Thanksgiving week a year ago in the CHP’s jurisdiction involved a person not being seat-belted in the vehicle. Overall, 36 people across the state died in crashes during the Thanksgiving holiday period in 2024, Barclay said.
The CHP also made 1,100 DUI arrests in the same period.
“Very often, we see that people who crash are rushing,” Barclay said. “We also tend to see that when people rush, we have more road rage. So have patience.”
In addition, drivers will need more money for gas than they did when they made the 2024 Thanksgiving trip. According to AAA, gasoline prices in California were up an average of 20 cents a gallon from the last Thanksgiving week. Average gas prices in the state were $4.61 a gallon on Monday.
Nationally, gas was selling for an average of $3.07 a gallon.
“Most people fill up before they go to Grandma’s,” Johnson said. “It’s usually more expensive before the holiday than after it, simply because of the supply and demand.”
Johnson also urged drivers to make sure their vehicles are healthy and prepared to go on any long trips. AAA a year ago responded to about 600,000 roadside incidents during the holiday week.
Caltrans also will suspend work on their non-emergency road projects during the weekend.