LOS ANGELES (KABC) — It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas — on the roads, too.
The year-end holiday travel season is expected to ramp up beginning Saturday and will be bigger than last year — with a record 10.2 million Southern Californians expected to voyage at least 50 miles from home.
According to the Auto Club of Southern California, the anticipated number of travelers is a 2.8% increase from last year’s volume of 9.9 million SoCal travelers. The Auto Club defines the holiday period as Saturday, Dec. 20, through Jan. 1.
“Year-end travel brings together everything from family road trips and friends’ getaways to tropical escapes,” Auto Club spokesman Doug Shupe said. “Each household celebrates the season differently, but the common thread is a shared desire to travel — whether heading home or discovering someplace new.”
The vast majority of SoCal travelers, roughly 8.9 million, are expected to reach their destinations by automobile, while 945,000 will fly and 332,000 will use other means, such as train, bus or cruise ship. The most popular destinations for Southern Californians are expected to be San Diego, Las Vegas, Anaheim, the Central Coast and national parks in California and Arizona, according to the Auto Club.
This weekend is expected to be particularly busy on area freeways as people begin hitting the roadways. The eastbound San Bernardino (10) Freeway traveling toward Phoenix is expected to be the most congested route on Saturday, with travel times likely to double on some stretches.
Auto Club officials also said Dec. 26 could be a busy travel day, as people make post-Christmas moves.
Nationally, 122.4 million Americans are expected to travel for the holidays, also a record. The figure is 2.7 million higher than last year’s figure.
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