Southern California is bracing for record Memorial Day traffic as 3.6 million people hit the road
An estimated 3.6 million Southern California residents are expected to travel this Memorial Day weekend – the third consecutive year of record-breaking regional travel – with today, Friday, May 22, becoming the worst day to get behind the wheel in the Los Angeles area.
A record weekend in numbers
The Auto Club of Southern California projects representing travel volume this weekend represent a 1% increase over last year and an 8.1% jump compared to the 2019 pre-pandemic benchmark. Nationally AAA predicts 45 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home between Thursday and Monday – the highest Memorial Day number ever recorded and the highest since 2005. Of those, 39.1 million people will travel by car.
Jena Miller, vice president of travel products at the Auto Club, put it clearly: “Consumers continue to prioritize traveling with family and friends after the pandemic. This year they will get some price relief at the gas pump and car rental counter, but they will spend more on domestic flights, hotels, cruises and tours compared to last year.”
The worst routes you can take right now
Transportation Analysis Bureau INRIX locates Friday afternoon between 3:00 PM and 6:00 PM as the peak congestion window – and the numbers for Southern California are grim. Interstate 10 is expected to travel east toward Palm Springs and Phoenix tonight up to 88% more congested than normalextending the typical 90-minute drive from LA to Palm Springs to 4.4 hours. Those going all the way to Phoenix will have an estimated 8.6 hour trip.
The I-15 corridor to Las Vegas isn’t much better. Travel time from Los Angeles to Las Vegas on Friday evening is estimated at 5.7 hours – a 38% increase over normal conditions. INRIX recommends leaving before Friday 11 a.m. or Thursday after 9 p.m to avoid the worst impasse.
Infrastructure setbacks are contributing to SoCal woes
Increasing congestion, a Gas and water lines were affected during construction in the Westchester community near LAX earlier this week. SoCalGas repair crews worked through the night and the restoration was expected to be completed by Thursday morning – but the incident has caused local disruption to an already strained road network heading into the busiest day of departure.
The risks along the road are also increasing
With fuel prices at their highest since 2022, This is reported by NBC Palm Springs that AAA one A 10% increase in roadside emergency calls from drivers who completely ran out of gas. Service managers at Mountain View Tire in Palm Desert warned that pushing vehicles to their limits in extreme desert heat causes serious damage to fuel pumps, on top of the obvious danger of stranding.
AAA responded to more than 350,000 roadside assistance calls nationally during last year’s Memorial Day weekend. It is expected that this figure will be surpassed this year.
