If you are trying to avoid holiday traffic during Thanksgiving and Christmas, a Virginia Tech expert says “you’re going to have to make some sacrifices.”
Hesham Rakha, the director for the Center for Sustainable Mobility at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, said to consider traveling at off-peak times including early mornings or on Thanksgiving or Christmas Day, when most people have already reached their destinations.
“You have to choose temporal times where people don’t want to travel,” said Rakha. “Play the devil’s advocate to think, ‘If I were to do that, these are the times that I’m going to be going,’ and then travel at a different time.”
Rakha suggests traveling earlier in the month to celebrate Christmas — like Dec. 19 or 20.
“You’re trying to spread out the demand over time, then that reduces the load on your transportation system,” Rakha said.
Rakha’s research shows that drivers are generally more cautious in inclement weather.
However, he suggests allowing more time if the roads are not dry, and if conditions turn icy, don’t take any unnecessary risk.
“There is no good driver in those really bad weather conditions,” Rakha said.
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Crystal Graham
