Almost 908,000 Washington area residents will take a trip of 50 miles or more this Memorial Day weekend, making it the busiest Memorial Day weekend travel period since 2005, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic.
The automobile advocacy organization uses a Colorado-based business researcher to come up with its projections and economic forecasting for travel numbers over holiday periods.
Memorial Day, the traditional start of summer, is among of the biggest travel times of the year. The projection shows 15.5 percent of the area’s 5.8 million people will take advantage of the long weekend, which includes Memorial Day on Monday.
That doesn’t mean the area will be less crowded — AAA Mid-Atlantic said an equal number of visitors was expected to make up for those getting out of town.
AAA Mid-Atlantic projects a 1.8 percent increase in the total number of holiday travelers leaving the region compared to Memorial Day 2013. Most of those (89.3 percent) are projected to use vehicles in their travels and air travel is expected to increase by 2.6 percent at the region’s three international airports.
It is projected to be the most Memorial Day road travelers since 2005 and the second most since 2001.
