RICHMOND, VA (NewsradioWRVA.com) – The roads of Virginia are expected to be very busy for the Independence Day holiday with a record number of people traveling by car this year. AAA is projecting nearly 1.2 million will hit the road for a trip of 50 miles or more over the holiday. That’s half of a percentage point higher than the record set last year and two percent higher than the Fourth of July holiday in 2019.
“The forecast for record auto travel is especially surprising considering the high price of gas,” said Morgan Dean, spokesperson for AAA Mid-Atlantic in Virginia. “Even though prices have dropped over the past two weeks, drivers are paying the most they’ve ever paid for gas at the Fourth of July, but that's not stopping them from rolling out for a Great American Road Trip."
Virginia’s gas price average on Monday was $4.72, down 14 cents from the all-time record high of $4.86 hit on 6/14/22. Yesterday’s state average is still $1.80 more than what drivers were paying heading into the holiday weekend last year.
Overall, AAA is projecting that more than 1.3 million Virginia residents will travel over the Independence Day holiday. That’s up more than two percent from last year, but still down about one percent from the record number of travelers we saw back in 2019. Air travel for the holiday is very similar to what we saw in 2021, but still down about 13% from 2019. Other travel (bus, train, cruise) continues to rebound-up 150% over last year, but still down nearly 40% from the pre-pandemic days of 2019.