Record Number of Travelers on Road for Thanksgiving, AAA Says
Orlando, Florida, Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- A record number of
U.S. travelers will be on the road this Thanksgiving, crowding
highways even with gasoline prices up 22 percent from last year,
the American Automobile Association said.
A projected 33.8 million Americans plan to travel 100 miles
or more during the holiday weekend, up 200,000 from last year,
the AAA said. Nearly 28 million of them will be driving in cars,
pickups or recreational vehicles.
The highways will be crowded after a rally in oil markets
sent nationwide pump prices to an average $1.282 a gallon this
month, up 22.8 cents from last November, the AAA said in a
separate report yesterday.
For John Corlett, of Sea Cliff, New York, that means he'll
spend another $3 or $4 to see his father this Thanksgiving in
Syracuse, about five hours away in his 30-mile-a-gallon Honda
Accord.
``That's a couple cups of coffee at Starbucks; maybe it's
only one cup,' said the 32-year-old Corlett, a lobbyist for the
AAA in New York. He will leave about 8 a.m. on Thanksgiving
morning with his wife, Christine, and a black Labrador named
Raider.
Crude oil prices have more than doubled this year, trading
today above $26 a barrel for the first time since January 1997.
Prices rose because of producing nations' output cuts that equal
about 7 percent of world supply. The rally pulled gasoline
futures, representing wholesale prices, to 73.40 a gallon, a
3 1/2-year high on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Retail gasoline was most expensive in the West, at $1.398 a
gallon, and least expensive in the Southeast, at $1.196 a gallon,
according to the AAA's monthly Fuel Gauge Report, which was based
on 60,000 credit card transactions over the past weekend.
The Southeast also was the region with the largest portion
of the nation's travelers. Almost 7 million people are expected
on the road in the region, or 11 percent of the population there.
Higher gasoline prices probably won't deter anyone from
driving during the holidays, Corlett said.
``I guess if I saw gasoline at $1.70, I might say, `Wow,'
he said. ``But it's the holidays. I think maybe it would take
another $1 before I would think twice.' |
