We are approaching a holiday weekend with the fourth of July on on a Monday. AAA and Waze are offering tips. Waze advises how to avoid traffic according to time. Waze also advises on what times to drive in Boston, Miami, New York, or Sacramento. There are also traffic jams at 10:00 on the Fourth due to fireworks celebrations.
The worst places with the most traffic after fireworks are Sacramento (+65%), Los Angeles (+47%) and Dallas (+44%).
Many Americans will be hitting the road to take advantage of a long weekend. Even if you aren’t driving far, celebrations like parades and fireworks displays will be likely to cause gridlock. Here are some helpful tips you can use to avoid traffic this Independence Day weekend.
If you plan on leaving town, be prepared especially if you plan on leaving on Friday.. Traffic can be intense, especially on long holiday weekends. To avoid the mess, here are the best and worst times to hit the road.
To make its prediction, Waze analyzed its 2015 Independence Day app usage, as well as four weeks prior and post holiday to create a comparison baseline.
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surprize between 3:00 and 5:00 pm on Friday. The best times to leave are Saturday before 11:00 am and after 3:00 pm.
For the City of Sacramento where Waze has partnered with the city to share data. The best time to get out of the capital of the State of California is Thursday before 10:00am and after 4:00 pm. Avoid leaving between 2:00 and 6:00pm on Friday which are the worst times
For New York City the best times to leave are on Saturday before 10:00am and after 1:00pm. Aovid most of late Friday from 12:00-5:00pm and 7:00-9:00pm.
In Boston, the best times to leave are on Saturday before 11:00am and after 1:00pm. Aovid most Friday from 12:00-5:00pm.
In Miami, Florida best times to leave are on Saturday before 11:00am and after 7:00pm.. Aovid most the worst times one Friday from 12:00-5:00pm.
You can setup a planned drive enter the time and date you need to arrive and Waze will recommend the best time to leave.You’ll also receive a reminder close to your event with an updated departure time based on real-time conditions. Be sure to enable reminder capabilities in your phone’s settings to leverage this feature fully. You can also Grant Waze access to your Calendar and/or connect Facebook to automatically turn BBQs, fireworks shows, and Facebook events into Planned Drives.
Please note that Waze is not good for very long trips over 1,000 miles. In fact an Intern at Road and Track, Brian Silvestro was stripped of his rank, had his points reduces and had his score card removed after traveling from New York to California over the weekend. He recieved an email stating that his account was flagged for excessively long drives.
Please Drive Safely Says AAA
AAA projects nearly 43 million Americans will travel this Independence Day weekend. This represents the highest fourth of July travel volume on record and five million more travelers compared to Memorial Day weekend. The holiday travel period is defined as Thursday, June 30 to Monday, July 4.
Eighty-four percent of holiday travelers – more than 36 million people – will drive to their Independence Day destinations, an increase of 1.2 percent over last year. Air travel is expected to increase 2.2 percent over last year, with 3.3 million Americans taking to the skies this Independence Day.
Low gas prices are motivating millions of Americans to travel this Independence Day. Despite recent seasonal increases, gasoline prices remain well below recent years. The national average price for a gallon of gasoline is $2.31, which is 47 cents less than one year ago. AAA expects most U.S. drivers will pay the lowest Independence Day gas prices since 2005.
AAA expects to rescue more than 370,000 motorists during the Independence Day holiday travel period, with the primary reasons being dead batteries, lockouts and flat tires. AAA recommends motorists check the condition of their battery and tires before heading out on a road trip.
Don’t Drink & Drive It Can Be Deadly
July Fourth is the deadliest day of the year for drivers, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Each year on the Independence Day holiday in the U.S., an average of 118.4 lives are lost in crashes, making it the most consistently deadly day of the year across the five-year study period. This is 28 more deaths than the overall average daily toll during 2010-14. (The average is calculated by dividing the actual number of July 4 deaths — 592 — by 5.)
Alcohol is a factor in a greater proportion of crash deaths on both July 4 and January 1. Forty-seven percent of the deaths on July 4 and 62 percent on January 1 involved at least one driver, pedestrian or bicyclist with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of at least 0.08g/dL. The average across all days in these years was 35 percent for deaths in crashes involving alcohol.
“If every driver buckled up and every motorcyclist wore a helmet, no one was impaired by alcohol, and everyone drove the speed limit, we could make July 4 and every day safer on the road,” says Adrian Lund, IIHS president.
Celebrate Buy American
In honor of the Fourth of July, Edmunds.com, announced its list of most patriotic cities: those with the highest share of domestic vehicles sold in the last 1,776 days. Alpena, Mich., topped the list with domestic brands accounting for 91.8 percent, while the Flint/Saginaw, Mich. area came in second at 88.4 percent. The top five is rounded out by two additional Michigan designated market areas (DMAs) — Detroit and Traverse City — and Glendive, Mont. Edmunds defined “domestic vehicles” as products made by the legacy Big Three Detroit-based manufacturers (Ford, General Motors, FCA) as well as Tesla.