Gas prices, high or low, not likely to curb holiday travel

Travel headlines always seem perilous at this time of year. Either soaring gasoline prices keep motorists from visiting their loved ones, or plummeting prices crowd the freeways with those seeking a bargain.

But in reality, price per gallon is seldom a reason to forgo your visit to Aunt Mildred or Uncle Joe.

“At Thanksgiving, people are going to spend time visiting their family ... and gas prices are not going to stop them,” said Kimberly Schwind, spokeswoman for AAA Ohio.

AAA expects the most Ohioans to be traveling for Thanksgiving since 2005, with more than 2.2 million going at least 50 miles from home between Wednesday and Sunday.

GasBuddy, which monitors gas prices nationally, predicted that the average U.S. price for the holiday weekend will be $2.57 per gallon of regular unleaded. That’s mostly due to a drop of about 25 cents since Oct. 1. The nation’s lowest average price this year was $2.49 per gallon Jan. 3. Ohio’s lowest average was $2.26 on Feb. 19.

A GasBuddy survey indicates that one-third of motorists will alter their plans due to prices. Schwind said that means that they might spend a night at the house of a friend or relative instead of a hotel and maybe partake in one fewer restaurant meal to save money.

“The gas budget is a very small percentage of the overall travel budget,” she said. And road trips are almost always going to be cheaper than flying.

“It’s a little bit of added money in their pocket that they didn’t think they were going to have.”

Overall, it’s the economy, not a single price, that can change plans, Schwind said. And the economy affects the poor and those on fixed incomes disproportionately.

And while most people think the worst travel time will be Wednesday afternoon, it’s actually Sunday, said Schwind.

Some people left Monday, she said. “More people will leave tomorrow (Tuesday). And Wednesday around 3 p.m. is probably the busiest, with people leaving work early.

“But Sunday is when the majority of people are coming back, all at about the same time.”

As you’d expect, Interstate 71, which links Ohio’s three largest cities, is expected to be the most crowded, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation’s network of traffic-count stations.

“We’ve seen traffic volumes as a whole going up year after year in Ohio,” said ODOT spokesman Matt Bruning.