If you are planning on getting away this Memorial Day weekend, you are one of the 43 million anticipated drivers to hit the roadways.
“We expect a lot of people traveling, 3.4 million Texans are going to be traveling - three million of them by automobile just between Thursday and Monday. That’s the second highest we have seen since AAA started tracking back in the year 2000,” Daniel Armbruster, AAA Texas, said.
The number of Texans wanting to get away for the holidays has been increasing for the last decade, he said.
“I have only seen traveling building each year since about 2009, and it really has to do a lot with economy. Families feel they have the means to travel,” Armbruster said.
Gas prices have dropped 15 to 20 cents per gallon, according to Armbruster, and part of that, he said, is because supply has caught up with demand.
“Demand is already at summer time levels, but now we have refineries that are back on line. They went off line for their routine maintenance, of course, that they do during the spring they are back online - the supply is built back,” Armbruster said.
If you do plan to hit the roadways, AAA suggests checking your vehicle's maintenance.
“We expect to rescue 353,000 people nationwide between Thursday and Monday, so a lot of that is going to be dead batteries, flat tires, so making sure that you are planning ahead if you are taking a road trip,” Armbruster said.
Additionally, Armbruster said people can avoid breaking down is to inspect vehicles tires, oil levels and headlights or, have a professional mechanic do it for you.