Nearly 1 Million DC-Area Travelers Will Hit the Road This Weekend

Memorial Day weekend is almost here, and that means scores of Northern Virginia residents will hit the road for the big getaway.

Mid-Atlantic predicts that more than 900,000 DC-area residents will travel at least 50 miles during Memorial Day weekend.AAA officials say that almost 90 percent of those planning to travel during the holiday weekend will do so by car.

The expected number of travelers would be the highest since 2005 and the second most since 2001. Holiday air travel is expected to increase by 2.6 percent at the region’s three largest airports.

AAA Mid-Atlantic forecasts a 1.8 percent increase in the total number of holiday travelers leaving the region compared to Memorial Day 2013. Most of those (89.3 percent) are projected to travel by vehicle.The average gas price in Virginia is $3.48 per gallon, according to the web site GasBuddy.com. That’s slightly below the national average of $3.62. A year ago at this time, gas was $3.61 a gallon, according to AAA.

Filling up before you leave? Find the cheapest gas prices near you on GasBuddy.com.

File photo/ARLnow.com

Help your neighbors. Share your best tips to avoid Memorial Day traffic in the comments.