Community Corner

Gas Prices Up for Fourth of July Holiday Weekend Travel

On the plus side, you can expect lighter traffic than in past years, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic.

Patch senior field editor Mary Ann Barton reported and wrote this story.

Thinking of driving out of town for the Fourth of July holiday? We've got some good news and we've got some bad news.

The good news? There will be fewer drivers on the road. The bad news? Gas prices are higher this year than they were in 2012, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic.

Gas Prices
The price of gas in the Falls Church area is $3.58 as of July 3, which is an increase of 21 cents over last year’s average of $3.37 according to AAA. 

Gas prices remain at a level most Americans consider "too high." Half of U.S. adults consider gas prices to be “too high” when it reaches $3.44 per gallon, according to a new consumer index developed by AAA.

Fewer Drivers on the Road This Year
AAA Travel projects 967,000 people in the Washington metro area will journey 50 miles or more from home during the Fourth of July holiday, a 1.8 percent decrease from the 984,000 people who traveled in 2012.

The anticipated decline in holiday travel is predominantly due to a shorter holiday travel period and sequestration impacting family budgets, according to AAA.

With the holiday falling on a Thursday this year, it shrinks the holiday travel period to a standard five-day holiday, compared to last year, when the Fourth of July fell in the middle of the week, on a Wednesday, AAA points out.

This will be the fourth year in a row to see more than 900,000 Washington area travellers in the region going out of town for July Fourth. In 2009, only 686,100 from the area travelled during the mid-summer vacation period.

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“For the fourth year, nearly one million Washington, D.C. area residents will celebrate the nation’s birthday with a trip, but the numbers are down slightly for the region over 2012,” said Mahlon G. (Lon) Anderson, AAA Mid-Atlantic’s managing director of Public and Government Affairs, in a news release.

AAA: Shorter Holiday, Sequestration Mean Fewer Drivers

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“The decrease is largely due to the shorter holiday travel period and economic growth that is not robust enough to offset the impact of the sequester. Between now and September, some government workers will lose nearly 11 days of pay. This will cast a pall over the summer travel period.”

The population of the Washington metro area is just under 5.9 million and 16 percent of the population will be travelling this Fourth of July. The vast majority of the population, 834,600 people (86.3 percent), will travel by automobile. Another 71,800 people (7.4 percent) plan to travel by air and 60,130 people (6.2 percent) will travel by other means including rail, bus, cruise or multi-modal travel.

Wednesday, July 3 and Sunday, July 7 Busiest Travel Days

This year, 46 percent of intending travelers plan to begin their trip prior to the start of the holiday travel period (July 3-7), compared to 65 percent last year. The largest share of travelers (32 percent) on a single day will depart on July 3 and the largest share will return on July 7 (38 percent). Thirty-four percent intend to stretch their holiday vacation into the following week returning on or after Monday, July 8, says AAA.


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