AAA of Carolinas doesn’t expect high gas prices to slow holiday travel

LELAND, NC (WWAY) — Gas prices across the state have slowly been decreasing over the past several weeks but are still over a dollar higher than last year.

Despite the cost, millions of people are expected to travel by car this holiday weekend.

“If spring break is any indicator, I expect this Easter weekend is going to be very busy as far as travel volume is concerned,” Tiffany Wright with AAA said.

Wright says they don’t expect high gas prices to keep people off the roads. She says many people have been stuck at home a lot over the past couple of years due to the pandemic and are eager to get out to see friends and family.

“For many people, this holiday weekend could be the first big road trip in more than 2.5 years,” Wright said. “As we were still in this lingering, lingering pandemic. A lot of people haven’t made really big road trips.”

Many drivers say they aren’t happy about paying a higher price at the pump, but do what it takes to still take their usual annual road trips.

“It’s about twice as much this year as it was in the past year,” Rebecca Meek said. “Obviously it makes it different when you have to schedule out your family trips because of the prices of everything going up.”

Meek says she’s hopeful gas prices will continue to tumble, saying a lot of her travel is unavoidable.

“I hope they go back to 2 dollars, closer to 2 dollars,” Meek said. “That would help a lot. Especially with work and everything, I travel a lot for work. So everything is kind of doubling in price.”

AAA of the Carolinas say they’ve seen a rise in number of accidents and road rage incidents as people travel more.

They advise people to use patience when drivign this weekend.