Thanksgiving Travel

The AAA is forecasting that 42.5 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, a four percent increase over the 2010 holiday. Travel in the Commonwealth will mimic the national trend with about 1.3 million Virginians traveling for the holiday up 3.8 percent from last year.

Thanksgiving travel has remained at a lower-than-average level since the recession-driven decline in 2008.

VDOT's Thanksgiving Plans

 The Virginia Department of Transportation will suspend lane closures statewide from noon Wednesday, Nov. 23, until noon Monday, Nov. 28 for the Thanksgiving weekend.
The days before and after Thanksgiving traditionally have the highest concentration of vehicle traffic of any holiday period nationwide.
This year, to help motorists plan the timing of their trips during the Thanksgiving holiday, VDOT has created detailed online maps showing peak travel times from previous years. The maps can be accessed at VDOT’s website at http://www.virginiadot.org/.
Based on traffic data from previous years, the least amount of interstate congestion during the week of Thanksgiving is likely to exist before noon Wednesday, Nov. 23. The heaviest congestion is likely to occur the afternoon and evening of Sunday, Nov. 27. 
VDOT has several other resources available for travelers to monitor road conditions and traffic incidents in real time as they travel and plan their journey. For real-time traffic conditions or to view traffic cameras, visit VDOT’s 24-hour travel information website, http://www.511virginia.org/. 511Virginia also is available by calling 511 from any phone in Virginia.
Lane closures and crash reports available on 511Virginia are also communicated through VDOT’s Twitter accounts, targeted for different parts of Virginia and specific interstate corridors, such as I-95 or I-81.
To report a road hazard or to get answers to your transportation question, you can call VDOT’s Customer Service Center at 1-800-FOR-ROAD (1-800-367-7623) around the clock.