A record 72.2 million Americans are traveling over the Fourth of July period this year, according to AAA, as the country’s 250th anniversary and the FIFA World Cup draw crowds to cities nationwide. The figure, covering June 27 to July 5, surpasses last year’s total of 71.8 million travelers. The Transportation Security Administration says it will screen close to 18.7 million passengers at airport checkpoints during the same period, also a record.
Roughly 85 percent of holiday travelers, or about 61 million people, are driving to their destinations, even as gasoline prices remain near four-year highs. Domestic flights are carrying an estimated 5.8 million passengers, while buses, trains and boats account for a further 4.93 million travelers, the fastest-growing category this year. The anniversary and sporting events fall on overlapping dates, adding pressure to airports and highways alike.
Roads and airports face peak pressure
The national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline stands at $3.83, down nearly 50 cents from a month earlier but still on track to be the second-most expensive Independence Day at the pump on record. Prices had spiked as much as 20 percent earlier this year amid the war in Iran before easing in late May.
Traffic analytics firm INRIX forecasts the heaviest congestion beginning Thursday, July 2, a day car rental company Hertz also expects to be its busiest vehicle pickup date of the week. TSA anticipates its single highest-volume day will fall on the same date, with more than 3 million passengers screened nationwide.
To manage the surge, TSA has added staffing, National Deployment Officers and additional canine teams at airports serving cities hosting FIFA World Cup matches, including Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle.
Anniversary events draw large crowds
Washington, D.C. is hosting the largest single celebration, with organizers of the Salute to America event planning a 40-minute fireworks display featuring more than 850,000 pyrotechnic effects launched from 10 locations around the National Mall and West Potomac Park, including eight barges on the Potomac River. Organizers say the show could set a world record for the largest fireworks display in history.
New York City’s Times Square Ball will descend at 11:59 p.m. on July 3, the first such drop outside of New Year’s Eve, before the city’s Macy’s fireworks display rises over the East River the following evening alongside a Blue Angels flyover. Philadelphia has expanded its Wawa Welcome America festival into multiple nights of fireworks culminating along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, while San Francisco is staging a rare display from the Golden Gate Bridge.
Los Angeles, designated an official America250 anchor city, is holding a nationally livestreamed concert and fireworks show at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. In South Dakota, a fireworks display at Mount Rushmore National Memorial on Friday, July 3, is being organized jointly by the state, the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service.
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