Travel expected to increase for spring break

By Brent Maze (Contact) | Alex City Outlook

Published Thursday, March 11, 2010

Motorists can expect heavier traffic on the highways next week as spring break begins tonight.

AAA of Alabama spokesman Clay Ingram said he expects not only spring break to be busier than last year, but also all traveling to be up. One reason for this is people had to cut back on travel so much last year that they are “itching” to go on vacation.

“I think we’ll gain what we lost in travel last year and then some,” Ingram said. “People have been wanting to go on vacation, but they couldn’t afford to last year because the economy was so bad. Now, we’re going to see travel increase significantly in 2010.”

Ingram said interest in travel is already up for the year. For instance, AAA has a travel show in Birmingham every January. Attendance in 2009 was down significantly, but Ingram said they had the biggest crowd in at least three years in January.

“It was tripled what we had the year before,” Ingram said. “That’s just a small indicator of what the national demand is for travel.”

Although the gas prices have inched up over the last few weeks, Ingram doesn’t believe it will cause a large drop in demand. Actually, the gas price increases are about normal.

“This is typically when gas prices start to increase,” he said. “This is when our normal demand begins to go up each year.”

The average price of regular unleaded gasoline is $2.70, which is an increase of 7 cents in the last week and 16 cents over the last month. Last year’s gas prices were $1.86 at this time, but Ingram said that was an aberration.

“Gas prices were down because the economy was down,” Ingram said. “The demand for everything including travel was very low.”

As spring break begins, he encouraged everyone who will be traveling for spring break to eliminate distractions on the road.

“With more people on the road, it means cars will be closer together and driving conditions will be more dangerous,” Ingram said. “Drivers need to allow passengers to do things like change the radio stations, open soft drinks or talk on the phone. Anything you can do to eliminate distractions will improve safety on the road.”

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