Best, Worst Times To Hit The PA Roads This Holiday Weekend

PHILADELPHIA — More people in the Philadelphia area will be traveling for the Memorial Day weekend this year than last year, according to a prediction from AAA.

AAA said it expects more than 525,000 Philadelphia-area residents to travel 50 miles or more from Thursday to Monday as they celebrate Memorial Day in various ways. That estimate, which includes all forms of travel, is three percent higher than last year's number of travelers.

According to AAA, the five-county Philadelphia region has 4.25 million people in it, and 12.4 percent of them are expected to travel in some way this weekend.

More than 90 percent of local holiday travelers — or 475,000 people — will be hitting the roads for the unofficial start to the summer, a projected record-breaking Memorial Day road trip weekend. The number of people on the road is expected to be up 3 percent from 2024.

Below are the best and worst times to travel over the holiday weekend:

Thursday

• Worst time — 1 p.m. to 9 p.m.
• Best time — before noon

Friday

• Worst time — Noon to 8 p.m.
• Best time — before 11 a.m.

Saturday

• Worst time — 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
• Best time — before noon

Sunday

• Worst time — 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
• Best time — before 1 p.m.

Monday

• Worst time — 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
• Best time — before 2 p.m.

While most people are expected to take their trips via automobile, air travel is predicted to increase as well. AAA predicted a 1.2 percent increase in Philadelphia-are residents flying over the weekend this year compared to last year, with more than 38,000 expected to fly to their destinations.

Travel by other modes of transportation, such as trains and buses, is predicted to see nearly 13,000 Philadelphia-area residents, up nearly 7 percent from last year.

This year's five-county area travel forecast is a total increase of 10,000 travelers compared to last year.

But despite the increase in holiday travel volume projections, and outside the dramatic impacts on travel during COVID-19 in 2020, 2025 is projected to have the lowest year-over-year growth rate in nearly a decade (since 2016) for the Memorial Day holiday, AAA said.