Sometimes, getting to that Thanksgiving feast requires a full helping of traffic, and Google Maps has the data to prove it.
Maps has released a list of the 21 worst traffic cities during Thanksgiving.
Data collected from Thanksgiving week 2014 was used to rank the most sluggish cities in the U.S.
These are the cities that have the worst holiday traffic:
- Los Angeles, California
- Washington, D.C.
- San Francisco, California
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Dallas, Texas
- New York, New York
- Chicago, Illinois
- Houston, Texas
- Austin, Texas
- Miami, Florida
- Tampa, Florida
- Denver, Colorado
- Portland, Oregon
- Charlotte, North Carolina
- Seattle, Washington
- Detroit, Michigan
- Boston, Massachusetts
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- St. Louis, Missouri
- Honolulu, Hawaii
- Providence, Rhode Island
Google also found that the worst time to travel is the afternoon before Thanksgiving between 3 and 5 p.m. The second worst day to travel is the Saturday after Thanksgiving, when most families hit the road to return home. Traffic on that Saturday is 40 percent worse than Sunday. Google suggests commuters wait to travel until Sunday.
The search engine also identifed areas that create the most traffic during Thanksgiving week.
On the day before Thanksgiving, running to get ham, pie or liquor at the last minute will yield very long lines. On Thanksgiving, buffet restaurants, movie rentals shops and kiosks and outlet malls are the most crowded places. And -- to no surprise -- the most popular places on Black Friday are electronic stores, outlet malls, appliance stores and Christmas tree farms.
Read more here and find out how to make the most of your travel time on Thanksgiving here.
