How bad will traffic be over Labor Day weekend?
Well, it won’t be as bad as it is on Memorial Day or Independence Day, which is to say, still bad.
Perhaps not "Post-eclipse traffic jam horrible," but still a must to avoid.
You can't avoid all of it, but the people at Waze can tell you the parts you want to skip for sure.
Waze, the crowd-sourced traffic and navigation application, analyzed travel in metro Atlanta over Labor Day, 2016, and the four weeks surrounding it. Then Waze used those figures to predict the worst times to get on the road during this year’s Labor Day holiday.
Oddly enough, some of those times were not actually during typical rush hours.
These are their predictions:
Wednesday, Aug. 30: Avoid traveling: 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Thursday, Aug. 31: Avoid traveling 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 1: Avoid traveling 12 noon to 2 p.m. (A 24 percent increase of traffic jams are expected during this time, according to Waze.)
Saturday, Sept. 2: Avoid traveling 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Suday, Sept. 3: Avoid traveling 10 a.m. to noon.
Monday, Sept. 4: Avoid traveling 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. (Waze spokesperson Chelsea Russo said a 32 percent increase in police activity is predicted during this time.)
Tuesday, Sept. 5: Avoid traveling 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
According to the American Automobile Association, 37.25 million Americans will be traveling over the Labor Day holiday. That's compared to 44.2 million Americans over Memorial Day weekend and 39.3 million travelers over July 4, according to Megan Osborne, public affairs specialist with AAA-The Auto Club Group.
Osborne said more drivers would be on the road this year than any other Labor Day weekend since 2008, but with most schools back in session, the traffic isn’t as heavy as it was during the previous two summer holidays.
“Everybody’s already done their traveling,” she said.
If you need a reason not to get behind the wheel, the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety said Georgia ranks second in the nation for strictest DUI laws, adding that “state and local law enforcement officers continue to maintain a zero tolerance policy by taking all impaired drivers to jail. No warnings. No excuses.”
The Governor’s office said there 320 DUI arrests during last year’s holiday weekend.
"Risking your safety and selfishly risking the safety of somebody else by getting behind the wheel of a car after drinking is not worth it," said Georgia Department of Public Safety Commissioner Colonel Mark C. McDonough.
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