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Vacationers, Start Your Engines

Thanksgiving and Christmas are usually the busiest travel periods of the year, but not this year.

The American Automobile Association says the Fourth of July weekend could see more Americans traveling than ever before. It estimates more than 40 million Americans will be traveling at least 50 miles from home over the long weekend — the first time a holiday weekend other than Christmas or Thanksgiving has hit that level.

While bus, rail and air terminals are expected to be busy, the vast majority will be heading out on the highway to visit family and friends or to hit the beaches. Florida's theme parks are also expected huge crowds, reports CBS News Correspondent Peter King.

And the travel service says higher gasoline prices won't be keeping Americans home.

"These are the highest gas prices we've ever seen coming through a summer holiday, 30 cents higher than a year ago, 70 cents higher than the $1.50 gas two years ago," AAA's Justin McNaull told CBS News Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm.

Travel groups say motorists can expect bottlenecks in popular areas as the summer travel season hits high gear (see sidebar).

McNaull suggests avoiding the busiest travel periods.

"Friday afternoon, Friday evening for most destinations, that really is the peak time," he said. "Look at whatever information you can get to avoid traffic."

The AAA web site now notes areas that are prone to congestion in its Internet trip planning, and McNaull says other transportation sites, such as those of state transportation departments, "now have realtime traffic information. So that last thing you do before the leave the house, see how the traffic looks."

Technology's help for traffic doesn't end there.

"When you're on the road itself, about half of the states now have 511 services where the passenger, not the driver, the passenger can use a cell phone and check in on traffic information," McNaull said.
The entire 2005 summer travel season is expected to be the nation's busiest summer travel vacation period ever, say travel experts, up 2.3 percent over last year. When Americans go on vacation, they are most likely to travel by private vehicle, and their favorite reasons for traveling are visiting friends and relatives and going to a beach or lake.

In Michigan, Ron Dewey of CBS radio station WWJ reports that 99 percent of the state's campgrounds already were booked for the weekend by Tuesday. The average gasoline price there was 39 cents a gallon over last year.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is forecasting that 100 million travelers will use its three airports, Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark, this year, a six percent jump over last year's record total. More than a third of the travelers are expected between June and September. The Port Authority attributes the increase to decline in airline ticket prices, strong demand and improvements at the three airports.

If you plan to fly United Airlines, or know someone who is this holiday weekend or in the near future, those plans could be disrupted. Bob Roberts of CBS radio station WBBM reports flight attendants say spot work stoppages could occur at any time.

The FBI wants law enforcement agencies to keep their guard up even thought there's no specific terror threat over this long holiday weekend, reports CBS News Correspondent Peter Maer. The FBI has its anti-terror command posts on round-the-clock status in some cities over this weekend. It's become an annual precaution every July 4th since the Sept. 11 attacks.

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