After "off peak" day, holiday weekend travel about to ramp up
FORT LAUDERDALE - The day after Thanksgiving, an off-peak travel day in the middle of the busiest Thanksgiving travel period in the last 17 years.
"This is like 5% of what we saw coming down," said Gary Gunner as he stood in a nearly empty Terminal 2 at FLL. "This is heaven," his wife Maggie said.
It's a huge difference from the day before Thanksgiving. Miami International and FLL were packed with travelers and hundreds of delays. airport are about to get packed again.
The Balkans just got off a cruise and chose not to stay another day, getting home early and avoiding crowded travel.
"You don't want to mess around with tomorrow and Sunday it's going to be a nightmare," Eric Balkan said. "Hopefully we made the right play, so far it looks like it," he said.
Saturday and Sunday are expected to be the busiest travel days at MIA with about 160-thousand people heading through each day. Sunday and Monday are expected to be the busiest at FLL with nearly 100,000 travelers a day.
On the roads, it's not so bad now. Quite a difference from Wednesday when it was jammed with drivers.
"I was expecting heavier traffic because of thanksgiving, everybody would be out," thought Saquib Kabir as he drove from Orlando to Miami.
Right now it's "off-peak" time on the roadways. But with 2.9 million people traveling by car in Florida this Thanksgiving, they will have to get back home. Triple A says the worst time to drive this holiday period is Saturday and Sunday between 4 and 8 pm. The best time is before 11 am or after 8 in the evening.
Drivers find traveling during off hours makes the trip a lot more pleasant. "It's been pretty easy, unexpectedly. I was expecting a lot of more traffic, a lot more congestions, pretty smooth," said Belle Vallazares, who was driving on the turnpike with her family.
Police around South Florida are stepping up DUI enforcement all weekend. They suggest appointing a designated driver or getting a ride share. AAA is overnight "Tow to Go." You can call (855) 2-TOW-2-GO. It's a free service that will get you and your car home safely if you've had too much to drink.
