A record number of Americans are expected to travel this Memorial Day weekend as people begin the unofficial summer season.
AAA said close to 50 million people will take trips during the long holiday. Many people who are coming through the mid-Atlantic region are noticing the lower price of gasoline.
A couple and their family stopped in Laurel along Interstate 95 for a break after starting the day earlier in New Jersey. Their son graduates from Randolph Macon Military Academy over the weekend.
“You look at the course of 30 cents a gallon, times 30 gallons, it’s 9 bucks, times 4 times a month, it’s 40 bucks a month,” the husband said.
GasBuddy said nationwide prices are about 50 cents a gallon less expensive than a year ago.
At $3.57 a gallon nationally, diesel is 25 cents per gallon less expensive than a year ago.
Oil industry analyst Tom Kloza said prices are falling because of decreasing demand, increasing domestic production and more supply being released from OPEC nations, which are now
producing an estimated 500,000 more barrels of oil per day, compared to last year.
Kloza is forecasting that slumping oil prices will continue to push gasoline prices down, provided there is not a major Gulf Coast hurricane that disrupts production in Louisiana and Texas.
“Probably after the summer, there is going to be too much gasoline,” Kloza said.
AAA says Maryland’s average price for gasoline is $3.08, Virginia’s average is $3.01, and D.C. is $3.20. The national average is $3.18.
WTOP Traffic Reporter Ralph Fox said the nation’s roads will be very crowded most of the weekend.
“For Saturday, early is the best way to go as volume begins to build around noon time,” Fox advised.
At BWI Marshall Airport, travelers on Friday morning quickly and easily got through the ticket and Tranportation Security Administration’s lines, seemingly with little difficulty — despite the fact that this is the first major holiday that the federal government is enforcing its new Real ID requirements.
Travelers said they knew about the requirements and they were ready with the proper documents.
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