Noticeable increase in traffic seen during Memorial Day weekend | News
MADISON, CT (WFSB) – The weekend may have been chilly and raw, but it was the first holiday since our state reopened.
Considering the rain, a healthy amount of people were out this weekend.
In fact, AAA projects we saw a sixty percent increase in travel from last year.
With the sun finally making an appearance, Memorial Day weekend is ending on a bright note.
The lines for gas at the Madison rest stop on I-95 were long and the traffic right outside of it was crawling.
If you were stuck in it, it may not have been the happiest sight, but families say the fact that Memorial Day traffic has returned is a sign that we’re healing.
“It seems like people were out and about, so it was encouraging, I thought,” area resident David Speakman said.
Families were looking to get away over the long weekend.
The Speakmans drove to Maryland for their son’s baseball tournament and the biggest surprise wasn’t the traffic.
“Masks, no masks. Mostly no masks actually,” says Speakman.
As we continue taking steps towards a prepandemic life, there seems to be pent up demand for casinos.
We met two separate families who were returning from Atlantic City.
“First time after COVID-19. We thought it would be nice to go over there,” area resident George Hugk stated.
For both families, the trek down I-95 took five hours and as far as traffic went, they say it was like your normal Memorial Day weekend.
“You could see a lot of people start to get out. It was a good amount of people on the road,” explained Hugk.
“We had thirty minutes in New Jersey, but it wasn’t that bad,” area resident Eliana Garcia said.
Eliana says the weather nearly kept her from traveling this weekend, so she says gauging the traffic based on today’s traffic levels might not be good indication of what the Summer has in store.
The sun is finally shining on this Memorial Day weekend and people are out on the shoreline.
“I think it’s going to get worse. Once the summer comes, it’s going to get worse,” added Garcia.
Another thing that could get worse are the gas prices.
They were sitting above $3 nearly everywhere Eyewitness News went in the state.
This is the highest they’ve been in two years and AAA says expect them to continue to rise.
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