Despite climb in gas prices, holiday traveling expected to hit record

Despite gas prices averaging 61 cents higher than last Memorial Day, nearly 890,000 Marylanders are expected to travel for the holiday weekend, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic.

The projection represents a 4.7 percent rise from last year and the most since the auto club began tracking holiday travel in 2001.

“More Marylanders than ever will be getting away for the holiday weekend and this year, they will be taking to the roads and the skies in record numbers to get to their destination,” said Ragina Cooper Averella, a AAA Mid-Atlantic spokeswoman.

Nearly 90 percent of those traveling will drive, regardless of the cost of gas, Averella said. It’s typically the most popular means of transportation for any holiday weekend, especially the first big beach weekend of the summer.

After a few years of regular gas prices averaging below $2.50 a gallon, higher prices are back this year and continuing to rise, driven by a global oil supply shortage and geopolitical tensions.

Agallon of regular, unleaded gas cost $2.94 in Maryland as of Tuesday, six cents more than last week and 22 cents more than last month, according to AAA. The state average hasn’t hit $3 per gallon yet, won’t be close to the Memorial Day record of $3.66 in 2014, the auto club said.

AAA projected 8 percent of travelers will fly to their destinations, and about 3 percent will take other modes of transportation.