Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition wishes everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving, and we hope your traffic woes are at a minimum in this holiday season!
We’re at critical mass with #toomanycars. Buses, trains, electric ride sharing, bikes, and even scooters will need to become more realistic options for day-to-day travel, whether we’re going home from work or home for the holidays. Thanksgiving is a good time to start trying to promote that message.
The Lessons of Holiday Traffic Congestion
ANDREW SMALL
The annual holiday gridlock reveals the failure of the American imagination when it comes to other transportation choices.
It’s Turkey Time in America, and you know the deal: Prepare for traffic hell.More than 55 million Americans will travel more than 50 miles away from home for the Thanksgiving holiday, AAA predicts. This figure has been steadily rising; it is, once again, the highest since 2005. About 1.5 million people will be taking trains, buses, and various forms of public transportation to their destinations. Another 4.45 million Americans will fly to friends and family. The rest are driving. As we motor from suburb to suburb, back to little hometowns and over to new retirement communities, Thanksgiving exposes America’s utter dependence on automobility like no other holiday.
Automobiles drive in heavy traffic along the Long Island Expressway in the Queens borough of New York, U.S., November 20, 2018. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton – RC189962B510
