Samantha Brown from Travel Channel tells us how to get away this Labor Day.
It's a holiday traveler's worst nightmare.
You pull out of your garage for a well-deserved long weekend away and then end up spending what feels like a good third of it stuck in traffic.
Horns blaring, tempers flaring, you wonder what possessed you to leave home in the first place.
Well, as you climb into your car this Labor Day weekend, take heart: Technology is on your side.
From behind-the-scenes tools that transportation officials use to monitor traffic conditions to dashboard-ready, GPS-enabled mobile devices spewing real-time reports, traffic-busting technology is working to get you from point A to point B as quickly – and painlessly – as possible.
According to the American Automobile Association, about 13 percent fewer Americans will travel this weekend than last Labor Day weekend. About 39.1 million total travelers will head out of town, roughly 32.9 million by car.
"We are expecting a fairly sizeable decline in the number of Labor Day travelers from a year ago," said Geoff Sundstrom, a spokesman for the AAA national office in Heathrow, Fla.
But, he added, this weekend will still be the third busiest Labor Day holiday of the decade and it will surpass July 4 (traditionally a busier holiday) in travel.
The highest traffic day is typically Friday, particularly in the afternoon and evening when most people start skipping town, he said. Monday is also another big traffic day as people start returning home.
But, as millions of holiday-makers turn onto the highway, emergency management and transportation officials turn to the task of monitoring them.
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