Waze reveals the worst time to be on the road during Thanksgiving holiday

Travelling around Thanksgiving around the U.S is always a carefully coordinated operation.

The car is prepacked the night before, the alarm is set for some ridiculous hour, food and coffee for the car is on standby as there is a small traffic-window to leave the city. There is no room for error. A 5-minute delay could be all the difference between care-free open road driving and being stuck behind thousands of other drivers who had the same idea!

This is where technology comes in to help and I use Waze to make sure I have a real-time view of whats happening on the roads.

There are over 90 million monthly active users and together they feed the system with information about traffic conditions.  In the past, Waze shared information on the best holiday travel times, however, when everyone knows exactly when the best time to leave is, the result has the opposite effect!The “best travel” time becomes the worst.

This year Waze decided to do things a little differently. Using historical data, Waze has revealed that the holiday traffic is broken down into two main categories where its the WORST time to be on the road.

• Before Thanksgiving: the worst times to travel is 5 pm local time on Tuesday, November 21.
• AFTER Thanksgiving: the worst day and time is at 7 am and 5 pm local time on Monday, November 27.

Waze also notes that there is a mid-day travel spike on Sunday, with the worst traffic at 2 pm local time.

So in summary:

If you are heading on a road-trip this Thanksgiving, make sure you have Waze installed on your phone and leverage the power of the Waze community to get an accurate view of what is around the next corner.  Use the facilities to report accidents, hazards, and ice on the road so that other drivers can also arrive safely at their destination.

It is also a good idea to use the Planned Drives feature is you need to arrive at a specific time. This facility will analyze your entire journey, looking at traffic congestion, speed limits and other factors and it will calculate when you need to leave in order to arrive on time.

Finally, use the Send ETA facility. This allows you to share your location and real-time movements on the map with friends or relatives so that someone else can keep a virtual eye on you.

Most importantly: take your time, drive carefully, obey the rules of the road and don’t drink and drive!