The automobile services and insurance provider AAA expects 2.06 million New England residents to travel at least 50 miles from home on Independence Day.
That’s down about 200,000 travelers from last year’s number, a decline AAA attributed mainly to the federal holiday landing on a Thursday. Last year, July 4 was a Wednesday, which for many meant a six-day vacation window. As a result, AAA expects the average travel distance later this week to be 546 miles, down from 881 last year.
Connecticut motorists are also facing higher fuel taxes in advance of holiday travel, AAA noted. Effective today, the state’s petroleum products gross receipts tax increased from 7.5 percent to 8.8 percent. The average price of gas today in Connecticut is $3.77 per gallon, AAA said, up 13 cents from a year ago.
“Independence Day has historically been the busiest holiday of the summer travel season and we expect that to be the case again this year,” Aaron Kupec, an AAA spokesman, said in a statement. “We expect to see the highest traffic volumes on Wednesday as people get away and next Sunday as they head home.”
