Thanksgiving driving

WBLM  - According to AAA, about 73 million people will be driving a significant distance to reach the family Thanksgiving dinner. So, if you're planning to hit the road for Thanksgiving, you might want to pack a little extra patience along with the pumpkin pie.  You are also going to want to leave a little earlier in order to make sure you get to your destination safely.

.....According to Allstate's annual Thanksgiving Driver Report, the insurance company analyzed data from more than 44 million trips taken during last year's holiday using its Drivewise feature.  The goal was to identify driving trends, risky behaviors and some of the best times to travel.

One of the biggest takeaways? Traffic starts picking up well before Thanksgiving Day. The number of trips increased by 40% between 9 PM Wednesday night and 3 AM Thursday morning.

And once people hit the road, speeding becomes a real concern. Last Thanksgiving morning, driving at 80 mph or faster increased nearly 200% compared to a typical Thursday morning. The biggest spike happened between 6 AM and 9 AM, with speeding remaining about 100% above normal through the middle of the day.

Speeding wasn't the only problem, though.  About one in five Thanksgiving Day trips involved multiple risky driving behaviors, with more than 90% of those involving both speeding and cellphone use.

Apparently, the rush doesn't end after the turkey is served, either. High-speed driving was up more than 80% on Black Friday morning, even though there were roughly half as many drivers on the road as a typical Friday.