Relax: 3 Thanksgiving Travel Myths

If you’re traveling this Thanksgiving, you’re likely bracing yourself for major delays on the road, rails, or in the sky. But take courage: your worries may be unfounded—or at least exaggerated. NPR provides some turkey-related travel myths:

1. It’s the busiest time of year to travel. “Actually, the summertime is worse. There are about five to 10 days during the summer that are busier than Thanksgiving,” says a spokesman from AAA.

2. Gas prices shoot up for Thanksgiving. “It's typically the lowest price of the year,” notes the same rep, though this year is an exception because of a spike in oil. Generally, summertime demand pushes up the price.
3. Thanksgiving is riddled with flight delays. For seven of the past nine years, flights’ “on-time performance” was better in the 12 days around the holiday than at any other point in the year, says a spokesman for the Transportation Department.

(More traffic stories.)