GILROY
– With one in every seven Gilroyans expected to leave town this
holiday weekend, local authorities are expecting busy highways,
local beaches and campgrounds.
GILROY – With one in every seven Gilroyans expected to leave town this holiday weekend, local authorities are expecting busy highways, local beaches and campgrounds.
According to the American Automobile Association of Northern California, nearly 1 million Bay Area residents will travel more than 50 miles from their homes during the upcoming Memorial Day Weekend, with 80 percent of those using automobiles as their transportation.
In South County, weekend events such as Morgan Hill’s Mushroom Mardi Gras – coupled with the use of local highways by thousands of Bay Area residents flocking to the Central Coast and the Santa Cruz Mountains – are predicted to create slow travel conditions, according the California Highway Patrol.
But there is good news for people with travel plans this weekend: U.S. 101 now has four brand new lanes to keep traffic flowing at the long-time bottleneck between Cochrane Road in Morgan Hill and Highway 85 in San Jose, gas prices are continuing to drop throughout the state and the weekend weather is predicted to be sunny, dry and mild, according to the National Weather Service.
“We’ll have plenty of officers out there monitoring the situation,” said Terry Mayes, CHP spokesperson. “We expect a lot of traffic this weekend like always on Memorial Day, and with a holiday weekend drinking and driving is always an issue.”
In an effort to curb area accidents – teamed with the response to the increase of the federal terrorist alert announced by President Bush on Tuesday – the CHP will maintain four to nine extra officers on duty throughout the weekend.
No random roadside sobriety checks are planned by local law enforcement agencies, but Mayes promised officers will be extra vigilant when watching for intoxicated drivers.
Drivers will likely be watching the price of gasoline, which they will pay almost a quarter per gallon more for this holiday weekend than at the same time last year.
According to AAA, the average price for regular unleaded gas in the San Jose area will hover around $1.88 for the upcoming weekend, while the state average for the same gasoline is three cents less. A month ago the average price of gas in San Jose was $2.10; at this time last year it was as low as $1.65 per gallon for regular unleaded.
