Over 400,000 Kentuckians expected to travel Memorial Day weekend

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – More than 430,000 Kentuckians are expected to travel this holiday weekend, according to AAA of the Bluegrass, and they say 90% of them will hit the roads.

Whether you are in the air or on the roads, Memorial Day weekend travel is underway.

According to AAA of the Bluegrass, about half a million Kentuckians are expected to travel between Thursday and Monday.

Those who started their trek Friday say they’ve seen the higher volume already.

“It’s been busy today. Been real busy. We were going to get on the road yesterday, but we didn’t, so we’re really sorry we didn’t do that,” said Cincinnati resident Anna Porter.

Porter is headed to Tennesee to spend the weekend lakeside, but they needed to stop in the middle of her trip to fill up their tank.

AAA says they’re seeing more interest in travel this year, and they are recommending people budget accordingly.

That’s exactly what Porter did.

“It’s one of those things. It is what it is—we kind of plan for that. We watch, we use different apps and kind of keep an eye out,” said Porter. That’s why we’re here at Buc-ee’s. It’s our second time here. We found that it was cheaper than a lot of places in the area.”

Just up the interstate, the passengers at the Blue Grass Airport are settling in. One traveler flew in all the way from Denver and said the journey was a hassle.

“It’s just crazy man. There were people everywhere,” said Denver resident Aaron Kilgore. “It’s hard to get in and out of lines, just a lot of people.”

How does memorial day compare to other holidays on Kentucky roads? We looked at the available data from Kentucky State Police over the past five years. The Memorial Day travel period had the second-highest number of deaths on roadways. Independence Day was number one. But for specifically alcohol-related deaths, Memorial Day was the deadliest.

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