A new report from AAA predicts that 103 million people will be hitting the roads from Dec. 23 to Jan. 2, a new record for holiday travel. This is 1.5 million more people than last year. A spike in consumer spending and a drop in gas prices are to blame, says AAA.
The most common destinations this year are reported to be New York City, Las Vegas, Orlando, San Diego, and Anaheim.
But with the increase in people on the road comes a higher potential for accidents: AT&T recently conducted a study showing that 62 percent of drivers keep their smartphones within easy reach while driving. Seventy percent of drivers use their smartphones while driving—40 percent of whom use it for social media communications. Ten percent apparently use their phones to video chat while they drive.
This holiday AAA expects to assist more than 980,000 motorists on the road. The most common reasons people call AAA at this time of year are dead batteries, flat tires, and being locked out of their cars.
