Daily News Briefs, December 20, 2024

AAA Predicts Record Holiday Season Travel

Approximately 119.3 million people will travel 50 miles or more from home between tomorrow, December 21, and Wednesday, January 1, according to an American Automobile Association (AAA) forecast prepared in cooperation with INRIX. “This year’s domestic travel projection narrowly surpasses the previous record set in 2019 by 64,000 travelers. AAA expects an additional 3 million travelers this holiday season compared to last year.” The vast majority of trips — nearly 90 percent — will be taken by car. A predicted 107 million person-trips is more than last year, but just shy of the pre-pandemic record of 108 million.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission announced it is preparing to handle a volume of nearly 6.5 million vehicles over the holidays. The West Virginia Turnpike expects to process 1.48 million transactions during the holiday period, which it measures as 14 days. “AAA expects a total of 4.9 million Ohioans to travel, which they say is 2.9% higher than last year’s numbers and sets an overall record even including pre-pandemic data,” Ohio DOT announced. The majority of Ohio residents taking trips — 4.47 million people — will drive.

As Newsweek and Los Angeles Times report, weather conditions in several parts of the country could make travel difficult.

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Lawsuit Aims To Halt Work On San Francisco Bay Bridge LED Display

SFGATE reports, a lawsuit could frustrate the effort to restore aesthetic lighting to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. A nonprofit organization working with Caltrans and the Bay Area Toll Authority is behind a project, Bay Lights 360, to replace an LED light display that deteriorated to the point it had to be turned off in 2023. The new system would double the number of lights on the bridge and make them visible on both sides of the span.

However, a lawsuit filed this week alleges that the lighting would create environmental and health risks that haven’t been sufficiently assessed. The plaintiff, the leader of the Soft Lights Foundation, claims the pulsing of LED lights is “neurologically intolerable” for people with disabilities such as epilepsy, autism, PTSD, photophobia, traumatic brain injury, and migraines. The suit aims to stop work on the project until further reviews are conducted.

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Cuba May Introduce Tolling To Finance Badly Needed Road Restoration Projects

CiberCuba reports, “The Cuban government is assessing the implementation of new tolls on the country’s roads as a measure to finance the maintenance and improvement of the road infrastructure, which has experienced significant deterioration in recent years.” It’s been reported by state-run media that the proposal “aims to acquire foreign currency to ensure the safety and quality of the country’s main communication routes.”

Cuba’s transportation minister says feasibility studies of four potential toll corridors in metro Havana have been completed.

The article notes that Cuba’s road infrastructure suffers from substantial deterioration and unsafe conditions. In addition, the country lacks both technical resources and fuel supplies to carry out road repairs.

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These are just some of the toll industry developments TRN is following.

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