Roughly 38.7 million people will be traveling more than 50 miles from home this Thanksgiving, up 1.5 percent from last year, according to a survey posted on AAA Mid-Atlantic's Web site.
Brian Jopp, 29, of West Milford, is one of those motorists who'll be making the trip.
Jopp was fueling his truck at the BP gas station on Parsippany Road and said he's going to drive 70 miles to his parents' home in Lake Ariel, Pa., on Thursday. Gas was $2.99 a gallon when Jopp was interviewed on Monday, and he said the gas prices wouldn't keep him from meeting his family.
"It's my parents -- I've got no choice," he said, chuckling.
New Jersey travelers will find the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline at $2.91, up from Thanksgiving 2006's $2.05 and Thanksgiving 2005's $2.01, according to AAA. BP's prices for medium and ultimate gasoline were $3.19 and $3.29, respectively.
AAA estimates that roughly 521,400 New Jersey residents will use some form of transportation to get out of town -- more than 50 miles from home -- and that 374,100 motor vehicles are estimated to be on the roads.
AAA New Jersey spokeswoman Michele Mount said that while 541,000 people might not seem like a lot, given the state's dense population, New Jersey is a thoroughfare state and traffic will be considerably heavier on Wednesday and Thursday with people from surrounding states traveling into the Garden State.
Nationally, AAA's survey found that 80 percent of all holiday travelers -- 31.2 million -- will travel by car, truck or RV, a 1.3-percent increase from 2006, while 4.7 million will fly, accounting for about 12.1 percent of all Thanksgiving 2007 travelers, up 2.2 percent from 2006. Nearly 3 percent will ride a train, bus or other form of transportation to get to their holiday destination, AAA's survey found.
Mount said the state's typically below-average gas prices also could cause some backups at the pump with out-of-towners fueling up to save money.
"With gas prices being what they are, you can expect the lines at services areas to be ridiculous," she said.
The lines at the BP in Parsippany weren't ridiculous, and many of those travelers who were interviewed said they were either staying home for the holiday or not traveling far.
Freehold resident Dean Gerardi said he plans to travel about 30 minutes outside of Freehold to get to his Thanksgiving destination. He said the time of the trip didn't cause him to worry too much about the price of gasoline.
"It's too close. It's kind of trivial," he said.
Hackettstown resident Alyson Reynolds, 49, said she was thankful that she wasn't going to travel at all for Thanksgiving.
"Because my family's right in Hackettstown," she said. "I'm glad I'm staying with them."
Marc Smith, 33, of Parsippany, said he's going to travel less than a half an hour on Thursday to get to his grandmother's home in Ledgewood.
"They're always a big deal," Smith said of gas prices. "But not on (Thursday). It's Thanksgiving. You've got to go to Grandma's."
