Illinois Thanksgiving 2017 Travel Guide

Chicago-area roads are expected to be jam-packed with Thanksgiving traffic this week, and AAA projects 45.5 million million Americans will hit the road for the holiday, up 3.2 percent compared with last year. And roads in Chicagoland could be among the most congested in the nation.

"The 2017 holiday weekend will see the highest Thanksgiving travel volume since 2005 with 1.6 million more people taking to the nation's roads, skies, rails and waterways compared with last year," AAA said in a statement.

At peak travel times — in Chicago, AAA says that's between 5 and 6 p.m. Tuesday — drivers could experience delays that average 300 times more than the optimal trip. Drivers should expect the heaviest traffic at I-90 West at I-190, which is among AAA's "top traffic hotspots" for Thanksgiving.

The worst time to head to the airport, according to AAA, is between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, when a travel time of 1 hour and 14 minutes is anticipated for drivers heading to O'Hare International Airport from downtown via the Kennedy Expressway.

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More Thanksgiving travel facts to know from AAA:

• Cheaper airfare: Consumers will pay the cheapest average airfare since 2013.
• Fueling up: Drivers will pay the highest Thanksgiving gas prices since 2014.
• Holiday high: Car rental daily rates will hit a five-year holiday high at $70/day, which may be due to an increase in domestic demand and cost of newer vehicles.

Here's some more important info if you'll be hitting the road this Thanksgiving.

Hitting the Highway

• The Illinois Tollway anticipates more than 9 million vehicles will travel the Tollway system this Thanksgiving weekend from Wednesday, Nov. 22, through Monday, Nov. 27. The heaviest travel is expected on Wednesday, when more than 1.8 million vehicles are projected to be on the 292-mile Tollway system. On an average day, about 1.6 million vehicles use the Illinois Tollway.
• To accommodate holiday travelers, most temporary lane closures will be suspended from noon Wednesday through 9 a.m. Monday.
• There were 11 fatalities in Illinois over the holiday weekend last year, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation. Police officers across the state will be out in full force this week to watch out for drunken drivers and seat belt violators. There will be DUI checkpoints across the state and increased enforcement.
• The Illinois Tollway website has some helpful tools for travelers, including real-time traffic information to Trip Tweets for incident information on each of the five toll roads to I-PASS account management tools. One useful resource is the Trip Calculator.Tollway customers can use Trip Calculator to determine in advance how much they will pay in tolls along a designated route or use the pay online feature to identify and pay for any missed tolls to avoid violations. You can also check for travel times, roadway incidents, construction and roadway congestion on the TravelMidwest.com website and our Live Traffic Reports Map below.

Best Time To Leave

• On your way out of town, Google suggests the best time to leave will be 3 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 22, according to the company's results.
• The worst time? Traffic is going to be a turkey if you leave around 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Google says.
• When you're on your way home, an early start on Friday is your best bet, which doesn't give you much time at grandmother's house. Get going at 4 a.m. on Friday and you'll be in good shape.
• The worst time to leave? Wait until Saturday at 4 p.m., though, and a stuffing-and-cranberries hangover won't be your only problem, according to Google.

Taking the Train

• Metra will modify schedules on most lines Wednesday, Nov. 23 to help customers get an early start on their Thanksgiving plans. Trains have been added, combined or cancelled as part of Wednesday's schedule. The full list of changes is attached to this release and can be found at metrarail.com.
• On Thanksgiving, trains will operate on a Sunday/Holiday schedule, which means there will be no service on the North Central Service, Heritage Corridor and SouthWest Service lines. Regular weekday service will resume the Friday after Thanksgiving to accommodate Black Friday shoppers, with the exception of Metra’s BNSF Line. The BNSF Line will operate additional inbound midday trains Friday and adjust the schedule for outbound afternoon trains. The schedule can be found here.
• In addition to the extra service the night before Thanksgiving, Metra is making travel for the holiday and for Black Friday shopping even more affordable by offering a special $8 unlimited ride holiday pass for use on both Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday. The regular $8 Weekend Pass will be available for Saturday and Sunday. Mobile versions of both passes are available on the Ventra App, available for free in the App Store or Google Play.

At the Airport

• Thanksgiving will be the lightest travel day if you still need to book a flight. Airlines are adding flights to accommodate the large number of travelers during the Thanksgiving period, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
• According to RewardExpert, the best day to fly out of O'Hare and avoid flight delays is Nov. 24, the day after Thanksgiving, and the worst is Nov. 27. At Midway, Thanksgiving Day is the best day to catch a flight, and, like O'Hare, the worst day is Nov. 27.

Gas prices

GasBuddy predicts that the national average gas price this Thanksgiving will be $2.53 per gallon, the highest it's been since 2014, though not as high as the peak on Thanksgiving in 2012 ($3.44).

In Illinois, the average gas price was $2.693 per gallon as of Monday afternoon, higher than the national average of $2.533.

GasBuddy offers some tips to cut the cost of filling up: