Thanksgiving travel by road The busiest day on the roads is expected to be Wednesday, Nov. 22, according to transportation analytics company INRIX. Drivers should leave home in the morning or after 6 p.m. to avoid the heaviest traffic, INRIX said.

The busiest day for car travel in the United States is consistently the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. In 2026, millions of Americans hit the road simultaneously to reach their holiday destinations, creating massive "gridlock" conditions in major metro areas between 2:00 PM and 6:00 PM. While the Sunday after Thanksgiving is the busiest day for air travel, the Wednesday before is the peak for road congestion, with travel times often tripling in cities like Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. To avoid the worst of it, the best "pro-tip" is to leave before 6:00 AM on Wednesday or wait until Thanksgiving morning itself, when the freeways are remarkably empty. Other major contenders for car travel peaks include the Fridays before Memorial Day and July 4th, but neither matches the sheer nationwide volume of the pre-Thanksgiving "Great American Road Trip."