Boston area braces for heavy holiday Thanksgiving travel

On Tuesday traffic was heavy mid-day on the Mass Pike West Bound in the Natick area.

Even though Thanksgiving is two days away, people are already hitting the roads.

Justin Hammet just drove through snow in Pittsburgh

“I had to get new tires just to come out here. Could only see about 100 feet and past a car that had just turned over on the PA Turnpike,” Hammet told me.

MASS DOT says travelers can expectthe heaviest traffic from 10am to 6pm Wednesday on the Pike and other major highways.

And then Sunday, drivers can expect 12 hours’ worth of heavy traffic from 10am to 10pm.

That’s why so many are hitting the road now.

“It’s fine, as long you don’t get frustrated,” George Brooks of Pittsfield said of the traffic he already endured Tuesday

At Logan International Airport on Tuesday, it was the calm before the big travel storm.

Wednesday and Sunday are expected to be the biggest travel days of the year.

“Why did you decide to travel today?” I asked Chelsea Beahn of Worcester.

“I knew tomorrow would be super busy. And we wanted to skip that!” she said.

“I’ve been stuck the day before Thanksgiving before, and it’s no fun,” said Will Troutman, a Harvard University Senior. “That’s a full day’s worth of travel, just for the two hour flight back. So, it absolutely came into play when we were discussing travel plans.”

MASSPORT expects 1.2 million people will travel through Logan in the ten days between last Friday and next Monday.

Many of them, young families determined to share this special holiday.

“We’re going down to visit their grandparents down in Florida. So we’re getting out of the cold today, getting some warm weather,” said Mark Proietto of Peterborough, NH.

“We’re celebrating her blessing,” Tevin Edwards of Cincinnati, Ohio told me while holding his young daughter. " She’s been Christened, she’s ready for the world!”

MASSPORT is urging people flying through Logan Airport over the Thanksgiving holiday to arrive two hours before domestic flights, and three hours before international flights.

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