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Boston's Morning Newsletter
How to (try to) avoid Boston-area traffic this Thanksgiving
Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from WBUR's daily morning newsletter, WBUR Today. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here.
Our big beautiful boy arrives on the Common today.
But first, we have another long-revered holiday tradition to attend to: Figuring out how to avoid Thanksgiving traffic:
Travel advice with a grain of salt: Tuesday and Wednesday are expected to be the busiest days on the roads in the Boston area, according to AAA spokesman Mark Schieldrop. And as a general rule of thumb, it’s better to leave in the morning — or after 6 p.m. — if you’re trying to avoid the worst congestion. “As the day wears on, we expect volumes to reach 80% above a normal, typical weekday,” Schieldrop told WBUR’s Samantha Coetzee. By now, most New Englanders know the problem areas — the Mass. Pike will be slow going, there’ll be backups by the I-93/I-95 interchange, etc.
- For the return trip: AAA predicts that both Saturday and Sunday afternoons will be busy times on the road. “If you want to leave on Monday and take an extra day off of work, if you have that flexibility, use it,” Shieldrop said.
- Zoom out: According to AAA, 55.4 million people in the United States will travel at least 50 miles from home between Wednesday and Sunday for Thanksgiving this year. And the vast majority, 49.1 million, will drive — a 1.7% increase from last year.
- Schieldrop says forecasting the “best” and “worst” windows to drive has gotten harder and less predictable since the pandemic and the rise of remote work. “A lot of that’s been kind of thrown out the window,” he told Sam, adding that AAA “has gotten a little fuzzy with our guidance on that over the past couple years.”
- The best advice: Give yourself some extra time when traveling. “Sometimes we have to expect the unexpected and we find ourselves in a traffic jam at six in the morning,” Shieldrop said.
- One last consideration: The weather! The National Weather Service forecasts Wednesday morning to be rainy and windy, with possible snow in higher elevation areas.
In related news: MassDOT is pausing all construction work on major state-owned roads today until Monday morning, in the hopes of easing Thanksgiving traffic headaches. The carpool lane on I-93 in Boston and Quincy will also extend its southbound afternoon hours — opening from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. today and 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday.
- If you’re headed to Logan Airport: The Sumner Tunnel is staying open all weekend and the MBTA is running boosted Silver Line (on the SL1 route) service through Sunday.
- Up in the air: AAA predicts 4.7 million people will fly over Thanksgiving, the highest number since 2005. Here’s how the already-strained U.S. aviation system is bracing for the rush.
Restaurant workers in Massachusetts are a step closer in their battle for a higher minimum wage. WBUR’s Irina Matchavariani reports the group behind a proposed 2024 ballot question to raise the tipped minimum wage says they’ve gathered the required 74,574 signatures to advance in the process. It’s a key step ahead of tomorrow’s deadline to submit the signatures to local officials.
- How tipped minimum wage works: While Massachusetts’ minimum wage is $15 an hour, the state’s minimum hourly wage for tipped workers is $6.75. The idea is that tips will bring their earnings above $15 an hour. And if that doesn’t happen, the law requires employers to make up the difference after each shift. However, in reality, that part is hard to track and enforce.
- What the ballot question would do: If passed, the proposed 2024 ballot question would raise the tipped minimum wage to 100% of the regular minimum wage by 2029. (The incremental increases would begin with a jump to $9.60 an hour in 2025).
- Zoom out: According to the Economic Policy Institute, seven states have already gotten rid of the tipped minimum wage.
Bruins winger Milan Lucic’s court hearing on assault and battery charges has been rescheduled to today, as details of the alleged domestic incident this past weekend begin to leak out.
- According to a Boston police report, Lucic’s wife Brittany told 911 dispatchers that her husband pulled her hair and tried to choke her after he accused her of hiding his cell phone. Officers who responded to the couple’s North End apartment said Lucic “appeared intoxicated when he answered the door.”
P.S.— President Joe Biden is expected to arrive in Nantucket tonight to continue his family’s long Thanksgiving tradition on the island. Check out the Nantucket Current for photos of all the prep underway.
