Thanksgiving traffic: Worst times to drive in Los Angeles during holiday week

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The Thanksgiving travel crush is on! As millions head out to reach their holiday destinations, the time you hit the roads could make all the difference.

Nearly 51 million Americans are expected to hit the road this Thanksgiving holiday, a 3.3 percent increase over last year. AAA and transportation analytics company INRIX have broken those travel times down to a science.
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MORE: Busiest airports during Thanksgiving travel season

The heaviest holiday traffic in Los Angeles will be Tuesday from 3:15 p.m. to 6 p.m. At that point, the roads are expected to be completely gridlocked, and it'll likely take 2.5 times longer to reach your destination, the AAA/INRIX report states.

The 2017 holiday weekend is expected to break holiday travel records set back in 2005.



Here's how Waze expects those travel times to pan out for the rest of the week.
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Worst times to travel in Los Angeles:



- Tuesday, Nov. 21 between 4 p.m. - 6 p.m.
- Wednesday, Nov. 22 between 2 p.m. - 4 p.m.
- Thursday, Nov. 23 between 12 p.m. - 2 p.m.
- Friday, Nov. 24 between 3 p.m. - 5 p.m.
- Saturday, Nov. 25 between 1 p.m. - 3 p.m.
- Sunday, Nov. 26 between 12 p.m. - 2 p.m.
- Monday, Nov. 27 between 4 p.m. - 6 p.m.



Waze also predicted the worst times to travel in the U.S. nationally:
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- The worst time to travel around Thanksgiving will be 5 p.m. local time on Tuesday, Nov. 21st
- The worst time to travel home after Thanksgiving will be Monday, Nov. 27 at 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. local time - however, there will also be a spike of mid-day travel on Sunday, with the worst traffic at 2 p.m. local time.
- Did you forget the cranberry sauce? So did a lot of others. Our data shows a spike of last-minute shoppers on Thanksgiving Day as navigations to supermarkets increased by 49 percent and peak at 11 a.m. (Against an average November Thursday.)
- Wazers will begin navigating to retail locations late on Thanksgiving evening, looking to reach stores ahead of their midnight openings.
- On Black Friday, navigations will be at their highest from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. local time.
- Some of the top retailers navigated to on Black Friday include Walmart, Target, Best Buy, The Home Depot, and Costco - with the most popular restaurants including McDonald's, Chick-fil-a and Panera Bread.