73M road travelers to test US infrastructure on Thanksgiving Weekend
- Road infrastructure to be pushed to its limits by more than 73 million travelers
- Smart technology provides efficient and quick answers
Duluth, GA, November 25, 2025 – The Thanksgiving holiday period in the United States consistently ranks as the busiest travel time of the year.
According to the latest AAA projections, a record-breaking 73 million people will take to the roads to travel at least 50 miles from home between Tuesday, November 25 and Monday, December 1, 2025 – an increase of 1.3 million travelers compared to last year, and the highest volume ever recorded for Thanksgiving travel.
The day-before-Thanksgiving rush remains the toughest test for drivers. In major metropolitan areas, highway traffic can swell to more than 50% above normal on Wednesday afternoon as millions depart for the long weekend. On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, the crush of return trips often leads to stop-and-go traffic for miles. In 2024, for example, New York’s Long Island Expressway and Los Angeles’ I-5 each saw travel times double or worse compared to a normal day during the peak exodus.
“These record travel numbers are a wake-up call that our roads need to get smarter,” said JB Kendrick, President of Kapsch TrafficCom North America. “When we see millions of people hitting the road simultaneously, it pushes our physical infrastructure to the limit. We cannot simply build more lanes to fix this. The solution lies in smart technologies that dynamically direct traffic flow and improve efficiency, ensuring travelers arrive home safely and on time.”
Smart technology provides answers
Kapsch TrafficCom has been at the forefront of developing intelligent mobility solutions for these exact scenarios. By using smart traffic management, systems can adjust signal timings on the fly to alleviate backups and use predictive analytics to reroute drivers around bottlenecks.
Connected vehicle systems allow real-time data exchange between vehicles and traffic control centers, helping transportation agencies manage traffic flow dynamically. In recent pilot deployments, connected corridor technology has shown it can reduce stop-and-go conditions and prevent crashes by warning drivers of hazards ahead.
V2X communications to prevent countless crashes
Transportation research backs up the need for smarter solutions. The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication systems – which allow cars to “talk” to each other and to roadside infrastructure – could prevent hundreds of thousands of crashes each year by providing early warnings and coordinating traffic movements.
Nearly all new vehicles sold today come with some form of connectivity, meaning the technology is largely in place in cars; the next step is investing in the digital infrastructure to support it on roads. By leveraging connected vehicles, advanced analytics, and smarter traffic management, cities and states can better handle surges like Thanksgiving and reduce the frustration and hazards of holiday travel. Kapsch TrafficCom is actively deploying connected vehicle solutions across the US, including large-scale projects in Pinellas County, Florida, and Greeley, Colorado, as well as smart corridor initiatives in Georgia. These projects feature end-to-end CV portfolios, roadside and onboard units, and platforms for interoperability, all designed to improve safety, efficiency, and support national initiatives like Vision Zero.
Kapsch TrafficCom is a globally renowned provider of transportation solutions for sustainable mobility with successful projects in more than 50 countries. Innovative solutions in the areas of tolling and traffic management contribute to a healthy world without congestion.
With one-stop-shop solutions, the company covers the entire value chain of customers, from components to design and implementation to the operation of systems.
Kapsch TrafficCom, headquartered in Vienna, has subsidiaries and branches in more than 25 countries and is listed in the Prime Market segment of the Vienna Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: KTCG). In its 2024/25 financial year, more than 3,000 employees generated revenues of EUR 530 million.