Holiday travelers may hit record numbers

If the high gas prices keep some from traveling this Fourth of July holiday, the good weather and long weekend will lure others out, enough that Puget Sound-area travelers can expect record numbers of people on the roads along with the high temperatures.

Record numbers of travelers are expected nationwide this holiday weekend, according to the Washington AAA, as people regain confidence about traveling in a post-9/11 environment.

"It was a trend that we saw for a long time prewar, but with 9/11 and the (Iraq) war people got a bit nervous about traveling," AAA spokeswoman Jennifer Harbison said. "We've seen the confidence build gradually and now we're seeing the confidence level as (high as) it was before the war. The gas prices are certainly not keeping people home."

The travel organization forecast that 40.7 million Americans will travel over the holiday weekend, a 1.2 percent increase from last year's July Fourth holiday. It does not compile figures for the Puget Sound area.

The organization had plenty of advice for travelers: Check your car to make sure it's well-tuned, its filters are clear and that its battery and cooling system work well, to reduce the risk of a breakdown. The agency also suggested several ways to save $3-a-gallon fuel: Drive at night or early in the morning to avoid using air conditioning, add as little weight as possible to your vehicle, and make sure there's the right amount of air in the tires.

"For every 1 pound of pressure that your tire is low, it reduces your fuel efficiency by 2 percent," Harbison said. Another tip: Select a destination where you won't drive very much once you arrive.

All mountain passes are expected to be open by today. The state said to expect heavy traffic on Interstate 90 over Snoqualmie Pass today, especially eastbound during the afternoon and early evening and westbound from noon to midnight Tuesday. State ferries are expected to be busy as people attend the various fireworks displays from Lopez Island to Point Defiance. Holiday schedules will be observed Tuesday for several routes: Seattle-Bainbridge, Seattle-Bremerton, Edmonds-Kingston, Seattle-Vashon and Mukilteo-Clinton. The Port Townsend-Keystone boat will run on its regular schedule.

There will be extra Monday night sailings from Mukilteo and Clinton and extra afternoon sailings Tuesday from Tahlequah and Point Defiance.

Other extra Tuesday sailings will be at 12:20 a.m. from Kingston and 1 a.m. from Edmonds, at 10:10 p.m. from Bremerton to Seattle and at 11:30 p.m. from Seattle to Bremerton. There will be no passenger-only service from Seattle to Vashon on Tuesday.

Ferry authorities remind passengers to carry only legal fireworks on the boats: sparklers, ground spinners, multiaerials, Roman candles, parachutes and cone-and-fountains. Legal fireworks should be packaged so they can be quickly checked by State Patrol troopers. Larger, more explosive fireworks are illegal; they include bottle and missile type of rockets, firecrackers and chasers, M80s, M100s and larger firecrackers.

More information is at www. wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/ or by calling 511 or 1-888-808-7977.

Another tip: Check the state Department of Transportation Web site (www.wsdot.wa.gov) for possible construction trouble spots. Most work will shut down over the weekend until Wednesday and contractors will off the roads by noon today to allow more traffic through.

The Interstate 5 express lanes will remain open from noon Tuesday until 5 a.m. Wednesday to allow traffic to leave the fireworks displays. But there will still be some slow spots.

In Pierce County, there will be single-lane closures on state Route 7 between Routes 507 and 512 for construction work, from 9 p.m. today to 6 a.m. Saturday.

On state Route 512 at the Canyon Road overpass, emergency paving will limit traffic on the Canyon Road bridge today to a single lane northbound, starting at 8 p.m. Both southbound lanes will close at 10 p.m. Work is expected to be completed by 5 a.m. Saturday.

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