Memorial Day travel highest in years, along with gas prices

(WTXF) - GasBuddy.com reports the average price per gallon in the United States this Sunday is $2.364 per gallon.

That's 2.8 cents less than Saturday and steady from last week, down 0.8 cents from last month but up 3.7 cents from last year's average.

Up is the main direction for gas prices.

In Pennsylvania, the average price per gallon is $2.579, steady from Saturday, up a half-cent in a week, down 7.3 cents since last month, and up 10.5 cents since last year.

Keep in mind, Philadelphia prices can be much higher so you may be questioning what you're reading versus what you see around town.

In New Jersey, the average price per gallon is $2.369, steady from Saturday, up 3.3 cents in a week, down 2.4 cents since last month, and up 25.0 cents since last year. Remember, the tax went up almost that month over the past year.

In Delaware, the average price per gallon is $2.356, up 0.9 cents from Saturday, up a 12.4 cents in a week, steady since last month, and up 10.6 cents since last year.

Still, thousands more Americans than usual are hitting the roads to visit family and friends on this holiday weekend. According to AAA, we'll see the highest travel volume on the highways and in the skies in the 12 years since since 2005. Unfortunately, drivers are paying the highest Memorial Day gas prices in two years, since 2015.

AAA predicts, "More than 975,000 state residents will travel for the first "summer" holiday, a 2.5 percent increase over the 953,000 that traveled last year, and the most since 2005, when more than one million New Jerseyans headed out of town."

Also according to AAA, in the Philadelphia area, 450,000 people from will travel 50 miles or more this Memorial Day weekend. That's up nearly four percent over last year.

About 29,000 travelers will fly to their destination.