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Here's The Best Day to Drive Out of New York This Thanksgiving

By Nicole Levy | November 24, 2015 5:27pm
 Your best bet to avoid gridlock and aggravation this Thanksgiving may be to drive out of the city on Thursday.
Your best bet to avoid gridlock and aggravation this Thanksgiving may be to drive out of the city on Thursday.
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Flickr/Rob Brink

If you thought you'd beat all the Thanksgiving traffic by hitting the road Tuesday evening, think again.

Roads and highways in the New York metro area should see a "huge increase" in traffic Tuesday afternoon, with the highest peak between 4 and 7 p.m., according to an analysis by the crowdsourcing traffic and navigation app Waze

The traffic forecast for Wednesday doesn't look quite as bad. Data collected from the app's more than 1.8 million users in the greater New York area in 2014 presages a surge in traffic from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., but there should be fewer cars on the road than usual during regular commuting hours.

Beware of reckless driving though — Waze reported a 92.85 percent increase accident reports on Wednesday before Thanksgiving when compared to the Wednesday two weeks prior and two weeks after in 2014.

Traveling Thursday might be New Yorkers' best bet to avoid gridlock and aggravation en route to far-flung turkey feasts. Traffic patterns on the holiday should conform to those of a typical weekend day, with the most congestion between 12 and 3 p.m. and 8 and 11 p.m. 

As for your odyssey home, watch out for heavy traffic all day Sunday, especially thick from 2 to 6 p.m., and more than the usual traffic between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday.