Fewer travelers took to the roads over the Memorial Day weekend

As more gas stations throughout Delaware crept toward the dreaded $4 a gallon figure, fewer travelers took to the roads over the Memorial Day weekend.

The state's busiest highways -- Del. 1 and I-95 -- both showed a large dropoff in the number of cars passing through toll plazas, according to numbers released Wednesday by the state Department of Transportation.

Memorial Day weekend traffic on Del. 1 was down 10 percent, or 65,000 vehicles, from last year. The state collected the figures from the two toll plazas on Del. 1 from Thursday to Tuesday.

During that same period, traffic was down 34,500 vehicles, or 6 percent, on I-95, using data from the Delaware toll plaza.

And traffic on the Delaware Memorial Bridge was down 5.6 percent from last year's Friday-to-Monday period of the holiday weekend.

"It seems a lot more people than we thought stayed closer to home," said Cathy Rossi, spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic. The company projected last week about 1 percent fewer Delaware residents would take to the road.

Less than a week after the first Delaware gas station charged $4 for a gallon of regular fuel, there were 15 stations hitting $4 on Wednesday, according to AAA.

The stations that had crossed the price threshold were spread throughout the state, from Wilmington to Smyrna to Fenwick Island.

The highest reported gallon of regular gas was $4.129, at a Sunoco in Magnolia, according to AAA.

Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago, said gasoline demand is down 5 percent or 6 percent from a year ago.

"There is absolutely no doubt we are starting to feel the fallout of these high gasoline prices," Flynn said. "This summer, a lot of these beach communities, other communities are really going to feel the pain, because people are cutting back."

The lower traffic counts didn't appear to hurt tourism in the Rehoboth Beach area.

The Rehoboth-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce reported hotel occupancy was up 4 percent over last year, and several restaurants and retailers reported record business.

"It was a very full, busy weekend. All the statistics bear it out. It's not just visual. I'm thankful we're a sweet spot, very happy about that," said Carol Everhart, president of the chamber. She estimated that many of the visitors were from the Washington area.

source: delawareonline.com