According to the data, as compared to Cleveland area traffic patterns on a regular Wednesday (because, duh, plenty of other cities have bigger holiday backup by volume), more people are traveling through/from the Cleveland area than most spots in America the day before Turkey Day. Google Trends even suggests that leaving for your Thanksgiving destination from Cleveland at 3 p.m. Wednesday is pretty much the worst idea you’ve ever had.
But there’s a simple solution — besides banging your head against your car window and calling your mom to tell her you can’t make it — leave Thursday morning, the report suggests. This way you get to sleep in your own luscious bed the night before all while avoiding the shitshow highway parking lot.
The rest of the weekend, feel free to take it easy, with family or not, and maybe even hit up the race track. Google trends also finds that Clevelanders are likely to search “car race track” when looking for things to do in town over Thanksgiving week. It’s unclear why.
Whatever you do, just don’t drive back to Cleveland on Sunday afternoon (see below):
This article appears in Nov 14-20, 2018.
Makes sense. All the people who have left and gone to greener richer and less corrupt pastures have to make the trip to see all the senior citizens they left behind.